Knife Crime, Boris, Ferrari and Institutional Victims.

It is impossible to escape knife crime at the moment. It seems like young men are dropping like flies and there is no suggestion or indication yet that these crimes will cease to continue. New mayor Boris has taken steps with the police and with the backing of home secretary Jacqui Smith to introduce measures for tackling the problem. Funding has been approved for more metal detectors and teenagers will be stopped and searched on the streets, at train stations and bus stops. I think that all McDonalds restaurants should also be added to the list of targets.

The scheme seems to have widespread support from the communities in which it has been introduced. The communities are largely black communities because the victims are mainly black. There seems to be a positive resolution towards trying to solve the problem at least and that is a great thing. I was listening to LBC yesterday and this was a big part of the show for most of the day. Listening to this show was what made me angry.

The show which I think was presented by Nick Ferrari was awful. Firstly, the presenter in question is obviously itching for an opportunity (probably like the rest of the media) to give Boris a hard time about something, anything. Boris would have to be divine to escape his eventual and inevitable roasting at the hands of people like Ferrari. The presenter was baiting people to call in about the stop and search tactics the police will be using to try to combat the knife problem. He was looking for people who had had racist experiences with the police who he was also quick to remind us are institutionally racist (see Macpherson Report).

I became angry for a couple of reasons. Firstly, was the presenters negativity towards what seems to be a good idea in principle which also seemed to be supported by a number of people who I think are probably a tad (Airplane definition) more intelligent than himself. Secondly was the presenters insistence that pretty much every caller had not had a racist experience but simply a bad experience with the law. Now I know that Ian Blair had accused the media of being institutionally racist and I think that this was a shining example of what he probably meant. Here was a presenter asking inviting what would have been mostly black people with bad experiences to call him and then rubbishing their experiences and refusing to accept that they were anything to do with race. Nice one Ferrari, what a gaff! Hope Boris pulls you up on it.

The thing is though, it did start to make me think a little about the whole thing. After all, Ferrari, wrong as he was to do what he was doing in the way he was doing it, was I think to a certain extent right about things. The incidents did not sound racist. In fact they sounded like incidents that I know have happened to anyone regardless of race or colour. None of the callers could say anything that made me or the presenter think that there was any racism present although that doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't. I did however start to think that whilst the police force is institutionally racist, there is also a possibility that some members of the black community are institutionally victimised.

Black people have been oppressed in one way or another for centuries, by the imperial Europeans to colonial Americans. They have been enslaved, impoverished, manipulated, segregated, ghettoised, marginalised and exploited as the world has developed. It could probably be argued that without the exploitation of the black man the world would not have developed at quite the rate it has. It seems nearly logical that having a history like this would influence the outlook of a certain number. If black people have been victims for centuries it follows that some will believe that they are still victims today especially if they are generally dissatisfied with life.

Racism for some people seems to become the reason for their frustration and failure to cope in situations which lead to mistreatment or disrespect or any unfavourable outcome. When bad things happen to some people and not just black people but Jews, Muslims etc, the issue of race is produced first as a shield and then as a sword to try to turn a disadvantage into an advantage and I think that there is something intrinsically wrong with that attitude because it induces alienation. People become frightened to say anything in case it can somehow be construed to be offensive and prefer instead to distance themselves and I think that this is part of the problem in the US and part of the developing problem in the UK.

The problem with knives is not new and I have seen programs on the TV for a good few years now about how school children and teenagers are scared because they know their classmates are carrying weapons for aggression or protection. We have also been watching the reemergence of gang culture on our streets for years. The problem is that the current government has refused to tackle the issues and reasons for the breakdown in society and have refused to do so because they are frightened of being shouted at by the small number of people who see themselves as victims. With regards to knife crime, I think part of the reason for the reluctance to act is that it would mean more police on the streets and therefore more money spent which I don't think they would be able to find. However the big reason is that they would have to reintroduce stop and search properly in the communities that are affected most heavily by this type of crime. This is a terrifying prospect for any government because it can only lead to accusations of racism, high profile mistakes in execution of the policies and maybe like the 80s clashes and riots in the streets. In short, this is a potential hornets nest but it is a nest that needs stirring if any progress is to be made. Headlines could be bad for any government making waves in this area, but the government needs to forget the headlines for five minutes and the opinion polls and actually get their hands dirty for a change. If they can do it they might actually leave a legacy other than war and maybe worth talking about.

Similarly, as a society we need to be able to stand up and talk freely and constructively about these problems and without fear of racist accusations otherwise nothing will change and the black man and those around him will be victims forever...and that's a bad thing.