Woolwich Arsenal knife arch returns as four arrested
Police have once again set up a knife arch at Woolwich Arsenal station during the latest operation targeting stations across south east London.
Four people were arrested:
• An adult Male was arrested for illegal entry to the United Kingdom.
• An adult Male was arrested for possession with intent to supply drugs
• Two juvenile males were arrested for possession with intent to supply drugs.
This is the latest operation. Last week one was held at Hither Green and New Cross Gate, with previous weeks seeing similar at Belvedere, Plumstead and Abbey Wood.
A loaded gun was found at Hither Green and a man with a knife at Belvedere was jailed for five years and three months in November.
Make it permanent and the scum will drift to Dockyard or Plumstead to avoid detection, thus increasing their numbers in those parts. Random and more regular setup at two neighbouring stations would be a useful solution in the short term. Either way, it’s pleasing to see some positive actions taking place and some of the more unsavoury members of society being weeded out. It will be interesting to see how the character of offences changes in the coming weeks as word spreads of the arch, although I’m concerned that once arrests tail off the authorities will assume job done and never return.
Bizarrely none of the 4 arrested was charged with carrying a knife! It does look as though the arch gave an excuse to search people for something else.