Slashdot Mirror
UK To Mull High Video Game Taxes — To Fight Knife Crime
chareverie writes "The Prime Minister of the UK is being urged to impose high taxes on violent video games in an effort to reduce the number of knife-related crime. The request comes from Richard Taylor, who argues that young people 'feel that the law has no control over them. They just feel that they can go on the streets and do whatever they like.' He doesn't have a definitive number on how much to tax on the offensive video games, but says that they should be 'very high.' Rap music is also voiced to be a concern due to the alleged negativity and language. Taylor's son, Damilola Taylor, was killed in November 2000 at the age of 10 by knife stabbing."
The British gov't has systematically distorted statistics and selectively presented data in order to advance its own agenda.
This latest ploy probably has little to do with crime, and more to do with bringing in more cash to fund the gov't's pet projects. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7780057.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7781030.stm
K
Unfortunately, most idiots who spout drivel like this don't even have a strong correlation in the first place. Sales of violent video games may be up, and knife crimes might be up, but is it even the kids playing the games committing the crimes?
It's worse than that. Knife crime is down. The number of people injured by knives and other sharp instruments is down (although not by as much as was previously reported). Incidence of violent crime in general is down.
This hysteria and panic is caused by, well, nothing. Except the fact that for some unknown reason over the last 5 years the media has become much more likely to report each and every incident of violence with a knife that they get to hear about.
So, if there is any correlation, it's a negative one: more video games, less knife crime.
Didn't you get the memo?
Enforcing the law in the UK is just sooooo last century.
We don't do that any more, it's just not cool. No, what we do instead is bring in hundreds of new laws outlawing things that were already illegal (terrorist activity), remove a few liberties whilst we're at it, direct the police towards legitimate protest and speech (they're all terrorists now!), bring in nebulous measures like ASBOs which allow anyone to enjoy the feeling of the courts coming down on them and imposing restrictions on their lives over any trivial matter that doesn't even have to be illegal... all whilst shouting about drugs and morality.
this is just one more reason I'm getting the hell out.
If you think punishment of any form is not a deterrent, then talk to the guy who wrote the proposed law since he's the one saying youths have no regard for the law and that is a problem (again, how it relates to his proposed solution is not clear but whatever).
Punishment is not a 100% deterrent, but that does not mean punishment is never a good answer to get some level of prevention.
In particular, note that negative consequences are even more powerful. Fear of capital punishment is remote in someone's mind, but fear a target may be armed is much closer to someone's mind as a criminal. That's why areas with fewer gun control laws have all sorts of better crime statistics in general, especially when you factor out criminal vs. criminal crime (like turf wars).
If you truly believe utter lack of punishment and personal responsibility makes for a great society, I encourage you to move to the UK in a small town with some of the "Youths" in question and see how you feel in two years.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Taylor's son, Damilola Taylor, was killed in November 2000 at the age of 10 by knife stabbing."
Actually, although it doesn't make it any less tragic, I'm pretty sure he was stabbed with a broken bottle...
Before you ask, in the UK bottles are only taxed heavily if they contain alcohol.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Oh, get lost. Most people in Britain don't want guns to be legal. There's not even any pro-gun lobby to speak of here. The government here does plenty of stupid things but in this case the government legislation is well-aligned with the will of the people.
I'm not saying that guns should be illegal in the US or anywhere else, it depends what the people of that country want. But here guns are illegal and almost everyone is happy with that.
In 2005, there was a major layoff of teachers from the public school system of Minneapolis. That same year, there was a dramatic surge in the number of hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast.
As such, either
1) Laying off teachers causes hurricanes
2) Hurricanes cause teachers to be laid off
3) Teacher get laid off in Minneapolis for the same reason hurricanes form, namely, warm water and air currents off the east coast of Africa moving toward the colder central Atlantic ocean
Correlation implies absolutely nothing without substantially stronger evidence to tie the threads together, and no, anecdotal evidence doesn't count.
Firearms have no particular cultural or constitutional significance in Great Britain. US law may be based on English common law, but the reverse isn't true. The right to bear arms in English Law has always been restricted to those weapons that were suitable for the purpose of self-defence. In a society where the probability of encountering a gun-wielding assailant is very small there are few individuals for whom a handgun is a suitable defensive weapon. Gun ownership has never been widespread in Britain and most people would prefer to keep it that way, regardless of constitutional controversies in foreign lands.