British police faced backlash on Tuesday over the case of an 18-year-old student who was handcuffed as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer falsely alleged a racist attack.
You probably haven’t, but the reasons why are actually still a bit more complicated.
Having a typical Swiss army knife on you usually isn’t a problem. But the afore mentioned designated areas are often found around train stations, especially in larger cities, and a few years ago the law designated vehicles and areas of public transport as such areas per se.
That’s one scenario, where you might end up getting in trouble completely unaware.
Again, there are exemptions, that should enable you to take your Swiss army knife on the train and travel with it, without getting in trouble. But the phrasing is pretty wishy washy still. One exemption, for example, allows carrying knives for “generally accepted purposes”, whatever that is.
In theory, you should be perfectly fine travelling with a small pocket knife, but no guarantee, that the individual law enforcement officer would accept your purpose of transport and travelling. So you better make sure, you look white and at least middle class enough…
And god forbid, you actually end up in a situation, where you’d have to use said knife in self-defense and hurt someone. You might end up having to defend your purpose of carrying a knife in the first place in court.
You probably haven’t, but the reasons why are actually still a bit more complicated.
Having a typical Swiss army knife on you usually isn’t a problem. But the afore mentioned designated areas are often found around train stations, especially in larger cities, and a few years ago the law designated vehicles and areas of public transport as such areas per se.
That’s one scenario, where you might end up getting in trouble completely unaware.
Again, there are exemptions, that should enable you to take your Swiss army knife on the train and travel with it, without getting in trouble. But the phrasing is pretty wishy washy still. One exemption, for example, allows carrying knives for “generally accepted purposes”, whatever that is.
In theory, you should be perfectly fine travelling with a small pocket knife, but no guarantee, that the individual law enforcement officer would accept your purpose of transport and travelling. So you better make sure, you look white and at least middle class enough…
And god forbid, you actually end up in a situation, where you’d have to use said knife in self-defense and hurt someone. You might end up having to defend your purpose of carrying a knife in the first place in court.