no, seriously, we'd gone for a couple of drinks and decided to walk home, i was on the end leg of my journey, took a shortcut downa badly lit and not especially picturesque street, where two guys decided that they had better relieve me of my wallet and phone. i put up a bit of a fight, then a knife got drawn, at which point i gave my stuff up. i got home safe and it's all ok, was a couple of month back now.
Shit, was that after we went to the Turkish? Really sorry to hear that
damn i always get you two confused.
i was held up with a knife in downtown LA once. gave the guy my 3USD watch with a smile and he ran away.
muggings are almost entirely unthinkable in berlin. there are like, 2 random stabbings a year. and the unemployment is what? last i checked 25%. no homeless, no suffering, no desperation. the streets feel absolutely safe at all hours of the night.
imagine 25% unemployment in LA... fuck. it'd be a war zone 24/7/365. people would get sprayed sprayed with AK's every half hour.
i was considering living in london for a while next year... but stuff like this makes me a little nervous.
the thing about this being a problem specifically based around council housing is a red herring, really, given that london is a very integrated city in many ways. rich people live next door to poor, £4 million houses sit next to sink estates and some kids not involved in gangs are carrying weapons for their own protection now, because everyone else has one.
im not sure harsh sentencing is the way to go for kids carrying knives because they are scared. maybe harsher sentencing for those who use said knives for intimidation/robbery/stabbing - but punishing someone because they are scared shitless isnt cool either.
That's an understandable sentiment, but don't your chances of getting stabbed massively increase the moment you pick up a knife yourself? I mean, suppose someone mugs you with a knife and you are yourself unarmed: unless your attacker is a genuine psycho you're going to be badly shaken up and lose your phone and wallet, but that's all. If you pull a knife, one or both of you is going to end up stabbed. And even if you start out carrying a knife (let alone a gun) purely for personal protection, how long is it going to be before you start to get used to and even enjoy the 'respect' (read: fear) you in turn induce in other people?
or maybe instead of excluding kids for carrying weapons into school - simply confiscate the weapons (they search for them now) and give the child a choice between enrollment on extra curricular classes (i dunno, plumbing/life painting/boxing classes/whatever) or a stretch inside, the idea being to tire the child out with extra classes - take him/her off the street whilst at the same time get them participating in something more practical and rewarding, with a threat of prison if the child a)re-offends, b)bunks courses
i dunno. maybe they wouldnt be workable. i'd like to see polytechnics re-instated though along with more practical courses for people once they finish the school system,
2 relevent articles from our favorite hipster publication: the future of weapons an d how to rob
2 relevent articles from our favorite hipster publication: the future of weapons an d how to rob
- the fact that many parents spend so little time with their kids:
- the lack of fathers
- the effects of cramming people into shitty dilapidated tower blocks...
- and I think the league-table culture
.....
- sense of non-ownership; the feeling that the place where you live is just a physical piece of stuff rather than someone's home, and indeed your own home.