1 dead, 5 injured in London knife attack.

[Johnnypenso]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/europe/london-knife-attack/index.html

1 dead, 5 injured in London knife attack. Terrorism and mental health are apparently two avenues investigators are exploring.

 

[Liquid]

With the rarity of guns in the UK, knife crime is the next most available alternative.

 

[Crumpet]

Not being murdered would be rather a prominent priority should I ever willingly step foot into a dump like London.

Standard issue mental health trope aside, the terrorist sensationalism immediately put forward by the media without any understanding of the motive is rather embarrassing. Not that European terrorism is worth reporting on nowadays with the future we've selected for ourselves.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Standard issue mental health trope aside, the terrorist sensationalism immediately put forward by the media without any understanding of the motive is rather embarrassing.

It does rather make me wonder why this thread even exists. Of the two stabbings in London last night this one gets a thread?

 

[Liquid]

Standard issue mental health trope aside, the terrorist sensationalism immediately put forward by the media without any understanding of the motive is rather embarrassing. Not that European terrorism is worth reporting on nowadays with the future we've selected for ourselves.

Which is interesting because, according to the Global Terrorism Database via the Grauniad (scroll down to the yellow bar chart), deaths from terrorism in western Europe are generally at an all time low this decade aside from spikes in 2011 from the Breivik attacks and 2015 with the Paris attacks. At any rate, the average yearly death toll is at a much, much lower rate than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. I dread to think how today's media culture and microsecond news reporting would have reacted to the seemingly constant attacks by the Rote Armee Fraktion, Irish Republican Army, Italian extremist groups et al.

The article does freely admit that the definition of 'terrorism' is not wholly defined and acts of alleged "state terrorism", such as British Army attacks in Northern Ireland, are not included but it's still an interesting read nonetheless.

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On Topic: Yes, unfortunately knife crime is a big problem in many parts of the UK, including London. It would be interesting to know how many other knife deaths there have been recently for the sake of notability or notoriety.

 

[MatskiMonk]

"But let's remember, you're much more likely to likely to die or be badly injured in your home, than you will either by a mentally disordered person, or indeed a terrorist."

Calming words there from former head counter-terrorism policeman.

 

[Robin]

Just yesterday the met Police were showing off their fancy counter terrorism units to prove they are prepared for these attacks...

 

[TenEightyOne]

"But let's remember, you're much more likely to likely to die or be badly injured in your home, than you will either by a mentally disordered person, or indeed a terrorist."

Calming words there from former head counter-terrorism policeman.

But it's true, terrorism is perceived as a far greater danger than it really represents.

 

[Danoff]

But it's true, terrorism is perceived as a far greater danger than it really represents.

...which is kinda the point of terrorism.

 

[Samus]

Just yesterday the met Police were showing off their fancy counter terrorism units to prove they are prepared for these attacks...

Not really sure what they're supposed to do about one person with a knife. It's over in seconds.

 

[A2K78]

Here's a question, but will people like Matt Damon or George Cloney call for the restriction of knives in the current wave of knife-related attacks?

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

With the rarity of guns in the UK, knife crime is the next most available alternative.

If you can't procure a large transit vehicle.

 

[TenEightyOne]

If you can't procure a large transit vehicle.

There are normally more vehicle homicides per year (c500) than knife murders (c250). I'd guess that "large transit vehicles" form about half of those vehicle homicides.

I'm still not sure why this stabbing gets a thread and last night's other stabbing doesn't.

 

[DQuaN]

Not being murdered would be rather a prominent priority should I ever willingly step foot into a dump like London.

Here's a question, but will people like Matt Damon or George Cloney call for the restriction of knives in the current wave of knife-related attacks?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Here's a question, but will people like Matt Damon or George Cloney call for the restriction of knives in the current wave of knife-related attacks?

That would be pretty silly given that pretty much every man, woman and child between the age of about 3 and,.. errr.. dead, uses knives multiple times per day for their intended purpose, and pretty much every household has a drawer containing many knives. Hell, they're even used in thousands upon thousands of public places every single day by people with no specific training, and you don't even have to own, be licensed for, sign for, or have even used one before. I've lost count of the number of times I've accidentally used a knife and no real harm has been done.

I mean, I can't even think of anything analogous to this... except for maybe.. umm.... forks? I mean, if they really wanted to cut down on stabbings, banning knives wouldn't really 'cut' it, given that stabbing tools don't really require any skills whatsoever to make or replicate and many of them wouldn't even be classified as knives... wood chisels for instance, I mean, it's not like there's anything handy like moving parts or chemical reactions to consider.

Nope... can't think why Damon or Clooney would have an issue with it, I mean, do they glamourise and desensitize knife use in their movies more than anything else.. like.. hmmm.. dangerous driving?

 

[mustafur]

There are normally more vehicle homicides per year (c500) than knife murders (c250). I'd guess that "large transit vehicles" form about half of those vehicle homicides.

I'm still not sure why this stabbing gets a thread and last night's other stabbing doesn't.

If it's terrorism then I can see why, because it can be linked to the multiple other deaths in recent times that far outweigh ''last night's stabbing".

 

[Robin]

Not really sure what they're supposed to do about one person with a knife. It's over in seconds.

The whole point of the met display was to alleviate the public's fear of lone wolf attacks after Niece and that French church incident but practice little can be done and I was highlighting how foolish it makes yesterdays PR stunt look. Even if you send a SWAT team down the Thames in a speedboat they are going to be too late.

 

[TenEightyOne]

If it's terrorism then I can see why, because it can be linked to the multiple other deaths in recent times that far outweigh ''last night's stabbing".

But it wasn't terrorism - that was only over an open-minded possibility at most.

 

[dxm8975]

Just seeing in terms of numbers of casualties it's far less extensive than what happened in Japan about a week ago, but still terrifying news to hear about.

 

[Imari]

 

[UKMikey]

That poster seems to be obsessed with this point which he tries to shoehorn into every thread.