Lager Louts and Knife Crime

By: Gregory Katz, Associated Press

LONDON---- Ahhh, Britain. The land of Shakespeare and the Beatles, Churchill and the Queen. Rolling green hills, groovy London shops, hip plaids splashed over raincoats and umbrellas.
Cut to the reality of 2009: the highest teen pregnancy rate in western Europe, a binge drinking culture that leaves drunk teens splayed out in the streets and rising knife crime (italics mine)that has turned some pub fights into deadly affairs.

Binge drinking has produced a rise in liver disease among Britons in their 20s and the unpleasant reputation of British "lager louts" at holiday resorts across Europe. On any given night, London residents can see drunken teens staggering through the Underground subway system. Usually their friends help them, but sometimes collapsed teens are left on their own until police or transit staff intervene.

The rise in knife crime (italics mine) harkens back to the 1950s "West Side Story" era in the United States. The number of robberies carried out with knives rose 18 percent for the third quarter of 2008 compared to the year before, according to government figures released in January. Too often now, public disputes have ended in teen stabbing deaths. Rob Knox, an 18-year-old actor in a "Harry Potter" film, was killed in May, while Ben Kinsella, the 16-year-old brother of a television soap actress, was stabbed to death in June. Both were trying to break up fights in London.

It's abundantly clear how to stop the alarming rise in knife crime in the U. K. The government must immediately institute a knife registration program and a procedure for citizens to obtain concealed knife permits, with the approval of the senior law enforcement official in each city, town or village, of course. Police will carefully consider a citizen's need to carry a knife before issuing such a permit. Carrying knives shall be banned within 5 kilometers of a school, park or playground and those areas designated "Knife Free Zones." In addition, a strict purchase limit of one knife per month per citizen will be aggressively enforced.