Idris Elba has been actively involved in tackling knife violence in the United Kingdom. In his latest BBC documentary, Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis, the Luther star delves into the knife crime epidemic in the UK and speaks with families, youth workers, and police to determine how to mitigate the violence.
Elba, 52, also spoke with BBC Radio 4 about the crisis, saying that though the ban on the sale and possession of zombie knives and machetes was “a massive step in the right direction”, schools also need to put in extra effort to help curb knife crimes in the UK.
The British actor additionally called on authorities to ban ninja swords and suggested that the points on some kitchen knives should be altered to help reduce stabbing crimes.
“Not all kitchen knives need to have a point on them, that sounds like a crazy thing to say,” Elba said. “But you can still cut your food without the point on your knife, which is an innovative way to look at it.”
Per the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), 507 children in England sustained knife injuries between April 2023 and April 2024 and had to receive medical care in hospitals. “I’ve got three kids,” Elba said. “As a parent, that’s always going through your mind.”
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Elsewhere in the BBC Radio 4 interview, Elba also touched on the need for pre and early-teen children to be keenly observed, suggesting that disciplinary measures including school exclusions could be used as moments of intervention for juveniles.
“When a young child is excluded, they’re more likely to go towards a dark place,” he stated, before adding: “There are indicators of hope. There are intervention schemes that are really working and that no-one really knows about.”
Elba in the documentary also stressed the need for accountability from big tech and social media over such crimes. “When it comes to big tech, there needs to be accountability within their own policies, and their policies need to be educated and driven by what society deems is right or wrong,” the Beasts of no Nation star said, per the Independent.
“It’s great that you’re a big company, you make a lot of money, got lots of social media followers, that’s fantastic. But by the way, we don’t like knives, we’re not going to tolerate you advertising knives to young people, please.”
He added: “We don’t like porn, we don’t like this, we don’t like bully dogs, it can be done in a society, and in my opinion, where democracy leads, it takes a village.”
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