Fear of knives is destroying the social order

Times

a day ago

I don't know quite when the erosion began. But ten years ago the sight of a man, occasionally a woman, in the uniform of a security or station guard, park warden or ticket inspector meant something. It indicated authority. That person stood at one end of a chain of sanction that could escalate from reprimand and social shame to the police, the courts, and prison. They were confident in their command because the vast majority of people accepted their legitimacy, and the minority that didn't feared the consequences if they were caught.
How fast that has changed. In London in the past couple of years the impotence of almost every semi-official authority figure has been brutally exposed.
At Tube stations handfuls of staff watch idly as young men force their way through the barriers. They tell indignant customers that they're not security; they're not paid to intervene. In supermarkets shoplifters who might once have smuggled a bottle of beer out under their coats now load their bags with as much spirits, wine or meat as they can carry before marching out past the security guard knowing he doesn't dare stop them. At my local Tesco large groups of teenagers from nearby schools performatively scan one of the six sandwiches, Mars bars and Cokes they've picked up before leaving without paying for any of them. Bike thieves saw off locks in full view of park staff or hotel concierges. A late train I was on last month had three drunk aggressive men in it without valid tickets. They told the guard to just piss off and, thoroughly intimidated, he did.
One factor besides the absence of police links the inability of these authority figures to maintain order, and it's this: the underlying fear of being stabbed.
The surge in knife crime has had consequences far beyond those who end up in mortuaries or hospitals. In England and Wales the number of recorded knife offences — mostly robbery or assault — has soared from around 27,000 in 2015 to more than 50,000 in 2022/2023.
Knowing that an aggressive man could be carrying a weapon is a terrifying disincentive to challenging them. Recent videos of machete-wielding gangs fighting on the streets of Southend, or nonchalant masked youths swinging huge knives as they cycle or swagger through Hackney or Birmingham in daylight, confirm that illegal weaponry is out of control. Staff who once trusted in their physical presence to discourage or tackle an offender are acutely aware that a man who might have a blade holds all the power.
Employers know it. They tell employees to do nothing that might endanger them. And just like that, the deterrent effect of these important figures collapses, as does their ability to discourage any antisocial behaviour by the sufficiently threatening.
Every plausibly violent man benefits from that fear. Every other city dweller lives in a more frightening reality because of it. Even in semi-surveilled places — stations, shops, parks or gyms — people understand that the safest response to any intimidating individual is neither to look for help nor to offer it but to fake obliviousness and to withdraw as soon as practical.
If the government understands how fundamentally knife crime is reshaping and undermining the social order, there is no sign of it. This is a failure of both parties.
There are dozens of reasons why young men are drawn, often unwillingly, into carrying a knife: bravado, terror, peer pressure, anger, ambition, deprivation, alienation. New arrivals from violent societies, unmoored from their own social constraints, add to the problem. For their sake and ours they need hope, mentors, paths out.
Three decades ago Tony Blair declared he would be both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. He tried. Money poured into both: poverty alleviation, youth groups, antisocial behaviour orders. Yet the Tories failed to do either, slashed policing, anti-gang initiatives and social funds. Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have banned a couple of knife types but while violent crime is climbing they are foolishly cutting the police too.
This slide will continue unless the government seizes the initiative. The police have to be empowered to do their jobs. Too many are frightened of the physical and legal risks of arrests. The recent sacking of a Dorset officer, Lorne Castle, for a lack of self-control and courtesy while arresting a knife-wielding teenager has crystallised the problem. Nobody wants brutal officers to have impunity but these are not polite social situations; police need the confidence to uphold the law.
Second, there should be a drive to recruit people with experience of tough environments; veterans and ex-police officers among them. The Met has been losing long-serving officers in their hundreds. Replacing them with new young ones is like replacing an oak forest with saplings and expecting the same shade.
Third, take knives off the streets by expanding stop and search. It collapsed after 2017 when the Tories agreed that it unfairly targeted the black community, who were stopped at four times the rate of white people. Searches have tumbled by three quarters since 2011. This is disastrous, as the more young men carry knives, the more others feel forced to do so. In London, knife tolerance hits black communities hardest. In 2022-23, 53 per cent of fatal stab victims were black, so too 45 per cent of killers, despite their being only 13.5 per cent of the capital's population. They are more than three times more likely than white people to be the perpetrators and over five times more likely to be the victims. Prevention is in their best interests too.
Abroad, Labour has belatedly recognised the critical importance of power and deterrence in defending our way of life. It must now do the same at home.