According to a recent announcement, the Royal Navy’s efforts to combat knife crime and gang culture on Merseyside have been praised by local civic leaders.
The initiative, part of the Royal Navy Combat Sports Initiative, has been providing martial arts training and fitness sessions to young people in areas affected by these issues.
The latest session took place at the Two Brothers Gym in Birkenhead, where Royal Marines and Royal Navy personnel offered their expertise to help redirect the energy and aggression of local youths into more constructive outlets.
Over the past year, volunteers from the Navy and the Royal Marines have been running similar sessions across northern and northeastern England. These sessions, say the Royal Navy, aim to offer young people alternatives to street violence while promoting values such as self-discipline and respect for others.
They add that the initiative is driven by personnel who, after returning from deployments, found their communities struggling with a growing gang culture and decided to take action.
Liverpudlian and Royal Navy Physical Training Instructor Dan Shannon, who led the recent session in Birkenhead, highlighted the importance of these efforts when quoted here. “Sessions like these, supporting local crime-fighting authorities, offering mentoring and fitness, encourage some of our strong values such as self-discipline and respect for others,” he said.
Chris Nisbet, director of the Weapons Down/Gloves Up programme, which collaborates with the initiative, echoed Shannon’s sentiments. “We are trying to get kids away from gun and knife crime and gang culture and hopefully give kids alternatives,” Nisbet said. He added that the Armed Forces offer young people a chance to gain loyalty, structure, and discipline—qualities that can be a positive alternative to gang involvement.
The Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Cherry Povall, who attended the session, also expressed her support for the initiative. “If this steers just one person away from anti-social behaviour then we’ve succeeded,” she remarked. “I think the partnership with the Royal Marines and Royal Navy is fantastic – it’s good for Wirral and for Wirral’s young people.”
The Combat Sports Initiative, led by a small team of volunteers, is looking to expand its reach and grow its core team. Warrant Officer 2 Dennis Harrison, who leads the initiative, encourages those interested in getting involved to reach out.
Any Facts and figures about who these Knife Crime people actually are ?
Mohamed Starmer Will Put to you in prison if you don,t write political correct comments
I was just asking who these disgustingly deranged people are ?
Surely we should be allowed to see who they are ?
Largely drug gangs.
Ironic that everybody else who find a knife a useful utility tool & use them all our lives without ever threatening or using them in violence are sanctioned. We don’t ban all martial arts/boxing etc because people attack other unarmed, nor do we ban all motor vehicles because they kill far more people every year.
I think the main causes are a lack of police resources to effectively deter & apprehend violent crime in our society & the general feeling of danger & insecurity resulting from this that lead many to “arm” themselves. Plus a failure to educate our youngsters to value & respect others.
they should be carrying a wooden 🥄 . as a prison officer at Stafford, I was threatened by a Scouser with a razor blade m elted on the 5 end of a toothbrush 🪥 handle I got my baton out and smacked him between the eyes with it and then HE made a allegation that I HAD used excessive force, because I hadn’t asked for it from him!
One guy once threatened me with a pair of my own surgical scissors the cheeky bastard…I disarmed him and sat on him till the police arrived….they helpfully gave him a head injury as the threw him in the back of their van…
then flog them in the street outside number ten.
the labour will say that they are the party ofaw and order.
All sorts mate all sorts..it’s surprising who will drive a knife into someone else…generally it’s young people…but even old people do it….I’ve treated a young lad who was stabbed through the back by a granny…another guy who was stabbed through the chest by his loving wife ( it turned out she hated cheese) another guy got his throat cut by a middle aged bloke over a parking space, and young lads stabbing each other on a Saturday night was a weekly thing ( and I did emergency care in a well off southern city full of white British).
Which city?
Anywhere near DM, if you know where he is?
Brighton…the city of stag and hen parties…
Respect to you Jonathan 🏅
Good on you Jonathan, it must have been a horrible job. I’ve sadly known a few people who’s lives have been completely changed/ruined by Knife crime, It’s so sad seeing the latest bunch of victims that appear to be the result of gang warfare in our cities though.
Indeed, although to be honest I’m not sure its even as structured as gang warfare…it’s my understanding a lot of the more systemic issues are related to drug trafficking…and it’s always been a huge problem…
knife crime in the UK has been a huge problem in some parts of the UK for a generation…20 years ago..it was just less reported and there were less arrests..I also think there has been slightly more deaths now as larger knives have become more common ( of all the many patients suffering knife attacks I looked after almost all had been stabbed or slashed by relatively small blades ( four inches or less) and only one with a large combat type knife…that child died everyone else did not…so anecdotally from my single experience deaths may be related to size of knives ( as these people who use knives don’t know anatomy, bigger is more lethal)
actually the stabby bit of knife crime has been going down to be honest…
So if you look at the actual stabby end of knife crime ( as apposed to carrying) between 2019 and 2024 hospital admission rates for stabbings have dropped 25%.. also as I said although there are a lot of young people stabbed it’s actually spreed across the whole population..so in 2023/24 3888 in England and wales were admitted to hospital for stabbings..but only 1439 of those were people under 25…2450 were in older adults over 25….
our murder rate peaked in and around 2000 and has been steadily dropping off since then it was around 1.5-1.8 between 1992 and 2004 and since then has steadily dropped down to generally less than 1.
All in all I think it’s worth remembering as a nation our murder rate is an about 20 times less per 100,000 people than the US….
In reality what has gone up more than anything is
1) the level of Media reporting..stoking the fear of knife crime..( what can be a self fulfilling prophecy…look at the US..they all Carry guns for fear of gun crime).
2) the number of young people being arrested for carrying knives…but on that one I would say is that because more young people carry knives or we are simply finding and arresting more….( for full disclosure as a child of the 1970s I owned and often carried around a knife when I was a child).
Interesting insights Jonathan. From your experience, it sounds you were in front line triage? Either way, it sounds extremely stressful, so thank you for your service.
I did front line ED and running an ED team for a long time..before moving to health systems risk management, safety and civil contingencies…Like anything else it’s a job you do because in reality you enjoy making a difference and you get paid reasonably well for something rewarding.( the only grating bits were the physical and verbal attacks and threats as well as the risk of litigation and being struck off if you got overworked and made a mistake..and finally all the multitude of faces wear down your soul and you have to finish).
But Knife injuries could be some of the more stressful issues to deal with to be honest…one of my worst weeks in the job was a set of nights and each night I got a significant stabbing ( 7 nights eight stabs) with an added homicide by lorry to add to the two stabs for fun on New Year’s Eve …also ran out of trollies and had a 4 hour wait for cardiac chest pains ( any one of which could have dropped dead at any moment…looked down my department on new years eve night and listens to the screams of pain..thinking any number of people could just drop dead and I have no staff left… anyone dies and I’m toast…that week started on Christmas evening finished new years morning and that new year was the last year of my clinal career…as my news years resolution was get the hell out.
But with knife injuries you have two main types…the slashes ( very much the most common injury..as it takes a special kind of psychopath to actually drive a knife into a person..instead of slashing at then) tended to be easier if messy… you can see what you have and control the situation, asses the structures impacted , toilet and close yourself or pass to specialist surgeons ….The harder and more difficult were penetrating stab wounds to the body….alway more stressful as you don’t know what you have, have to assess and plan on limited information and if it’s nasty and impacted a major vessel there is very little time, margin of error and little you can do emergency medicine wise other than try and fluid stabilise, chest drain if needed and get them to theatres quick…I honestly preferred Major trauma orthopaedics …there was alway the feeling you were doing more in the resus room…
Thanks for the detailed post Jonathan, a really fascinating read. At the same time, this does strike me as massively stressful Well done for your service. I’m sure you must reflect back on those many moments where your actions saved live ; kudos to you sir!
Well done RN 🍺
Military personnel working with disillusioned youth in our inner cities. Will do more for the communities than any PC woke campaign. But don’t expect much help from the “two tier” brigade. The benefit of teaching martial arts to violent youths will be lost on them.
at Stafford prison once upon a time I was in an experiment where 5 spotty troublemaker were brought in to be locked up in a cell for an hour or two when we were told to let them put we were told to ask them how they’d like years of it no television,, no electricity no toilet, just a bucket of disinfectant in to defacate and piss into And he had to share it. not surprisingly only one of them reoffended in the community. it was a practice that should have gone nationwide. but is never did, the green open toe sandal brigade called it illegal and unbefitting of a civilised nation I’d xall it bolloxs
I agree with the short sharp shock method Andy. Along with providing an outlet for normal aggressive human behaviour patterns in everyday life. Many of todays male youth lack guidance and role models. They find comradeship on the streets in testosterone pumped gang culture. Exposing youths to tough service personnel and martial culture discipline at an early age, would work miracles on many. Armed forces of sufficient size and toughness are also needed, to give them a future path. I like the idea of national service too.