It really is beggars belief that these so called academics are take seriously (it’s not as if they get things consistently right is it?) that officers social media lost sums it up perfectly. That officer does the job and knows who predominantly are involved in knife crime, both victims and suspects. Nobody is saying stop and search is ‘the solution.’ And hopefully there will be a time when it can be reduced because of a drop in weapon and violent offences, but it obviously isn’t going to happen overnight. They can talk about investment in deprived communities which will hopefully make a tangible difference, but I’m sorry, you have to challenge the culture, it’s predominantly black men in London involved in knife crime, it’s not often Bangladeshi’s, Indians, Chinese youngsters, many of whom also live in deprived areas. On top of that Drill music (made by young black men) has been used as good evidence in court to help convict murderers, as lyrics specifically incited a particular person to be killed. That never gets mentioned by academics either. I also find it interesting that they still continue with the institutionalised racism angle despite the fact that the employers will bend over backwards to be diverse and it’s actually white working class boys who’ve been at the bottom of school performance for many years. Hence the Sewell report which the grievance industry hated, because it blew their moral panic out of the water.

Other than being incapable of looking through the stats, unless its through the prism of racial bias, what else do the researchers and academics bring to the table? Faff all. To suggest some vague solutions of sluicing large amounts of money through sections of society to tackle inequality is naive and simplistic. It does not take into account that there are thousands and thousands of kids out there who's families do not have a lot but still manage to live their everyday lives without carrying a knife or engage in crime or violent activity. The only agency out there 24/7 keeping a lid on the madness is the police,so the Runnymead trust and the Cambridge Journal of evidence based policing should peddle their hot air elsewhere.

The reason that young black males are more likely to be stopped and searched is the fact that they are the ones who are killing each other over "Gang Culture" madness. The wrong post code, the wrong support for a particular rapper etc. So what do these idiots from their ivory towers suggest is the answer. Bung millions into deprived areas to achieve what exactly. Better community centres etc. Targeting those who the police suspect are responsible. Ye Gods what do they think that operational officers are doing. They are not stop searching white grannies to balance up the figures. They have not got the time to waste. They know who the main culprits are and by targeting them they are stopping having to deliver the sudden death message to someone's mother. The message neds to go out that this is not a racist policy. It is a policy to save lives and mainly young black lives. That this will be attacked by the anti police crowd is a given. The likes of Diane Abbott have no answers. All they they can do is carry on shouting the same old slogans and can they then look into the eyes of the mothers whose children are dying in droves and say that they could save their children.

The usual piffle from the usual suspects who have no grasp on reality. The reality set out regularly on this site by the people who have had to deal with the tragic consequences of the real world, unlike the blinkered usual suspects in their ivory towers.