Oh, Wow! This'll Help Immensely!

Teenage girls, who were friends of a 17-year-old boy stabbed to death in Brockley, are taking a stand against knife crime on the streets of London.

Excellent news! How are you going to achieve this lofty ambition?

Are you going to inform on those members of your 'community' who prey on others?

Are you perhaps going to reject the 'bad boys' and start having more self-respect?

Two hundred candles were lit - to represent each child or teenager killed as a result of knife crime or gang-related violence during the last 15 years in London - at a vigil outside City Hall on Friday night (November 27) organised by three Lewisham teenage girls.

Hmmm, I wonder if they know where to point the finger?

Zara Hakala, 30, of Ringstead Road, Catford, has been supporting and mentoring the girls with friend 26-year-old Kads Nedham.

Ms Hakala has an eight-year-old son, whose father Nathan Williams died in a shooting in Ludwick Mews, New Cross in July 2009.

She said: “It’s about status. They [the young people] want to protect their egos so much that it isn’t a fist fight anymore. They think, ‘I have got to make sure I have a knife to protect me.’”

The mum-of-one believes youths need more support, opportunities and things to keep them occupied within their communities.

She added: “They need something to do with themselves instead of sitting around on the streets or in fast food restaurants.

“These young men and women are smart. They have potential but community centres are cut and anything that they do have is being taken away.

“The more you show love and kindness, the stronger the community is.”

Yes. It's all society's fault. We won't ask why other 'communities' don't have anything like the same problem.