UK Initiative to Ban Convicts From Social Media Won't Stop Knife Crime - MP

19:16 GMT, 31 January 2019
CC BY 2.0 / István Berta / 1414271824597
In an effort to cut the number of knife related crimes, UK government could start blocking the convicts, as well as youths suspected of carrying knives from using social media. Sputnik has interviewed Awez Khan, Member of Youth Parliament Awez Khan to discuss the UK government’s initiatives.
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Sputnik: Do you think that restricting social media use, curfews and banning them from being seen with other suspected knife users could actually reduce knife crime in the city?

Khan: I think it's more like a stalling mechanism than anything. It’s not really going to stop the whole issue. It'll stop them for a while but there are other people that are involved. The other people at the same time will probably start so it's like a chain effect kind of thing.

Sputnik:  Critics of the suggested plan believe that could lead to Police profiling and certain demographics could be unfairly victimized by this legislation, much like a modern day 'Stop and Search', Do you think that could be an issue?

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Khan: I don't know, for example I live in an area where knife crime is an issue and gang crime is an issue. But as you can tell I want to advocate for this stop. So if a police officer stopped me based on where I live or what color of skin I have it clearly shows they're not really going for the people involved with it and more to do with people that look like they are involved.

Sputnik:  As a member of Youth Parliament. How do you suggest the police can move forward to deal with knife crime.

Khan: With the police a lot of the main issues is that they can't respond quick enough but if they have a rough idea of who has been previous convicted or they can use those types of people to kind of get into the system of who's involved in what places as well. Kind of helping people that all are involved currently helping them get out of the situation rather than continue to carry a knife.

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Sputnik:  Glasgow was once called the murder capital of Europe and implementation of a violence reduction unit brought down the level of violence dramatically over the last 10 years. Do you think of VRU you knew could help in London rather than these proposed restrictions?

Khan: I think so, yeah. Because a lot of these cities, for example Glasgow had one of the highest murder rates highest murder rates in the world at one point. If they can easily turn around and make it one of the better places to live. I think anywhere can happen and a lot of these Reduction Units  know what to tackle and have the right strategies to tackle it.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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