Hats off to James Gore, the manager of Morrison’s in Rye Lane, Peckham, for having the brains and courage to remove knives from sale in his store.
Mr. Gore decided to remove the entire range of knives in a bid to stop teenagers from stealing them. Attempts to tag them, or to challenge kids over their ages weren’t successful, so he made the commonsense decision to remove the lot.
You can argue that such actions paint a worse picture of an area than is warranted, that it’s pandering to criminality, or that the teenagers stealing the knives will just go elsewhere.
Some years back, this paper, along with Southwark Council, campaigned to prevent the illegal sale of knives to young people, and for the closer monitoring of the sale of knives. Continued education of young people about the scourge of knife crime is also necessary.
But until or unless it’s illegal for bladed items to be sold in unlocked displays, what else can Mr. Gore, or any retailer do to prevent them being stolen, potentially with catastrophic results?