VIOLENT CRIME - A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Violent Crime – A New Perspective
Violent crimes grow daily, but are the present resolves just a placebo? The more pro-active minds often gravitate towards self-defence, usually in the form of martial arts. New statute is so often initiated to reputedly meet the growing age of violent crime. The media does a prominent job in reassuring that all is under control. Those who live in the nicety of respectable urban areas would believe Britain is a safe haven of respectability. However, like looking at the nice rosy apple, where there are rotten areas they will grow unseen inside.
I could spend a whole page on the foibles of statute dealing with the above problem, but here is a snippet. Let’s take lock knives, they are legal to sell, look at any high street shop. However, when you walk onto the street with your purchase you can be arrested because they are not legal under s139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The law has a plethora of banned weapons, none of which are mainstream tools of violence.
When you learn from short self-defence courses, they will only provide you with enough skill (I use the word loosely) to initiate an escalation, that’s about it. As both a leading martial arts figure, and ex- police officer with well over a hundred hands on violent encounters to my name, I talk from a factual perspective. Of course you can bite off ears, poke out eyes, break necks, and even kick people in the groin, expecting it to work like a miracle cure. Sorry, but only two things will happen; 1. You will be the one arrested for using excessive and unreasonable force. 2. You will incite your attacker, and without any street experience, have a hefty medical or funeral bill. There is a big difference between unarmed combat (war zone stuff) and self-defence in a civilized society.
Early last year I gave a lecture on gang culture, as well as the various aspects of dark minds that perpetrate violent crime. As usual my predictions are slowly coming to fruition. My advice to the decision makers in this domain is to stop reading and researching from books. Get out and deal with violent crime first hand, experience is the best teacher. I have written for magazines such as Police Review, suggesting for example, all officers who teach police arrest should have to spend at least several days a month in violent area, putting what they teach into practice. So far this has fallen on deaf ears.
In the 1990’s I appeared on a lot of media and news programmes, dealing with knife culture. In short my advice on ‘throw away weapons’ never made it past the editing floor… You may be asking about what should done, well… firstly, find someone who really knows what they are talking about!!! But don't ask me, I spent over 20 years postulating prophesies that came true, and trying to advise. People seem to want the illusion, not the reality; it’s easier to deal with.
Finally, the present concept of gaining background information via ‘lexicon’ methods, or algorithmic predictions, will (in my opinion) not stop violent crime growth. A much more pragmatic evaluation and implementation is the real answer.
Article By
Mike Finn