Control sale of pocket knives

THE rise in petty crimes in Port Moresby has now put public safety at risk with people always looking over their shoulders whenever they go out.
Stealing has become prevalent in Port Moresby where it seems only the fittest will survive.
This were the remarks of a magistrate at the Boroko District Court while presiding over a case where a man was captured after he and the company of other men broke into a vehicle, stealing K2,000 worth of cigarettes while the complainant and his family went shopping.
He said only lazy people living in the city resort to such mobster type attacks to sustain themselves creating fear among ordinary citizens when out in public.
He described this act as comparable to ‘gangsters’ or ‘mobsters’ who go around terrorising people with their mafia type approach.
A police prosecutor while making a submission in the Boroko District Court in the sentencing of a man from Eastern Highlands charged with stealing said lazy people survived off people’s hard work by stealing from them.
The court was told that the man was unemployed with two children who he had been supporting by stealing from others.
It is no secret that only people with money could survive in the city.
There were other means of survival such as working as a security guard and as the police prosecutor suggested, those who cannot find a job or do something decent for a living in the city, should go back to the village.
It is becoming too common at the police stations and court rooms to hear that the number of offenders charged with wounding, grievous bodily harm and murder using pocket knives.
Hence, we make the call for the sale of pocket knives in public markets and on the street to be stopped as they were being used as weapons to crimes of wounding, hold-ups and murder.
The law should say carrying a knife in public without good reason is illegal.
Offenders use the pocket knives which are usually concealed to hold someone up, and if they refuse to cooperate, the victim is stabbed and at times murdered using the knives.
One will find that a random police search on an unsuspecting group in a busy place will find some sort of offensive weapon, and most times it will be a kind of knife.
Police prosecutors over time have told the courts that the use of pocket knives in committing a crime is a growing issue and has to be looked into. While we call for the sale of pocket knives to be controlled with strict laws implemented by the Government, this should also extend to other forms of knives also.
The Government should also implement laws that would ban individuals to carry any form knives on the streets.
It is also creepy not knowing who in the crowd has a pocket knife in their possession with the wrong intention on its usage.
No one wants a pocket knife held against them for the theft of their personnel belongings be it a bag, a mobile phone, keys or even vehicles.
Unless, the law prohibiting carrying of such weapons in public is enforced, petty crime will continue to rise.