Elba calls for urgent ban on zombie blades to curb youth knife violence
The Guardian|January 09, 2024
Idris Elba has called for more urgent action on youth knife violence including the immediate banning of machetes and "zombie" knives, and more funding for youth services - saying the time for excuses and delays is over.
Kevin Rawlinson
Elba calls for urgent ban on zombie blades to curb youth knife violence

Speaking to the Guardian yesterday, the star of Luther and The Wire said society was capable of coming together to solve the problem, adding that experts in youth services and bereaved families needed to be able to sit in the same room as politicians and the police, among others, to achieve that.

"When the world is looking in on us, they're thinking: '[England] must have a tolerance for knife crime? And we don't, we shouldn't," Elba said.

He added that he wanted to set up an advisory group comprised of bereaved relatives, youth workers and community leaders, as well as "aspirational" young thinkers he said could give an idea of how their contemporaries were thinking. He said he would also invite the police to think about their interactions with different communities to sit in No 10 and discuss the issue with lawmakers.

"It's not going to happen overnight. But there is a 10-year-old that we can intervene in their life between now and 17, 18, 19 with what we think about today. There is that person and we should go for it. 

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