UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday gave her “full support” to police to ramp up the use of stop and search powers to crack down on knife crime and prevent attacks in the country. The intervention comes days after three separate incidents of knife attacks in England, which claimed the lives of three people of Indian heritage. A knife attack in north London ended in the fatal stabbing of 27-year-old student Tejaswini Kontham from Hyderabad last Tuesday, the same day as another fatal stabbing in Nottingham of British Indian teenager Grace O’Malley Kumar. On Friday, 38-year-old Aravind Sivakumar from Kerala was found stabbed to death outside an apartment in south London. Suspects in all three knife crime cases are currently in custody and charged with murder. “Carrying weapons is a scourge on our society. And anyone doing so is risking their own lives as well as the lives of those around them. This dangerous culture must be brought to a stop,” said Braverman in a statement.
“My first priority is to keep the public safe and people who insist on carrying a weapon must know that there will be consequences. The police have my full support to ramp up the use of stop and search, wherever necessary, to prevent violence and save more lives,” she said. The UK Home Office also released statistics that show that last year, 99 young people lost their lives to knife crime in England and Wales, and 31 of those victims were black. It said that black males are, therefore, disproportionately more likely to be killed by violence and knife crime. It said though the government recognises black males are more likely to be stopped and searched, the first priority must be on prevention and public safety.