With knife crime on the rise throughout the UK, it's a no surprise there is a growing need for raising awareness for the perils and consequences of carrying a knife.
Previous news from the Liverpool Echo has stated that the number of offences has doubled in the past 5 years, many of which has resulted in a number of young men losing their life for the various reasons of these crimes. Liverpool, alongside Manchester, Slough & Nottingham, is currently in the top 25 areas where knife crimes have been committed.
Real Men Don't Carry Knives (in partnership with LFC Kicks) came to Lifestyles Croxteth and presented to a group of 9 young males the law and consequences behind carrying a knife and discussed the fears of the young people about knife crime. The more youngsters are made aware that not everyone is carrying a knife, and that they do not need to be among those who feel the need to do so, the less future knife related crimes will occur.
Many of the children of Liverpool, and indeed across the UK, feel that they are pressured into carrying a knife from the reasons mentioned above. Many of those who carry a knife do not actually wish to use it, it can be the peer pressure of their friends which leads to someone getting hurt.
They highlighted numerous areas, such as making them aware that there are far more people affected by, for example a stabbing, than just those immediately involved - the police, the doctors, the friends, family & others are affected by such incidents, too.
While most people don't carry a knife with them, there are some who feel the need to do so for several reasons. There were 3 main reasons young people felt the need to carry a blade: some carry for the sake of gaining respect among their "friends", some for the feeling of being tough and others for the common reason of protection. When the children were asked what are some of the reasons why people carry a knife, there were answers ranging from 'for revenge' and 'for fun'.
Nakita Khan - a British & World Champion of Kickboxing from Sensei Academy also joined the presentation, having the lads go through various warm-ups and exercises before teaching them some self-defense techniques.
Real Men Don't Carry Knives have been travelling the country presenting to various groups of young males and females about issues that are becoming more common among the youth. Raising awareness is the start of prevention and with giving the young more reasons not to engage in gang-like activity and being around those who could influence a knife crime in future, knife crime itself can be cut out.