
Fried chicken boxes featuring warnings about the dangers of carrying a knife have been sent to takeaways across England and Wales as part of a campaign by the Home Office, however, now a GP has explained why it's never going to work.
More than 321,000 boxes that feature real-life stories about young people who chose positive activities such as music or sports instead of carrying knives will replace standard packaging at fast food outlets such as Chicken Cottage, Morely's and Dixy Chicken, reports the BBC.
However, the initiative has come under intense criticism, with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott calling it 'crude' and 'offensive', and Labour MP David Lammy accusing it of racial stereotyping.
Now, a GP named Adnan R. Siddiqui has taken to Twitter in order to criticise the initiative, explaining how it won't help the problem in a must-read thread.
Let me tell you a #knifecrime story I dealt with last week as a GP in #Croydon which has a lot of knife crime and l… https://t.co/N62UHFSngA— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565821549
Social services @yourcroydon rang me to ask whether I had any background information on a teenage patient of mine w… https://t.co/6DTWjuheqd— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565821811
Yes I did! Parents had been worried about him for several years due to disruption and behaviour problems at school.… https://t.co/oUZwLDgZC9— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565822007
Parents and child saw us and explained school was worried he had ADHD or similar and asked if we could refer to men… https://t.co/HyfYbATuqB— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565822201
Under resourced child and adolescent mental health services(CAMHS)were unable to take the referral as they are over… https://t.co/gghXnC3WhH— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565822370
Parents now dealing with child who was becoming more difficult to engage and being excluded from school because of… https://t.co/ppExuZvdTb— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565822549
Signposted parents to a number of private counsellors/psychologists but no proper engagement and no further visits… https://t.co/Avskty49gs— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565822760
So would #KnifeFree stories in his local Morley’s/Chicken Cottage have prevented his journey?Or more police on the… https://t.co/9DCFCP0XSE— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565823030
#austerity and the cuts to public services is the real #knifecrime we need to tackle if we want to prevent more jou… https://t.co/hj0bWwCP1A— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565823232
A serious approach is to use #publichealth approaches to #knifecrime #violencereduction and consult with @SadiqKhan… https://t.co/TZ94Hnijwl— Adnan R.Siddiqui (@Adnan R.Siddiqui) 1565823361
According to the Home Office, the #KnifeFree initiative aims to change the attitudes and behaviours of young people aged between 10 and 21, reports the BBC.
Similar style chicken boxes were distributed at a branch of Morley's in south London in March, and the company's managing director Shan Selvendran said that they were "proud" to support the campaign, adding:
We want to start conversations amongst all of our customers.
HT BBC