This Is A Knife: Tabloids Showcase Knife Crime

HOW to illustrate knife crime is the tabloids’ big debate.

Mostly, the tabs deal with the issue by publishing portrait shots of victims, their grief torn relatives and mughsots of the knifers looking smug or smirky.

But with no crime to report, the tabs need to keep the story alive. And they do so by showing readers what a knife looks like.

The Star show a small knife, of the type you may use to peel the skin off an apple or use to stab holes in a readymeal’s skin. Readers should not confuse it with a Stanley knife or a gun (both shown alongside the fruit knife).

The Mirror has two knifes flanking what Star readers know to be a gun, all of which are brandished by feral yoofs. The gun is the one in the middle. If you are wounded by it, you are the victim of gun crime and not knife crime.

But the Daily Sport tops the lot, showing its readers a new kind of knife capable of “blowing up” its victims.

This knife injects a frozen ball of compressed gas into the victim, killing instantly. Know that it is designed to kill sharks and bears.

The Sport says the knife that goes “bang!” could be on its way to the UK, where thanks to some prudent reporting it will not be mistaken for a gun…

Picture: Poldraw

Anorak

Posted: 17th, July 2008 | In: Police Log, Tabloids Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink