The death of civil liberty

Major rant warning!

This article has really annoyed me. There is a small minority of stupid people out there who have committed crimes using knives as weapons. As a result, the British Transport Police have decided to crack down on everyone carrying what they choose to define as a weapon.

Now, as it happens, I do possess a small number of items which the Police would define as weapons. OK, I don't carry them around with me when I'm off to the shops or anything daft like that, but what if I carry one for a legitimate purpose? For example, when on my motorbike, I have a multitool in my tool kit, which is carried on the bike at all times. It has a blade on it, as well as a small saw, a screwdriver, a file and a pair of pliers. So, if I need to carry out a roadside repair to my bike, and the Police decide to intervene, whilst they can see that I am using the tool for a legitimate purpose, the officer might decide that I shouldn't have been carrying it in the first place.

I also have three small sheath knives, and I will usually take one of them with me when I go camping. I'm not one of these poncey car-boot campers. I like to do camping for real, and enjoy a bit of small-scale bushcraft, for which a knife is essential. Does that mean I am a criminal?

What about my Swiss Army Knife, which I purchased at Vienna airport in 1998? (Yes, folks, bought at an airport!) It has a blade, a screwdriver, a pair of tweezers, a toothpick and, most importantly a corkscrew :o) It's a tiny thing, only four inches long when folded up, but I am rather attached to it. Does this make me a criminal?

Now the felling axe might be a completely different story... it's a very nice axe with a 3 foot haft, given to me by a friend. OK, so I wouldn't take that out with me, but hey, I've got an axe :o)

I know someone who has a sword and a flail hanging on his wall. They're just for decoration, but should a Police officer come to visit, would they be confiscated? He also has a small machete which he uses for hacking away at the brambles in his garden - does that make him a criminal? The only blood it has drawn is his own (clumsy sod). Another friend uses a sickle in his garden. Personally I prefer my strimmer, but the sickle works for him.

The main thing that has annoyed me about Operation Shield, is the apparent presumption that anyone who has a knife will use it for a criminal purpose.

So, given that the transport police are convinced that there is a desperate need to search everyone, how many crimes have been committed to warrant such resources? Well, according to their own website, that staggering figure is ... wait for it ... "only one knife-related incident for every four million passenger journeys". That's 0.000025%. WTF??? According to Cancer Research UK, 27% of deaths in 2004 were caused by cancer. You're more likely to die from cancer than you are to be a victim of a knife crime on the railway.

The world has, indeed, gone mad.

When I was a kid, young people were pretty much expected to carry a knife of some sort. I rarely went anywhere without my penknife, which my grandma bought for me whilst I was still at primary school. I was taught how to use it responsibly and whiled away many a happy hour, whittling away at bits of wood, and using it to make kindling for campfires. A knife was part of the kit carried by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and care and use of the aforementioned knife was detailed in the respective handbooks. I was even presented with a new knife at one camp, as a reward for my campcraft skills.

Where will this stop? In Coventry town centre, the Police have already executed two operations in the town centre, forcing people to walk through their metal detectors. Of course, they tell you that it's purely voluntary, but then they also tell you that if you refuse, or are seen to be avoiding them, they'll stop and search you anyway, because you're acting suspiciously. So what they mean is, you have a choice between walking through the detectors or being phyically searched. So what sort of 'voluntary' is that? It stinks.

So what has gone wrong? It doesn't matter how many knives you confiscate from people - it won't stop the crime. I must have at least 20 sharp knives in my kitchen alone. You don't have to have a knife to cause injury. It could be a key, a nail, a coin, a makeup mirror. Hell, I could do more damage hitting or headbutting someone with my crash helmet. I practice Muay Thai, so I could do a fair amount of damage with no weapon at all, if I was so inclined.

The sort of people who would commit crime, are just going to do it anyway, and harassing innocent people will just make them resentful. It's about time that we remembered to teach responsibility at the same time as rights.

You can't teach responsibility with a big stick, it just doesn't work.