New statistics have been released this week, detailing a dramatic increase in knife crime across NSW. According to these figures, knife assaults have skyrocketed by 38 percent in the last seven years.
But why?
Taking a brisk stroll down the George St strip on Saturday night might give you an idea. It also might give you a painfully sharp piece of metal lodged inside your cranium.
That is, if you are unlucky enough to simply make eye contact with a gang-member – and yes, that can be enough to warrant an unwarranted assault.
It doesn’t matter if your connection was accidental. There is no argument. There is no due process. You made eye contact and this is enough to present yourself as an opponent.
This is the law of the gang mentality. It’s absolutely aggressive and without any trace of mercy. It is showmanship at its worst and brutality at its best.
No consideration is given for the victim at any stage. The more unfair the fight, the better. The spoils of a war waged by cowards are the wallets and mobile phones left behind as the victim struggles for mercy.
For a nation that loves its sport, it seems that the black-hearted have also produced their own code, but their athletic ability extends only to their capacity to bash, stab, rob and maim.
Sustaining a beating from these bastards is bad enough. It’s worse when their punches are peppered with the dull-thud exclamation mark of a 6-inch blade.
The attackers could not care less, other than to paint the picture of being a “Mad C***” to their compassion-challenged dickhead mates, who, by the way, are an insult to oxygen.
The toll on the victims however, is far worse. As the gangs travel off into the night laughing about their exploits - only to forget them the next day - the damage is to the poor sod at the wrong end of the saber. They often have months of trauma and rehab to go through – that is, if they survive the attack.
34 people have died as a result of knife assaults in Sydney in the last three years.
If these victims were simply bashed, not stabbed, we’d have a far greater percentage of survival than that.
There’s a clamour of community leaders now saying the $550 fine currently in place is woefully inadequate
There are suggestions by Shadow Legal Affairs spokesman Greg Smith to have the fine replaced with a jail term – a suggestion supported by the St Vincents emergency department – which knows all too well the reality of knife-related crime.
The interesting thing here is that Australia could see a gun-ownership-type debate on its hands, with some victims now coming forward and saying they require their knife to feel safer on the streets.
One of our LIVENEWS.com.au readers, Vo Ice, commented this morning: “A few years back i was the victim of an unprovoked bashing by a group of our "fully sick" friends in the middle of the city on a Friday night. I was unable to eat solid food for 3 months. As long as I cannot feel safe walking down the street at night, I will carry my knife and gut the next bastard who wants to have a go.”
It’s understandable that many victims feel the same way, but is more violence really the right solution? Not to mention the idea of having the weapon taken off you and used on you.
The simple fact is, people have no need to carry knives on them in public unless they are a tradesperson, a cook or a fisherman. Those who require knives for their profession can carry a license to use their tools.
For the others, if an instant jail term could be dished out to the stab happy sub-humans, it would be a far greater deterrent than the laughable slap-on-the-wrist of a fine.
