The truth about knife crime and the youth of today

It’s a Friday night. It’s 7 pm and I’ve only been up for three hours after last nights ‘interesting’ party. Its time to get ready for yet another night on the streets, I go to grab a shirt but I trip over that bottle of cheap vodka from last week and it spills all over that girl’s jacket she left here. I put on my gang colours, flip my hood over my head and slip my knife into my back pocket. Just another average night for the youth of today. Is this your typical night out?

I am an average 16 year old, I go to college, I have a part-time job and yes, I own a hoody, but never before have I been tempted to take a knife out with me and butcher any elderly person that passes by. However, if you believe what you read and hear in the media, then everything I just told you is a huge lie. We, apparently, carry a knife in every pocket, have Cider running through our veins 24/7 and we all belong to the Bloods or Latin Kings or what ever gang the tabloids can think of. We are the cause for the lack of culture within Great Britain, the high crime rate and I’m pretty sure that it won’t be long until we get the blame for the credit crunch as well.

I am not saying that the media are making all of this up just so the country can have a target to pin all there problems to. I wouldn’t dare say that. As we all know that there is no smoke without fire and a small percentage of today’s teenagers do carry knives and some do binge drink. There are teenagers out there who might be apart of some pathetic gang within the ghetto’s of Whitchurch but a majority of the youth today are embarrassed to be grouped with these ‘yobs’.

As a teenager in the midst of this media conspiracy against the youth of today, I feel that the stereotype placed upon young people is unjust and false. We are not how the media portray us. We are not destroying our society. We are not the enemy.