With the final election simply at some point away, the founding father of Avenue Pastors is pleading with the subsequent nationwide leaders to sort out knife crime.
The Rev Les Isaac mentioned political events should preserve efforts to scale back knife crime on the nationwide agenda after the most recent authorities figures launched in January revealed a 5% rise in crimes (46,367) on the earlier yr.
He mentioned the numbers had been “stunning”.
“These should not nameless statistics. They symbolize younger males and a few girls in addition to adults who’ve been injured or fatally injured in a knife assault,” Isaac mentioned.
“Knife crime has left our younger individuals strolling the streets in concern. Many are additionally traumatized. Whichever occasion wins this election, the youth of this nation anticipate the subsequent authorities to handle this challenge with the urgency it deserves.”
He welcomed current efforts to sort out knife crime, together with harder laws on the sale and possession of knives and extra police funding for focused interventions, however mentioned extra wanted to be achieved to sort out root causes corresponding to poverty and an absence of psychological well being help. .
“The truth that laws, elevated policing and the implementation of neighborhood packages haven’t stopped the rise in knife crime signifies that a multi-pronged method is getting used to sort out this drawback,” he added.
