BoJo vows to ‘come down hard’ on stabbing epidemic, adding police with more ‘stop & search’ power to UK streets

With elections approaching, the UK PM has rolled out his plan to fight knife crimes, which have skyrocketed over the last few years, promising harsher penalties for offenders and more powers for police – if Tories win.

Boris Johnson has pledged to “come down hard on the scourge of knife crime” and implement a “tough new approach” to fight it and serious violence in a three-step plan.

His strategy relies on deploying an additional 20,000 police officers to streets across the UK. They will have powers to stop and search known knife carriers, and arrest them for illegal carry on the spot. Such individuals, Johnson told, will be cautioned or charged within 24 hours, and will appear in court within a week.

An extra £35 million will also be poured into violence reduction units comprised of police officers and social workers. They will be tasked with doing “preventative work” and stopping “violence from happening in the first place.”

The announcement looks like an election promise as it comes ahead of the first debate between Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Johnson’s proposals seem to be long overdue as stabbing-related crimes have jumped over the last few years. There were 47,100 attacks from March 2018 to March 2019, according to the latest government report with more than 110 people killed in London alone this year.

The UK government has already put a number of crime-fighting tactics in place, but the efficiency of some were highly questionable, like putting anti-stabbing messages on boxes of fried chicken takeaway.

There were also calls from church leaders to redesign domestic knives with rounded tips to reduce the number of life-threatening stabbing injuries.

The British military didn’t stay aside either, with former defense minister Gavin Williamson reporting that the army were ready to intervene. The ingenious idea, however, led to much mockery on social media.