Police tackle internet knife gangs
By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter, Glasgow


Hundreds of weapons have been taken off the streets of Glasgow six months after police started using the web to crack down on gang violence.

Young trainee officers at Strathclyde Police search social networking sites for pictures of people posing with weapons, mainly knives.

Constable Holly McGee and Cadet Fraser Reed, both 18, carry out the work.

"We're looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades," Holly told Newsbeat.

"We take the date, the time, detail of what's in the photograph, [then] a copy of the photograph is printed out and thereafter it's all sent to the gangs task force unit."

That's when more experienced officers in the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police get involved.

'The law's been broken'

The man in charge of this, Superintendent Bob Hamilton, says there are two ways of dealing with people once they've been tracked down.

If they were posing in a public place, like on the street or a park, the law has been broken and they'll be arrested.

Even when pictures are taken in private, though, which isn't technically breaking the law, he says the weapons are so dangerous his officers pay a visit to the people involved.

"We show the parents their pictures," he explained, "recover the weapons and make sure they know that behaviour is unacceptable.

"We have large kitchen knives, axes, samurai swords, baseball bats, a huge number and different type of weapons - in simple terms weapons that can kill."

Superintendent Hamilton says Operation Access has been a complete success.

"We've questioned more than 400 people, most of them teenagers, as part of it and it's worked so well it will carry on indefinitely," he said.

Other forces from across the UK have also been in touch about the possibility of setting up similar operations.

Social networking sites Facebook and Bebo both say they're committed to improving safety for their members as well as helping cut crime.

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Well, the path to a totalitarian state is paved with good intentions.

I don't think it's nonsense that they want to do something about the many young people being stabbed. You can question the ways they do it, but the basic idea is good, imo.

groetjes,
Mirella

Hence my little comment.

Knock, knock

*opens the door*

Policeman: Sir, I came here to warn you the knives you have in your kitchen are pointy and sharp, and they can do things like cutting and hurting.

well, I would think that the way the photo represents the weapon is taken into account (ie in an aggressive rather than playful manner..)

I have a friend from the UK, and he says there's been a huge rise in the number a knifing incidents

Once they take all the knives away, there'll be a huge rise in bludgeoning incidents.

Ahh, here's what he posted

So I'm assuming your response would be to just arm everyone to the teeth? I love the way that some Americans use our differing weapon's policies to try and justify their own countries failing tactics. Why do all gun nuts think that freedom means having firearms? I'm sure its very comforting to the relatives of the 60,000 odd people slain by firearms in the US every year, that they will be able to decompose safely in a land of Liberty and Freedom.

People don't carry guns in this country, they carry knives. In London alone we had 86 fatal stabbings last year. I'm sure that's probably peanuts compared to the US, but we're actually trying to do something about what is a growing problem among young people. I've had two people being stabbed to death two roads down from where I live. Both were 16. If you honestly think that a police effort to take knives and guns away from teenage gangs is a bad thing, then you're a fucking lunatic.

Now these are not very intelligent people. If these twats want to pose on MyFace looking gansta with their combat knives, then fucking right we should nick them. What else are they going to do with them? Hunting?? Yeah ok, cause South London is a real hotbed of hunting activity...

They're not just doing this to anyone they see holding a knife. They're looking for specific people with a history of gang affiliation. My wife is a Police Officer in London and that's the reason why post reaction offends me. I'd rather not have something terrible happen to her while she's doing the job she loves, simply because we're too scared to offend the civil liberties of some 16 year old scum bag who will spend most his life in prison anyway.

Look if you think that everyone in the US should be forced to carry UZI's or bazookas, then more power to you, just don't start spouting off about our policies when you know fuck all about the whole picture.

Maybe because they got their freedom by using firearms against brits? Just a thought...

So guns are banned, so people carry knives. So ban knives, so people carry hammers. So ban hammers, so people carry stones. So ban stones.

Q. What has the American Revolution got to do with a British police effort to relieve gangs of knives??

A. Precisely, fuck all.

Like I said, don't criticise our policies when you know less than nothing about the situation here.

I just answered your "Why do all gun nuts think that freedom means having firearms?", just that.

A lot of (basically all) countries have knives. Is German and France facing similar problems concerning the rise of knives attack? If not, why even though they still have knives? What is really behind this knife surge?

Actually it's more like 30K per year, and suicides typically comprise over half of that number. Though I don't expect this to actually make a difference in your opinion, since you're basically a British version of PurpleHawk.

Ok, but it's still a stupidly large number. And I've got no idea who or what Purplehawk is.

Ok, so how is the US 'more free' than us?

If they depend less on the government, pay less taxes and such, they can consider themselves more free...but that is a better discussion for the economics thread.

there is increasing problems with knifes in France too, I don't know about Germany.

A good deal of it has to do with gangs culture (vastly imported from the US, rap in particular). As guns, thankfully, are far harder to come by (though there are possible), knifes are what some young are turning to..it became a status thing in some quarters, and the vicious circle of " I need one to protect myself" for the rest.
Most of the attacks are youth on youth (gang or not).

the policy you describe is not about removing knifes per se like it could be for guns (it's impossible since knifes are a widely used tool), it's about fighting a culture that glorifies knifes and weapons.


and freer to receive no healthcare or get into debt for it, freer of needing several jobs to survive.. etc
We'd argue that being more secure is being more free.

A lot of people say that guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Isn't the orginal article proof that taking guns off the streets doesn't solve the problem of violence? If someone wants to kill another person, they will find a way.