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In U.K. Chicken Boxes, Drumsticks, Thighs and Tough Talk on Knife Crime

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
In U.K. Chicken Boxes, Drumsticks, Thighs and Tough Talk on Knife Crime

LONDON — Fried chicken, a mainstay of takeout food in Britain, normally comes in colorful paper boxes with a company logo or a joking reference to the succulent contents inside.

But this week, customers at chicken shops across the country will instead encounter boxes with a government message about knife crime, which has been rising in Britain in the past four years and has become a political issue.

The boxes are all black with the hashtag “#knifefree” printed on the lid, a reference to a government campaign against knife crime. Inside are firsthand accounts from reformed knife offenders. The government hopes the messages will help reduce the numbers of young people carrying knives.

Critics blamed cuts in the police force, while the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to build up the size of the police force.

Politicians and commentators have blamed years of austerity and cuts to the police force, leading to demands that the government invest more in the fight against violent crime.

Boris Johnson, who became prime minister last month, took office with a promise to crack down on violent crime. “I want the criminals to be afraid — not the public,” Mr. Johnson wrote in an article in The Mail on Sunday, announcing the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers.

He's also planning to implement a program of stop and search:

He promised to back the police in deploying random stop and search powers where they deem necessary across England and Wales. “I know stop and search is controversial. I know that left-wing criminologists will object,” Mr. Johnson wrote in The Mail on Sunday. “But I also know that the people who back this intervention most fervently are often the parents of the kids who are so tragically foolish as to go out on the streets equipped with a knife, endangering not only the lives of others but their own.”

The chicken box campaign and the crackdown has been getting strong criticism, especially since it appears that black people will be stopped and searched more often than white people:

“Boris Johnson has effectively admitted that increased random stop and search will be discriminatory, but does not seem to care that it is black people who are more likely to be targeted,” Diane Abbott, a Labour member of Parliament who speaks for the party on home affairs, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This is a reckless disregard for civil rights, good community relations and the evidence on stop and search.”

Liberty, a human rights organization, said black people were 12 times more likely to be stopped than white people in London, and 26 times more likely in the rest of the country.

The chicken box campaign was also considered racially crude.

David Lammy, another Labour member of Parliament, said the campaign was either “explicitly racist or, at best, unfathomably stupid.”

“The Home Office is using taxpayers’ money to sponsor an age-old trope,” Mr. Lammy told The Guardian. He said that Boris Johnson’s government was “pushing the stereotype that black people love fried chicken.”
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
In U.K. Chicken Boxes, Drumsticks, Thighs and Tough Talk on Knife Crime



Critics blamed cuts in the police force, while the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to build up the size of the police force.



He's also planning to implement a program of stop and search:



The chicken box campaign and the crackdown has been getting strong criticism, especially since it appears that black people will be stopped and searched more often than white people:



The chicken box campaign was also considered racially crude.

The UK needs stricter knife control laws...
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
In U.K. Chicken Boxes, Drumsticks, Thighs and Tough Talk on Knife Crime



Critics blamed cuts in the police force, while the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to build up the size of the police force.



He's also planning to implement a program of stop and search:



The chicken box campaign and the crackdown has been getting strong criticism, especially since it appears that black people will be stopped and searched more often than white people:



The chicken box campaign was also considered racially crude.
To be fair, government first considered spreading the message
on Purdey shotgun ( $20,000 or so each) boxes, but they decided
that guns & knives were the wrong combination.
 
David Lammy, another Labour member of Parliament, said the campaign was either “explicitly racist or, at best, unfathomably stupid.”

“The Home Office is using taxpayers’ money to sponsor an age-old trope,” Mr. Lammy told The Guardian. He said that Boris Johnson’s government was “pushing the stereotype that black people love fried chicken.”


Odd comment. That's a specifically African-American stereotype, not a generic "black people everywhere" stereotype.
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
The UK needs stricter knife control laws...

It might be rather difficult to implement, given that most of us have more than enough knives to kill someone in our houses, and have usually bought them at some local store. Our laws, which seemingly restrict us to having a knife with a blade length below three inches (or the metric equivalent), and also not locking if it is a folding knife, makes it rather difficult to carry any utility knife when doing some outdoor activity. In fact I believe it is illegal to carry any locking folding knife, including the 30mm length blades I once bought inadvertently hoping to put one on a keyring - now only kept at home. A Swiss knife is about all I am legally allowed to carry since most of these don't have locking blades.

Anyway, some people will carry razor blades or similar. I once got involved in a fight after a night at a pub - not initiated by myself or any of my friends. The chappie I tussled with apparently used a razor to cut my clothes - only finding this out later - and if I had known this at the time I might have been less forgiving. I did get the better of him anyway by pushing him backwards into a hedge.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
It might be rather difficult to implement, given that most of us have more than enough knives to kill someone in our houses, and have usually bought them at some local store. Our laws, which seemingly restrict us to having a knife with a blade length below three inches (or the metric equivalent), and also not locking if it is a folding knife, makes it rather difficult to carry any utility knife when doing some outdoor activity. In fact I believe it is illegal to carry any locking folding knife, including the 30mm length blades I once bought inadvertently hoping to put one on a keyring - now only kept at home. A Swiss knife is about all I am legally allowed to carry since most of these don't have locking blades.

Anyway, some people will carry razor blades or similar. I once got involved in a fight after a night at a pub - not initiated by myself or any of my friends. The chappie I tussled with apparently used a razor to cut my clothes - only finding this out later - and if I had known this at the time I might have been less forgiving. I did get the better of him anyway by pushing him backwards into a hedge.

How would you feel about being randomly frisked on the streets?

I don't think I'd like it, but maybe willing to put up with it for safety.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
David Lammy, another Labour member of Parliament, said the campaign was either “explicitly racist or, at best, unfathomably stupid.”

“The Home Office is using taxpayers’ money to sponsor an age-old trope,” Mr. Lammy told The Guardian. He said that Boris Johnson’s government was “pushing the stereotype that black people love fried chicken.”


Odd comment. That's a specifically African-American stereotype, not a generic "black people everywhere" stereotype.
Stereotypes travel, you know.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
In U.K. Chicken Boxes, Drumsticks, Thighs and Tough Talk on Knife Crime



Critics blamed cuts in the police force, while the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to build up the size of the police force.



He's also planning to implement a program of stop and search:



The chicken box campaign and the crackdown has been getting strong criticism, especially since it appears that black people will be stopped and searched more often than white people:



The chicken box campaign was also considered racially crude.

Shouldda put it on the watermelons
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
Chicken is NOT the mainstay take away food in the UK
It is at best third behind Fish & Chips and Curry - so rest of the article is already in doubt.

Knife crime is a problem in the UK; the US answer would be to arm everyone with arms or blame it on video games or homosexuality.
It is more to do with lack of youth clubs and the like,
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
I can see it now: The only thing that can stop a bad bloke with a knife is a good bloke with a knife. When knives are outlawed only outlaws will have knives.

I suppose it'd put folks on equal footing since handguns are pretty much banned in the UK.

Maybe they should start printing self-defense against knife techniques on the chicken boxes.

Knife Attacks...
  1. you will be taken by surprise and you will be overwhelmed by fear and aggression
  2. you won't see the blade before the attack is launched
  3. you very likely won't be able to run away and avoid the attack
  4. you will have very little time and space to react and deploy a counter-attack
  5. you probably won't be able to stop the first stab(s) so, yes, you will be you will be cut and stabbed a number of times but you might not even realise you've been stabbed (which is why you should always check yourself for wounds after a physical confrontation)
  6. you probably won't have time to draw your own weapon (gun, knife, kubotan keychain, pepper spray, etc); at least not before being stabbed a couple of times
  7. you will be likely moving backwards, your balance will be compromised, and you'll probably fall to the ground
  8. your movements will be restricted, your fine motor skills will be gone, you won't able to access the knife bearing arm easily
  9. any technique that is based on smooth arm deflection and manipulation has very little chance to work
  10. any technique that rests on the assumption of a single straight thrust ('full-stop one-step zombie attack') or a wide sweeping slash has very little chance to work
Self-defence against knife attacks: evidence-based approach | Self Defence - Krav Maga | London | Urban Fit & Fearless
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Seeing this thread, I had BBQ chicken today.
Now all I need is watermelon.
But lacking that, I settled for a plum.
 

Enoch07

It's all a sick freaking joke.
Premium Member
The UK needs stricter knife control laws...

Then rock crimes will climb.....ban the rocks!! Then scissor crime will be on the rise! Ban the scissors! Then everyone will have terrible hair, and the world won't be worth living in!
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I thought maybe the idea was to frisk only those folks carrying chicken boxes.

Or maybe it's so they come up with a variation on the age old joke.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: Because the person carrying it in a box wanted to avoid getting stopped and frisked.

On a side note, they could be looking for those plastic utensils that they have at fast-food places. Those plastic knives could be pretty dangerous in the wrong hands.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Can't help thinking this is a sinister plot by KFC to help them get rid of their backlog of sporks.
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
How would you feel about being randomly frisked on the streets?

I don't think I'd like it, but maybe willing to put up with it for safety.

Wouldn't bother me to be frisked but of course I am not of the age group most likely to be carrying any weapon. Latest news is that (and common too) of a teenager, one of a group, using a screwdriver to injure someone. Where there is the will .. etc.
 
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