Spot the difference: Both have brutal blades but only one is banned - sign our petition now
Spot the difference – a regional crime chief compared two legal and illegal knives in a dramatic sign of support for the Express & Star’s knife campaign.
Holding an image of a banned zombie knife and a picture of a legally-purchased long reach machete, David Jamieson questioned the difference between the two lethal weapons.
The police and crime commissioner then said he was ‘totally subscribed’ to this title’s campaign for a review into the legislation of blade sales.
Speaking at the strategic policing and crime board meeting yesterday, Mr Jamieson praised the campaign and said: “You will recall that there was a campaign we had a couple of years ago about zombie knives and we got a ban from zombie knives and Government actually banned these knives.
“This is spot the difference time because now there is another knife here which is perfectly legal, it is a knife but doesn’t have zombie on it doesn’t have the green logos.”
Then, holding an image of a zombie knife, he said: “And then this one is not.”
“The newspaper is doing a campaign on this to get these knives banned and I totally subscribe to get these banned and we will give every support to Express & Star and their excellent campaign.”
The loophole in knife sale legislation has been taken advantage of by shopkeepers. In Wolverhampton, a long reach machete was sold for under £14.
It comes at a time weapons possession offences in the West Midlands is on the rise, and the overall number of recorded crimes has risen 23 per cent.
Chief Constable Dave Thompson last week showed his support on social media, retweeting a call for people to sign a petition with the Express & Star campaign.
More than 5,000 people have backed it so far.
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At yesterday’s meeting, Mr Thompson said the force had experienced a difficult month, tainted by ‘particularly tragic incidents’.
On May 29, 15-year-old Keelan Wilson was stabbed near his home in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton.
Mr Thompson said: “Between the boards [monthly board meetings] we did see a significant level of violence in the West Midlands.
“I think we saw it centred with a number of issues in Birmingham, but we have also seen some quite challenging issues in Coventry and we’ve seen some quite challenging issues in Wolverhampton.
“And that happens over the half-term period when there is alot going on at the force.
“We saw some particularly tragic incidents which have happened during that phase.
“There has been a significant amount of operational output and some incredibly tense and sometimes unsustainable levels of working by the force.”
He added: “We have gone from a high level of activity to significant reductions in activity over the last few weeks because of the work we will do and continue to do.”
