Stabbings in Sheffield May 2018

[foxydebs 35]

On news that a 15yr old is being held for stabbing .Very sad how many lives will be ruined by this mindless act . Also named the poor lad who has died .

 

What news was he named on as I watched look north and calendar and they said they had yet to reveal his name to media.

[parkydave 10]

Sheffield star named locally as Sam ……..

[Harrystottle 10]

I understand the point you make and am grateful for your reassurance. On the other hand though, I also am concerned for other young people in Sheffield, not just my own children. Knife crime is escalating and an increasing number of young people are arming themselves with knives and this impacts on us all.

 

Proved by the ages of the victim and attacker in the latest case - both were 15.

 

We may not be likely to be stabbed going about our daily business but if young people start to carry knives into school the odds on a random stabbing occurring must increase.

[Itrytoplease 10]

It's difficult to deal in facts when Sheffield Commander, Chief Superintendent Stuart Barton, describes the deceased victim aged 15 as a "young man."

 

He was a boy.

 

A fifteen year old boy. A boy died.

 

It's a pretence, and a dangerous one, to be attemtping to reduce the impact of this crime. Young men, men get stabbed; it happens. But this was a child, a school boy.

 

Whether there's a drug related or gang connection [and there may not be ] it doesn't alter the fact that a young boy [not man] lost his life while riding his bike. Young men tend to drive cars. Some young men are involved in drug supply. But 15 year old boys go to school, do home work, get excited about a new pair of trainers and see life as fun.

 

This one rode a bike on a Thursday night and he died.

 

Perspective is also needed as the media are quick to make more of this. The descent on to the area seen already by Calendar amongst others has the agenda that Sheffield is experiencing a surge in the number of stabbings.

 

It isn't.

 

Newport in South Wales has just had five murders, all stabbings, in a week and the much hyped figures for London, well over 50 deaths in a year, has finally raised cause for concern that 'something must be done.'

 

Really?

 

Where do you begin?

 

Who is to blame?

 

With a school that fails you, jobless prospects, disappeared apprenticeships, non-existant youth clubs or youth facilities, rising levels of poverty, sink estates and being bombarded with designer goods and extravagant lifestyles it's effortless to become detached from main stream society.

 

If you feel you don't belong then you attach yourself to some alternative.

 

Add to this nihilistic mix the lack of Police Officers, community coppers, patrol cars, responding bobbies and we do have no go areas. No go because the cars are parked up in Woodseats Police Station while the Officers are producing triplicate copies for every job and then entering it all again into a complex and time consuming computer.

 

Add to that a 30% or more reduction in Police budgets.

 

The ingredients give us this increase in crime, including knife crime, now seen right up to our own front doors. We're not reading any more about something that happened elsewhere. It's arrived. It's on the door step.

 

Thanks must go to wonderful Teresa May, the previous Home Secretary, who not only over saw and delivered the debarcle that was Windrush but took a knife of her own to the numbers of serving Police Officers.

 

It is about spending. It is a result of austerity.

 

We need an alternative for the listless detached youth of Britain to become engaged, attached, belonging, part of main stream society with a future.

 

Hard working young men and women can not afford their own homes. What hope do the struggling kids from impoverished areas attending the worst schools have? This week Oxford University admits it can not attract enough lower income background students. Oxford isn't just 150 miles away. It is light years away. It remains an impossibility for so many who are failed by the State.

 

Failed by the environment they are born into.

 

Failed and neglected and forgotten and left behind and ignored.

 

The result is what we see. Now in your face. Just step outside.

 

Whatever happened on Lowedges, and right now no one knows other than a young boy tragically lost his life, there are two tragedies. One is the lost life of a young boy riding his bike and stabbed to death in the street. Whatever his prospects. Whatever his future. He had a future.

 

The other is the wasted life of the perpetrator who will be facing years, if not life, in prison. No doubt another young person. A life irrevocably damaged, changed, ruined by a decision made possibly in a moment.

 

Whatever the reasons behind this incident we can all see the fabric of a crumbling society of neglect where the incident took place. It wasn't amongst the affluent large detached houses on the leafy avenues of Dore but it was 5 minutes away in a completely different world.

 

I doubt Louise Haigh will be out door knocking to re-assure us any time soon. After all, isn't it all we need right now? A few kind, well placed, soothing words from the great and the good to re-assure us. It's all we're likely to get.

 

We just get on with it. Our voices unheard. Our lives unseen.

 

Great post,

 

London - 66 deaths so far this year.

[Astraeus 10]

Let's not ignore the role of the media in this.

 

It is the media's hot topic and a disproportionate amount of airtime and newspaper coverage has been given over to it when compared with, for instance, murders in previous years and car accident fatalities. It is an inescapable truth that blood sells papers and their stories then become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Coverage suggests that every child and his dog carries knives in London, Manchester, Leeds and other metropolitan places. Ergo any child with a perception formed by the media coverage is convinced that his first are armed and thus arms himself. Suddenly there is a ubiquity of weaponry on our streets and, in that environment, what was once a punch up becomes a stabbing and we have what we have at this very time.

 

It is not the only causative element but it is one. We are experiencing with stabbings of young people what we previously experienced with acid attacks, moped crime and other criminal phenomena/trends. By sensationalising the extent of knife possession and knife crime, it generates more of the same and widespread media coverage normalises the use of weaponry as a means of dispute resolution.

 

The real tragedy is that what lines on man's pockets lines another man's coffin.

[Penistone999 10]

What news was he named on as I watched look north and calendar and they said they had yet to reveal his name to media.

 

It in The Star

 

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/first-picture-of-15-year-old-sheffield-boy-stabbed-to-death-1-9181834

[abbeyedges 82]

In 1970 I was 15 and growing up on the Lowedges estate. We'd be out playing until very late, possibly looking for a decent area under a lamp post to kick a ball about. We had no fears. Certainly no fears of being stabbed.

 

I can remember it so clearly as if it was yesterday. And yet there'll be parents of 15 year olds now living on that same estate that will be worried every time their child goes out.

 

I'd like to think that something will change but unfortunately I believe we could be having this exact conversation in a year's time about another Sheffield youngster on another estate.

[Astraeus 10]

In 2060 I am sure the estate's current residents will romanticise about how free and safe they felt in 2018. Nostalgia is a funny thing.

 

Read my comment above regarding how the media portray a different reality to the one we are living in where the vast majority of the population are free to go about their business without fear of trespass. The last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century were the safest times in history for us and fellow Western Europeans.

[bassett one 447]

our agm at lowedges was held fri eve,of which I am the sec,it was the first time the police had come in 10 years although invited every year,they said little except they would be gone by sat am,i presume due to long grass or new evidence they are still in situ,would it have help save time and money if the grass verges had been cut?,but I am shocked as over the last 10 years things have not been bad,except a couple of incidents that I found had nothing to do with the estate,even our annual festival with approx. 15 thousand footfall ,didn't have a police presence and they've all gone without a single incident,as have local funfair visits,so I hope it calms and gets back to the norm soon.

[FinBak 12]

In 1970 I was 15 and growing up on the Lowedges estate. We'd be out playing until very late, possibly looking for a decent area under a lamp post to kick a ball about. We had no fears. Certainly no fears of being stabbed.

 

I can remember it so clearly as if it was yesterday. And yet there'll be parents of 15 year olds now living on that same estate that will be worried every time their child goes out.

 

I'd like to think that something will change but unfortunately I believe we could be having this exact conversation in a year's time about another Sheffield youngster on another estate.

 

In 1970 I was 5..Care free, growing up slowly..When i was 7 i started watching T.V. The early 70's had some fantastic films..But most of them were violent in one way or another...I used to say as a kid back then..."The UK will become like america."!

 

It's only a matter of time when Guns will replace knives here..

[ormester 11]

a lot of these attacks are copycat killings these gangs see london and think we need to make our mark the police are stretched to there limit

[Calahonda 11]

Has any other country had success in dramatically reducing this type of crime? All these knife amnesties are stupid, every kitchen drawer/knife block has ready replacements. Is prison an ambition for some of these young thugs, like a badge of honour, if so how do we change these youngsters attitudes to violent crime?

 

I had a great uncle who seemed destined to be a Sheffield gang member back in the 30’s. He was offered the army as an alternative to prison, he ended up serving under David Stirling, and led an honest life when he left the forces.

 

All answers on a post card.