And Nor Should They...

The latest moral panic:

Some machetes and other knives can have 'legitimate uses', such as those used for gardening, agriculture or culinary purposes.

This complicates legislation around knives, as it means certain blades can be kept at home and remain unseized by the police.

Currently, this means that even if police find a machete or other legal blade inside someone's residence and they believe the items could be used for violent or criminal activity, they have no lawful right to seize a blade.

Why, exactly, should we be tightening legislation because the police have trouble understanding it? We did that with the Dangerous Dogs Act, and yet the lazy bastards still refuse to act if they think they can get away with it. 

And since when did police 'suspicion' that you might do something illegal with a legal possession count for anything? 

Zombie knives are already included in the list of banned knives, meaning it is illegal to possess them, bring them into the UK, sell or hire them out or lend them to someone. But this only applies to the weapons which meet the three criteria: cutting edge, serrated edge and words or images that imply they are to be used for violence.

You have to have some criteria. What's wrong with these? It's not like my kitchen doesn't contain several knives just as capable of killing someone even without the words 'zombie annihilator' written on the hilt... 

Current Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: 'The thugs wielding these deadly knives aim to terrorise their victims and the public, and too often even carry out horrific or fatal attacks.

'They are emboldened by the cowardly idea that carrying these blades inflates their own status and respect.'

And Home Secretaries seem to be emboldened by pressure groups and newspaper headlines into knee jerk reactions that do little to resolve the real problem, Suella. 

How Witchhunts Can Start...

A horrified mother was left shaken after a man...

Ooh, flashed her? 

..."took pictures" of her and her children while they waited at the bus stop.

Wait, what? 

The 27-year-old had been warned by a fellow passenger that she had seen footage of the family on the man's phone, which he had just taken.

Both disgusted and frightened, the mother-of-four quickly hopped on the bus and took her children home before calling the police.

So...she didn't actually see this man take pictures of her, she was told this by another complete stranger? And this generated such a panic she fled? 

She explained: "The whole thing has completely shaken me up, to the point I don't really feel to safe (sic) to be out on my own with my kids.

"I was waiting for the bus with my kids in a push chair, the other two were at school, when a woman behind the guy involved started walking towards me.

"The woman stopped me and asked if I knew the man that was standing a bit further up the street, to which I said no.

"As she walked past, she'd seen him taking pictures/videos of me and the kids on his phone.

"I was so shocked, but I knew I couldn't confront him. I didn't know how he'd react and it could've put me and the kids in more danger. "

Note that phrasing: 'more danger'. As if she was in any to start with, unless she's from one of those tribes that believes he was stealing her soul... 

All that was going through my head was I've got to get them on the bus and get them home."

Someone you don't know tells you something you didn't see that in no way harms you and you have to run home?   

Determined to warn other families, the mother is now urging anyone with any information to contact the police.

Oh, FFS!  

"All I know is he had a bit of paper in his hand and a phone, it looked like he was looking at the paper and doing something on his phone.

But I wasn't paying too much attention to what he was doing where I was just making sure we got on the bus safely."

You know, I've often stood in the street taking video of a particular spot that would probably have contained images of people. What am I doing, trawling for victims? No. Scanning a Pokestop. 

Maybe that's what this man was doing. Maybe he was thinking of moving and taking images of the street to show his housebound partner. We don't know and we won't know. 

But now anyone doing any of those things - all quite legal - run the risk of being regarded as a potential criminal. 

All because of two women. And even before this witchhunt has got off the blocks, the next one has started its run, baton in hand, cheered on by the media.