What does this actually mean?

Narrow those stats down to Croydon or Lewisham and you watch them fall sharply. Only Monday saw a clip of a fight in a Kebab shop in Surrey Street with one of the guys wielding a foot long knife ...as school kids were walking past!!

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

To say that the root of the problem is inequality is simply not true.

I grew up in a council flat on a Saf London estate to a single mum however I never carried a knife. Did lots of other stuff but never carried a knife. Through sheer bloody hard work and a will to better myself I now own a property development company and have kids at private schools.

Knives are predominately (not exclusively though) a problem in the black population.

You cannot say this is due to inequality as plenty of other races have also settled here over the years who would have faced the same challenges and yet who have not attopted the knife culture.

I would say that the reverse is probably true in your statement. It's more likely it's the knives/drugs/crime etc which is often keeping the black population at the bottom.
Many years ago the Jews arrived here and faced predudice, however they worked hard and moved up the ladder. Same with the Indians, Italians and Chinese etc. However for many the black population still occupy the bottom of society, living in the worst parts of the city and doing the worst jobs etc.
It's an absolute shame however for things to change then they also have to change.
I have no axe to grind. Just saying it how I see it.

Edited by Tom-the-eagle (21 Feb 2018 3.37pm)

"It feels much better than it ever did, much more sensitive." John Wayne Bobbit

So you were talking about stop and search, not 'when someone gets arrested for carrying' as you said in your earliest post - so yes, I really had to ask.

On the stop and search; whilst it was clearly flawed in it's enforcement, it's a necessary inconvenience as far as I'm concerned - I was subjected to it a few times as a teenager, and whilst I understand the frustrations it can cause, ultimately, if it means less people are carrying knives and less people are getting stabbed, it's a frustration worth suffering IMO.

Interestingly, there is a musician from Norbury called 'Dave' who took to Twitter on this point; basically summarised that as a young black guy in south London he had stopped and searched countless times, but if it meant less young black kids dying, he was more than happy to put up with it.

Problem is that the Daves of this world have no political power. And in London, we have a Mayor who effectively championed himself as the man who would make the big nasty Met cut right back on stop and search.

That is the difference between the knife problems in Glasgow and London. Essentially it is young men from the self-same socioeconomic backgrounds sticking knives into each other for ludicrous reasons. But in Glasgow because the young men are poor and white, there is absolutely no political capital to be gained from either side. Hence why it can be resolved.

But in London, because it is predominantly poor and black, then there are a massive amount of political capital involved.

And what is happening is absolutely pure and destructive racism in its most deadly form. If it were white boys killing each other at the rates we are seeing now, then drastic action would be taken. But because it is black boys, then people would rather them die than run the risk of seeing their own careers go down.

We live in a world in which the accusation 'racist' gets bandied about for the most ludicrous reasons and yet here we have a situation in which the only explanation for the lack of action is down to skin colour.

White boys lives in Glasgow are deemed for more important than those of black boys in London.

Now I am hardly going to win any awards for my progressive and tolerant views but I know what right and wrong is and this situation in London is now beyond a joke.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

It's a sad irony that fear of being branded racist is stopping the police potentially save black lives.
It is the fault of authority for pandering to emotion and political correctness over reason because of the death of Stephen Lawerence and the campaign that started as a result. One Black man killed by Whites. How many Black people have died at the hands of other Black people since then?