Putting an end to knife crime in Portsmouth

The News, Portsmouth

How to reduce knife crime in Portsmouth

Transcript

00:00yeah what what what has it come to what has it come to now that we we can't even walk out our

00:13doors without thinking what's going to happen now it's still happening and we're still seeing attacks

00:24like that we're still seeing tragedy we're still seeing communities devastated by nerve crime

00:31it's time for action now no more reviews no more strategies we need to act

00:41well i look big uh cleaver tucked in my chances and i got text on him saying

00:46it was just me stopped so luckily i had a heads up that it was going to be i was going to show

00:53so it's not left to hit me far and i didn't i didn't bring out with me and but then after that

00:58it became more frequent um i knew other people in the area that had knowledge that were carrier

01:05and i didn't want to be the one about who can to give up to me well here's an interesting fact

01:15london tends to skew the figures on life crime and it is usually focused on black and ethnic

01:22minority groups not so in the rest of the country most of the figures for knife crime offences and

01:31deaths are perpetrated by white people not black people so it's an interesting fact that london skews

01:40the figures both for ethnicity and for the numbers involved in life crime like most of the big issues

01:49that we face in modern society knife crime is no different it has layer after layer of difficulty

01:55associated so it is a bit like the cheesy metaphor of the onion the more you peel away the more you

02:03find beneath it so it's a multi-layered problem with social problems at all levels so it could be

02:12related to poverty deprivation and weirdly i found in one location that i interviewed this is london

02:21housing it took me completely by surprise housing nowhere to go the kids get turfed out onto the streets

02:30so housing was a new variable education the pr use people referral units over subscribed with youngsters

02:39who've been excluded from school and then there's a swift move from approve out into the drug scene

02:46so there's the drugs issue there are so many variables and things that you wouldn't necessarily

02:54associate with knife crime i mean you go back to covid days i think that's where it really kind of like

03:00really came out and you're seeing like gangs like in london parks with like big like machete style

03:07knives and you're going what the hell this is like broad daylight now this is not like

03:14like back streets like london gangster type stuff this is actually like kids in like regency parks i think

03:21all think it was and like basically trying to attack each other with like like half swords and

03:27you're like no it's like they put a knife band on and i'm going it's not going to stop anyone is it

03:35it's not there's a lot out there now it's it i don't know it's like again oh we might include ninja swords

03:43i'm like unless you've got a valid reason as in you like you're a practice learning instructor or something like that

03:49why the hell do you need swords and why do you need them sharp it's like to have a gun you've got to

03:54have a license it's like and then it's got to be locked up and you've got to prove all these things

03:59why the hell have we not got that for knives i think multi-agency groups and partnerships have

04:04been working brilliantly over the last 10 14 years they've been doing that under the radar now we need to

04:12make sure that they have political backing and that there's a structure for multi-agency partnership

04:18working so that the talk can be the lead in tackling knife crime we do have to think about

04:26the way that we treat people how we house them how we look after them how we support them in communities

04:33if they haven't got anyone throwing them around the country

04:37in various different locations is not going to help

04:47well i pulled i pulled a knife on my stepdad

04:49cut my own hand open shining walls and then i walked some other house with it and held them there

05:00um

05:03and yeah i mean i've been i've been pretty lucky that i haven't

05:07i've never had to do certain things that other people have perhaps i can't i can't sit in and say

05:16oh i've stabbed 10 million people because i haven't but i've been involved in it and it's been

05:22most of my own circle i'm often i have so quite a few of my family members i've all been

05:28very involved and it's just i've grown i've grown up around it really um my whole life

05:43that's not been easy i'll be wrong um yeah i said much stuff i saw a lot of domestic abuse when i was

05:51young in my family and that's the first time i ever decided to think about carrying a weapon

05:59was to protect my myself and my mum times where i feel like i shouldn't have used it and i kind of

06:05wish i had but there's also a big part of me that's black that didn't happen um yeah i feel like i i

06:16wouldn't be here right now they'd run through some of the decisions i was making if it's on

06:22when i'd about the stabbing that happened by my house

06:26and i had people threatening me with weapons um i sort of realized that i don't want to be on the

06:35arse i don't want to be checking over my shoulder every time across the road from police officer or for

06:43you know from somebody that has a problem i think it's about rehabilitation uh rather than punishing

06:52them because most of the people doing these things are they're young kids and they're not killers they're

06:56not and you're that they're just scared and brainwashed by what they hear i think i'll have to do that as

07:03well i want to be a bad man when in reality you're not you're just someone who's carrying a bite i think

07:10the place cracking down on there yeah cool i i i do i do think there's someone that's got suspicion

07:17on the weapon and then they should be searched young people don't always choose the idea of

07:23coming into gangs getting into drug debts having death threats sent to their families or their

07:29associates you know and a big part of it at the moment is a lot of young people feel like it's a very

07:35dog-eat-dog world because i grew up with all the brothers and you know i know their friends at one

07:40point started to carry knives as well and this was before i was even 14 so going back 10 years ago i

07:46already knew in my area of knife crime so i used to be quite like i used to have a lot of fights

07:55always coming out having brawls for my friends love people used to carry um did you did just come out

08:04of court for carrying possession um because i was out to kill myself that night and i was really in a

08:12deep mental health crisis and i was just going crazy and wild but i got arrested with a knife once but

08:25i carried a lot of times for protection of myself protection of others but now i've looked at it as

08:33that it's not the best way like my dad he was in and out of prison and then he used to be really

08:39horrible to my mom so i was always around violence or just like it could it wouldn't even be physical

08:46or be verbally like i was young hearing all this stuff going on hearing hearing stuff i shouldn't be

08:52hearing see her stuff i shouldn't be seeing at a young age and it just played with my head that i just

08:58think ever since i was a little kid made me have some bad thoughts in life made me do some bad

09:03stuff but i don't know how to control my pain anymore so around a month and a half ago i joined

09:11music fusion of mavericks and before that i was just i was just in a proper depressed like

09:22wouldn't come out my house would stay in bed push everyone away and then i came

09:29into this because i saw them and i was just like i need to i need to hit them up i need to but they

09:35potentially saved my life and then that's what they done but they took me under their wing and they've

09:42supported me ever since and it's made me really happy and made proud like i've actually got people there for

09:50me you know what i mean like i ain't really seen that in life uh you never know what what what anyone

09:54is going through so that's why you know the charities that are being placed around we need

09:59more charities like that and they need a safe space this is why i'm glad i work for music fusion we are

10:04a safe space where young people can come up to us and we can talk to them about whether it's trying to

10:10get a knife off of the street you know whether they're scared so you know we can talk to them about

10:16dealing with bullying effects we can talk to them about self-harming because no one ever also thinks

10:20maybe a young person's carrying a knife because they're intending suicide on themselves or even

10:24self-harming so we are a safe space you can talk to us about that and we can then take the appropriate

10:30moves calling the correct people but not only that as well we're trusted we build a relationship

10:36music is very powerful too and i think with when it comes down to charity work the biggest part isn't just

10:43you know writing down what they're talking and pretending to be a therapist the biggest part

10:47with young people's life is actually listening to them and letting their voice be heard so i think

10:53that's what it's all about coming together as a community rather than the more you fight fire with

10:57fire you're only going to get bigger flames rather than looking at young people with knives judging them

11:02calling them names looking down in your nose at them you know understand you know there are depressions

11:08that we're fighting there are poverty rates that we're fighting with some of them drug addiction

11:12because they're forced into it at a young age but it's so easy to judge someone because of a drug

11:16addiction really can you not see that that's someone needing help and they don't want to be in drug

11:21debts you know so again just being there for young people is more important than anything else when

11:27you're fighting this epidemic a knife crime because again you can save one person you can save a thousand lives

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