Where's the crime reduction?

We keep talking about England's out-of-control violent crime. We keep pointing out that the British government said that a drop in gun ownership would result in a drop in violent crime. We keep seeing stories where kids are being murdered anyway:

Kodjo Yenga was ambushed in a quiet London street by about a dozen youngsters armed with knives and bats. The 16-year-old tried to escape but was cornered and stabbed in the heart. The gang ran away laughing as the teenager lay bleeding in his girlfriend's arms. He died later in hospital.

There it is again folks. Guns didn't kill Yenga, people did. If they had had guns there's little doubt that they would have used them to murder him. However, even if they did not have knives and baseball bats they would have proceeded to stomp the guy to death or beat his skull in with a brick. They were out for blood and Kodjo Yenga was unarmed.

Murderers are predators. They'll kill simply because they want to, because they think it's fun, because they won't control themselves, because they want to show how powerful they are, or maybe just because they're animals. They don't kill because they have a weapon in their hands. The weapon is only a convenient tool. They would be just as lethal without weapons, just less efficient.

Yenga may have been lured into a bad situation in a moment of youthful pride, but the simple harsh reality remains that in London the criminals are armed and the citizens are easily lead to the slaughter. In the face of such a brutal reality, it is absolutely unfathomable why England has declared that the thugs can run free in the streets, but honest law-abiding subjects are not allowed to defend themselves with the only weapon available that could even the odds in such a situation.

It's worse than unfathomable. It's immoral.

Another Good Reason To Carry a Gun

Harps' death called "random predatory violent killing"

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter

The motive behind the slaying of Shannon Harps wasn't rape, or robbery, or revenge for some perceived slight, King County prosecutors say.

There apparently was nothing particular about the 31-year-old Sierra Club employee that made her a killer's target as she walked to her Capitol Hill apartment on New Year's Eve.

James Anthony Williams, the man accused of Harps' slaying, would later tell detectives she was merely "in the wrong place at the wrong time," according to court documents charging Williams with first-degree murder.

"It is our worst fear — a random predatory violent killing," King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said during a news conference Tuesday announcing the charges.

Williams, 48, an ex-convict with a long history of mental illness, could face 25 to 33 years in prison if convicted. He's being held in King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned next Tuesday.

Satterberg and court documents supporting the charge provided new details in Harps' slaying and how she was targeted by a man she apparently had never met. Satterberg also announced Tuesday the creation of a panel to investigate why Williams, whose long history of mental illness and criminal activity — including 248 infractions committed in prison while serving an 11-year sentence for randomly shooting a man in 1995 and a host of violations he committed after his 2006 release — was a free man when the slaying occurred.

The group, made up of prosecutors, officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC), mental-health workers and law-enforcement officers, will produce a report detailing the efforts to supervise Williams in the 20 months between his release from prison and the slaying, Satterberg said.

"This is not an exercise in blaming anyone other than James Williams for this murder," he said. "It is simply the responsible thing to do — to examine our system when the most intensive supervision scheme we have developed could not prevent this terrible crime."

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Williams saw Harps walking alone on a Capitol Hill street around 7 p.m. on Dec. 31 and began following her.

He was armed with a butcher knife, the same type of knife he had previously told police and social workers he liked to keep with him, according to court documents detailing Williams' criminal and mental-health history.

As Harps reached the stairwell outside her condominium building, Williams began stabbing her repeatedly, commanding her to die, Satterberg said.

A witness heard Harps call for help and saw her stagger out of the stairwell, according to the charging documents.

He dialed 911 and then saw a man emerge from the stairwell, look briefly at him and casually walk away, according to the papers.

Police questioned Williams about an hour after the stabbing after finding him at a nearby bus shelter drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the same beer found near the scene of the slaying. But they let him go after he said he didn't know anything and witnesses said he was not the man they had seen near the scene of the stabbing.

Williams agreed to give police a voluntary cheek swab while they interviewed him after the slaying. This proved to be the break in the case.

On Friday, police announced that Williams' DNA matched that found on the knife recovered near the crime scene. After questioning him a second time, he confessed, they said, telling detectives he had no particular reason to pick Harps.

At that point, Williams had already been in jail for 10 days after he was arrested for missing a required appointment with a mental-health provider, one of many violations of his probation.

While in prison for shooting a man at a bus stop in 1995, Williams constantly exhibited threatening behavior toward corrections officers and racked up 248 serious infractions, according to court documents.

And after getting out, he spent a total of about 9-½ months of 2007 in jail because of various violations of his community-supervision conditions — requirements he had to meet as part of his release from prison in 2006.

Classified as a Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender, he did receive enhanced supervision in the community, according to the King County Prosecutor's Office and DOC officials.

He was brought before the court several times when he violated his conditions, was once sent to Western State Hospital for involuntary commitment, was sanctioned to various jail terms and was ordered to continue outpatient mental-health treatment, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

In March, he told a police officer that he planned to "shoot all his caseworkers" at Sound Mental Health.

In September, police found an 8-inch butcher knife in his sweat-shirt pocket after the landlord of his Capitol Hill apartment told police he had threatened her. He stayed in jail on that charge until just 10 days before Harps was slain.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nataliesinger@seattletimes.com

What the Anti's Want

Sear and Hammer has a rather graphic video on his blog of a vicious attack in the Netherlands (Rotterdam) in which a woman was stabbed over seventy times by a knife wielding psychopath. The bystanders try ineffectually several times to "karate kick" the attacker into submission without success. This attack goes on for some time before someone is able to drag him off of her. Fortunately the victim lived, although she still suffers from the aftereffects. After trying brutally to kill this woman, the attacker only got four years in prison.

Four freaking years!

In a perfect world, a helpful bystander would have pulled out their gun and blown the motherf&%#@& away. No trial, no parole, no coming back to harm his victim in four years.

Here is what wikipedia has to say about Netherlands gun law:

"Dutch gun law is typical of the Western European approach. Firearm possession is not subject to any constitutional protections, but regulated simply in the Arms and Ammunition Act (Wet Wapens en Munitie). Weapons, including firearms, are divided into four categories, and for each of the categories a certain maximum punishment is set for "voorhanden hebben" (possession), and "dragen" (carrying in public).

Only citizens who are members of hunting and shooting sports clubs may obtain licences for weapons. And even then they may only get a licence for category III weapons (sports weapons).

Firearm possession and use by the military and the police is not subject to Arms and Ammunition Act, but regulated separately.

Sale is only for those age 17 or over."

So basically, every law abiding citizen is unarmed. No wonder the only weapons on display in this video is a knife (held by the bad guy) and hands, feet and a stick (held by the law abiding citizens).

This is the kind of world the anti's want, this is what they want for the USA. They want to make everyone defenseless against every criminal deprivation; like lambs to the slaughter.

Together, we can stop them, but it requires ever diligence and no compromise with evil. And just remember, when they say they don't want to ban your kind of gun, it's only a matter of time before they come for you, and by then there will be no-one to speak up for you.

There are no separate groups. There are no "hunters" or "shooters" or "shotgunners", there is only "Gun Owners". Think about it, with 80M plus gun owners in this nation, do you think the politicians would listen if 80M people stood together with one voice and said "No More!"?

I think they would.

So get involved, join a gun rights group, stand up for your rights, because no-one else is going to. Together, we can stop them and take back all of the rights the second amendment promises up.

UPDATE: Gun Debate Critic has also covered this story and I somehow overlooked it.

Let's ban all the guns!

That way criminals won't be able to hurt anyone.

Eh? What's that? They'll just find another weapon?

Balderdash I tell ya!

--------

Deadly Sword Attack in South Philly

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - September 10, 2007 - Veteran homicide investigators describe the scene as one of the goriest crimes they have ever seen.

The hunt continues for the two men who attacked the victim with what authorities described as a two-foot long ceremonial sword. It appears they too may have been injured in the vicious attack.

Authorities removed the victim's body from his apartment at 1432 West Porter Street on Monday night. Twenty-year-old Anthony DiMattio appeared to have been stabbed at least five times in the head and torso during an apparent robbery. One of the murder weapons was a two foot ceremonial sword the victim had hanging on his wall. The sword was tossed in a trashcan in front of the apartment when the killers fled the scene. The victim's uncle, Mike Russo, was on his way to the apartment to visit his nephew when he saw two men running down the block.

At the time, Russo had no idea the men were running from his nephew's apartment.

"I didn't connect it until I seen the door open and I ran up and seen the blood in the kitchen. I ran back down screaming for somebody to call the police," he said.

Investigators said there was blood everywhere. It appeared that DiMattio had put up a fight, and his pet dog, Dutchie, may also have been trying to fight off the attackers.

"One had a bloody head that was gushing blood and the other one was pretty much bloodied up himself," said Russo. "The one kid did get bit by the dog that was up there."

The men were seen fleeing the home with a black duffel bag. The murder left the neighborhood extremely shaken.

"It's terrible. It's real terrible. We're really all shocked about it cause this is a real nice quiet neighborhood," said Joe Accardo.

For his part, Russo said his nephew did not deserve to die in the horrible way he did.

"We need to get these two people off the street now before they do it to someone else. And people need to stand up. People need to come together. Not only because it's my nephew, but people need to come together because it's getting out of hand," said Russo.

The two assailants are described as two black men about 19 to 22 years of age. One stands five-foot-four, while the other is five-foot-seven. One wore dungaree shorts and white t shirt, while the other had dungaree shorts and red shirt.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is being asked to call the homicide division of the Philadelphia Police.

How can this be?

Scotland tops list of world's most violent countries

By Katrina Tweedie

A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.

England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest.

The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults.

Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population, are now comparable with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Tbilisi.

The attacks have been fuelled by a “booze and blades” culture in the west of Scotland which has claimed more than 160 lives over the past five years. Since January there have been 13 murders, 145 attempted murders and 1,100 serious assaults involving knives in the west of Scotland. The problem is made worse by sectarian violence, with hospitals reporting higher admissions following Old Firm matches.

David Ritchie, an accident and emergency consultant at Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary, said that the figures were a national disgrace. “I am embarrassed as a Scot that we are seeing this level of violence. Politicians must do something about this problem. This is a serious public health issue. Violence is a cancer in this part of the world,” he said.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of the Strathclyde Police’s violence reduction unit, said the problem was chronic and restricting access to drink and limiting the sale of knives would at least reduce the problem.

The study, by the UN’s crime research institute, found that 3 per cent of Scots had been victims of assault compared with 1.2 per cent in America and just 0.1 per cent in Japan, 0.2 per cent in Italy and 0.8 per cent in Austria. In England and Wales the figure was 2.8 per cent.

Scotland was eighth for total crime, 13th for property crime, 12th for robbery and 14th for sexual assault. New Zealand had the most property crimes and sexual assaults, while Poland had the most robberies.

Chief Constable Peter Wilson, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, questioned the figures. “It must be near impossible to compare assault figures from one country to the next based on phone calls,” he said.

“We have been doing extensive research into violent crime in Scotland for some years now and this has shown that in the vast majority of cases, victims of violent crime are known to each other. We do accept, however, that, despite your chances of being a victim of assault being low in Scotland, a problem does exist.”

U.K. School Kids Strap on Stab-Proof Vests as Knife Crime Soars

From the, "Gee, I thought there was no more violent crime in the UK since handguns were banned" file. ...clicky...

By Nick Allen

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ashgar Jilow used to sell stab-proof vests to nightclub bouncers and security guards at his London military surplus store. Now his clients are kids as young as 10 who fear they're going to be knifed at school or on the street.

``Some of them are so tiny the vests don't even fit under their school uniforms,'' said Jilow, 55, who sells about three of the 120-pound ($230) vests a week. ``Parents don't know what to do to keep their kids safe.''

Every week in London 52 teenagers are victims of knife crime, according to the Metropolitan Police. A child is stabbed to death in Britain every two weeks and knife killings outnumber gun homicides three to one, said Norman Brennan, a police officer and director of the Victims of Crime Trust.

``Knife crime is out of control and kids carry them like fashion accessories,'' Brennan said. The youngest child to be suspended from school for brandishing a blade was just five.

Last week two teenagers were knifed to death in London. Adam Regis, 15, was attacked March 17 on his way home from the movies in Newham, an east London borough that is being regenerated by the 2012 Olympics. He called his girlfriend for help as he bled to death, police said.

Three days earlier, Kodjo Yenga, 16, was stabbed to death as a gang of boys and girls chanted ``Kill him, kill him'' in Hammersmith, west London, where homes sell for more than 1 million pounds, eyewitnesses said.

Gang Culture

Statistics indicate that more children are reaching for blades as gang culture spreads. Some 42 percent of boys aged between 11 and 16 in state-funded schools admit to having carried a knife, according to the Youth Justice Board, which oversees punishment of child offenders.

Natashia Jackman, then 15, was stabbed in the eye with a pair of scissors at Collingwood College in Camberley, Surrey, by a 14- year-old girl who didn't like her taste in music.

``I came from a private school,'' Natashia said in court, according to a transcript of her testimony. ``When I started realizing that there were gangs and when I realized that stabbing was common in state schools, then I started worrying about it.''

Her assailant was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail in December.

Some students have brought machetes, combat knives, swords and sharpened screwdrivers at school, police say. Girls have been caught with blades hidden in lipstick and mascara tubes.

Security Guards

``I wouldn't blame any parent for giving their child a stab vest if it makes them feel a bit more secure,'' said Nancy Odunewu, a pastor whose son Emmanuel, 19, was stabbed to death in Lewisham, southeast London, in November 2006. ``If I could have done anything to save my son then I would have.''

She said all schools should have security guards and airport- style metal detectors. George Mitchell School in Leyton, east London, became the first in the capital to use handheld metal detectors for random checks.

Juvenile knife crime first grabbed the public's attention in the U.K. when 10-year-old Damilola Taylor was fatally stabbed by other youngsters on his way home from school in Peckham, east London, in November 2000.

Prime Minister Tony Blair opened a community center named after Damilola in 2001. In February 2004, a 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of stabbing another teenager at the facility.

In 2004, 170 pupils between the ages of 12 and 14 were convicted of possessing knives, double the 2000 figure. Last year, one teacher was injured by a pupil every school day. In the 12 months to March 2006, knife crimes rose 73 percent, according to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London.

Knife Amnesty

The report said the government's strategy for tackling knife crime was ``incoherent'' and criticized the lack of data. Home Secretary John Reid announced March 19 that, beginning in April, police will record knife crimes as a separate offense for a ``more detailed understanding'' of the problem.

The government's Violent Crime Reduction Act, passed last year, increases the maximum sentence for possession of a knife in a school or public place to four years from two and raises the minimum age for buying a knife to 18 from 16. An amnesty last year brought in more than 100,000 weapons.

Kids Company, a south London charity partly funded by the government, works to turn around the lives of violent children who have been expelled from school.

``At street level, children are getting killed,'' said Camila Batmanghelidjh, a psychotherapist who runs the program. ``They are sleeping with knives under their pillows because they don't feel safe.''

There's no doubt schools are getting more violent, said Jilow, whose military supply store has received 400 enquiries from parents about protective products.

``The 15- and 16-year-olds have started to ask for bullet- proof vests,'' he said. ``Some want it for protection, some as a status symbol. One group wanted to buy a gun. They wouldn't believe me when I said I didn't sell them.''