Public urged to take stand on crime

8:34am Saturday 19th July 2008

Members of the public should be ready to intervene if they see a crime being committed, claims Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

While insisting she was not urging passers-by to "wade into a fight", Ms Smith said she hoped Britain was a land where people were "willing to stand up for others".

Her comments come shortly after Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson advised teenagers in the capital to "walk away" from trouble rather than risk harm to themselves by trying to help.

Despite a spate of fatal stabbings, the Home Secretary said: "I would never say 'Don't get involved'.

"I hope that we don't live in a country where people aren't willing to stand up for others."

Earlier this week, the British Crime Survey showed that there were nearly 130,000 knife crimes in England and Wales last year.

On Thursday, 18-year-old Frederick Moody became the 21st teenager to be stabbed to death in London this year. His death came on the eve of the funeral of Ben Kinsella, 16, who died after being stabbed when he intervened in a row outside a bar in the capital.

Ms Smith said she shared public anxiety about the deaths: "I'm the mum of a teenage son. There is not a parent of a teenager who wouldn't worry about any kid, whatever colour or background, being stabbed."

Speaking earlier this month in the wake of Ben Kinsella's death, Mr Johnson said he would advise his own children not to intervene in a fight.

He told London's teenagers: "Whatever you do, if you see a fight in the street, don't risk it because someone could have a knife. I'm saying to kids: don't get involved, move away."

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