London's Mayor
Declares Intense New 'Knife Control' Policies To Stop Epidemic Of Stabbings
The police will now stop and frisk people believed to be
carrying knives.
ByEmily Zanotti
An epidemic of stabbings and acid attacks in London has
gotten so bad that London mayor Sadiq Khan is announcing broad new "knife
control" policies designed to keep these weapons of war out of the hands
of Londoners looking to cause others harm.
The "tough, immediate" measures involve an
incredible police crackdown, a ban on home deliveries of knives and acid, and
expanding law enforcement stop-and-search powers so that police may stop anyone
they believe to be a threat, or planning a knife or acid attack.
Khan announced Friday
that the city has created a "violent crime taskforce of 120 officers"
tasked with rooting out knife-wielding individuals in public spaces, and is
pumping nearly $50 million into the Metropolitan Police department so that they
can better arm themselves against knife attacks. He's also empowering the Met
Police to introduce "targeted patrols with extra stop and search powers
for areas worst-affected," according to a statement.
The mayor took to Twitter to announce his new policies.
Strangely enough, Khan is responsible for decreasing the
number of stop-and-searches, having previously declared the tactic racist and
potentially Islamophobic. It's also not clear what local Londoners will now use
to cut their food.
Parliament is also set to take up heavy "knife
control" legislation when it resumes this week. The U.K. government is
expected to introduce a ban on online knife sales and home knife deliveries,
declare it "illegal to possess zombie knives and knuckledusters in
private" — "zombie knives" are those defined as being
manufactured for the purpose of being used as a person-to-person weapon — and
ban sales of caustic materials to anyone under the age of 18, the Independent reports.
London has seen a dramatic uptick in murder rates,
surpassing even New York City in the number of homicides every month since the
beginning of 2018. It has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world,
and, technically, knives carried "without good reason" are off limits
to anyone under the age of 18.
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