With just at some point to go until the final election, the founding father of Street Pastors is pleading with the nation’s next leaders to tackle knife crime.
Rev Les Isaac said that political parties must keep efforts to scale back knife crime on the national agenda after latest government figures released in January revealed a 5% increase in offences (46,367) on the previous yr.
He said that the numbers were “shocking”.Â
“These should not faceless statistics. They represent young men and a few women, and in addition adults who’ve been injured or fatally wounded from being attacked with a knife,” said Isaac.Â
“Knife crime has caused our young people to walk the streets in fear. Many are also traumatised. Whatever party wins this election, the youth of this nation need to the subsequent government to treat this issue with the urgency it deserves.”
He welcomed recent efforts to tackle knife crime, including the introduction of tougher laws on knife sales and possession, and more police funding for targeted interventions, but said that more needed to be done to deal with the foundation causes, like poverty and inadequate mental health support.Â
“The incontrovertible fact that laws, increased policing and implementing of community programmes haven’t stemmed the rise in knife crime signifies that a multi-faceted approach to coping with this issue,” he added.
