Pooja Kanda talks to the Express & Star about her continuing fight against knife crime.

Express & Star

Pooja Kanda, whose son Ronan was murdered in 2022 speaks to the Express & Star during her visit to Lanesfield Primary School, Wolverhampton, about her continuing fight against knife crime.

Transcript

00:00Hello Pupin, nice to meet you anyway. Now you are in the classroom where Ronan was

00:06taught as a child? Yes he was a student in this school and I remember coming

00:14into this class. How does it feel to be back? Is it the same as you remember this?

00:20It's overwhelming, it's overwhelming because you think that you know when

00:25you're attending this your child's parents evening and then you coming

00:30years down to fight for the crime and you lost a child for that it's it's

00:37quite overwhelming situation but I am also grateful for the opportunity that

00:44mrs. Rawlinson has given us to be able to speak to the children from this class

00:50and make them it's a it's a right step ahead. Perhaps you just thought to

00:56explain the message you gave and what it was like giving that talk. It was

01:01wonderful I believe this is where we need to start fighting the knife crime

01:08as well going in a primary skills speak to the children for what's right and

01:14wrong put the seed sow their seed sow their seed in them at this early age so

01:25they know what's right and wrong and if they're getting in trouble what they can

01:29do to get out of that trouble or not not get in a trouble at all so it's very

01:34important that we need to sow that seed of that we can help them. Do you

01:40believe like if somebody been doing what you are doing now sort of ten years

01:46ago or whatever it was that Rawlinson might still be here? I believe that I

01:50hundred percent believe that I believe if the ban came years and years ago if

01:56this ban was in place the one we're fighting now my son would have been here

02:01it would have been a lot more difficult it would have been actually difficult

02:05for murderers to obtain this type of weapon so easily. Yeah and also in terms

02:14of education do you feel you know perhaps if the the children who killed

02:17Broden had somebody talked to them like this it might have made a difference do you think?

02:21Absolutely it would have it would have made a difference for other people maybe

02:26the murderers themselves would have seen their actions could cause a lot more

02:31damage to their families as well if they don't want to do it for me or my son but

02:36they might have done something for their family might have done something right

02:39for their family. Yeah and how do you find the children there do you think did

02:46you feel when you're talking to them do you feel that you have a bond with them

02:50do you think? I think that I am very I love children I do think that no

02:56children is evil and the surroundings put them in the situation as they're

03:03growing and definitely I believe I got through to these kids yeah and we need

03:11to continue this behavior it's not just one-off thing it's a continuity of this

03:16yeah yes and today and there's two big announcements today there's the opening

03:22of the consultation on the ban on zombie knives particularly surrounding how we

03:29define what a zombie knife is what would you like to say about that? The zombie

03:34knife yes it's a ban on ninja swords, the ban on the ninja sword is the

03:43consultations out now for the public to reply to it and it's very important

03:49that everybody participate in that because this is not just my view I

03:55believe it is the whole country's view to be banning this type of weapons

03:58online sale and anywhere else because they don't have any purpose in our

04:04society until you know in wrong hands they cause severe damage harm or even

04:12murder like what happened to my my child. And yeah and the other part of the

04:18legislation as well it's about the holding tech companies accountable for

04:26if when they started that these items are advertised on there how do you

04:32think that what difference will that make do you think how will that work? I

04:34think you'd be this is what we've been looking for the fact that when we found

04:38out the online seller who's been selling this type of weapons to the

04:42murderer in our case when we approached him he did not see and he was not

04:48apologetic he was not humble he was uncaring all he wanted to continue and

04:53after that he's also sold this type of weapons to other

05:01murderers yeah now this wasn't stopping so this legislation will help that yeah

05:10we need to put stop and people to think of what they're doing especially the

05:16social media they have resources to do the right thing by the public and the

05:23people are using their platforms so social media needs to learn as well that

05:28nobody's going to put up with it. I mean it is a wider problem obviously you lost

05:33your son we obviously I'm sure you've read the stories about how many other

05:37young people have died in knife attacks how does it make you feel when you leave

05:43these stories still that it's still going on still now that people still

05:46like young people still killing one another with knives how does that make

05:49you feel? It's really sad. It does take me back to the day yeah and it's painful

05:58experience over and over but this is why taking these measures are important to

06:06we can see the reduction in this yeah and how has it been like in the time you

06:14have been campaigning how have people reacted to you, the politicians

06:20the police and people, how have they been with you? The government's

06:24been brilliant yeah he's been listening to us we've been having coalition

06:28meetings with them to speak about our concerns and what has gone wrong in what

06:34happened to Ronan there was a failure of organizations we as you know we are

06:40helping the police with knife crime ourselves but we do have active

06:49complaint against the police as well and that needs to be resolved and looked at

06:55so we are still waiting to hear from IOPC right now and there are this way

07:03there's a lot of work a lot of work behind the knife crime and this is just

07:08a beginning this banning of ninjas sword will be beginning of a bigger fight

07:13yeah and last night or not last this week we won the media freedom award for

07:27that for campaign of the year for the campaign against knife crime and we were

07:32very obviously very pleased to have won that but obviously it's not just

07:35people like you who have raised this issue and campaign we'd be reporting

07:41what's happening so I mean how do you feel does that make you feel proud you

07:45know that the fact it's been recognized nationally the work that you're doing

07:48yes it does make me feel like if you put your effort and time in and you have got

07:54the right fight and you believe in your fight then yes people will listen yeah

08:01the government will listen yeah thank you very much lovely to meet you and

08:07thank you very much for your time and good luck with your work that you're

08:10doing make sure that you all answer the consultation yes yes because it's

08:17important that we ban this type of weapons now yes and we gave government

08:21really good reply from public because it's easy for public to keep blaming the

08:28government now it's on public to do the right thing as well yeah

Category

Transcript

Recommended