55 knife crimes each week in Midlands as MPs back Express & Star blades petition
Fifty-five knife crimes take place in the West Midlands every week – almost one every three hours.
The region’s police force today revealed there were 1,221 incidents involving blades in the first five months of this year.
The figures for knife crime cover physical attacks, sexual assaults and rape, robbery and threats to kill.
There were eight fatal knife attacks including :
Teenager Keelan Wilson, who was stabbed to death in Wolverhampton in May.
11-year-old Jasmine Forrester, who died after being stabbed in the same city in February.
Eight-year-old Mylee Billingham, who died from a knife wound in Brownhills in January.
West Midlands Police says it has stepped up efforts to tackle knife crime, but Chief Superintendent Mike O’Hara said the ‘complex problem’ cannot be solved by police enforcement alone.
He said: “Many tragic knife crimes are entirely preventable and are often the cause of young people making the wrong decision.
“My view is that it is our collective responsibility to help young people make the right decision – the decision not to carry a knife. It is not glamorous, it is not necessary for your own protection and there is a significant chance your knife could be used against you.
“That’s why we are working to deter young people from carrying knives with local councils, Youth Offending Services, local charities and also through our Precious Lives project working with schools.
“But this initiative is not enough on its own. We need parents, community leaders, schools and young people themselves to pass the message that it is never ok to carry or use a knife.”
The force is targeting young men aged between 15 and 19 who carry knives. Test purchases on shops suspected of selling knives to underage people are also being carried out
Why MPs are backing the Express & Star's petition
MPs have urged the Home Secretary to back an Express & Star campaign for an outright ban on the sale of deadly knives.
Pat McFadden and Emma Reynolds have written to Sajid Javid supporting the newspaper’s call for new legislation blocking sales of weapons.
The call includes banning vicious long-reach machetes, which are almost identical to ‘zombie’ knives.
SIGN OUR PETITION TODAY HERE
Hailing the campaign, the Labour MPs for Wolverhampton said such weapons ‘should not be available at all’ and called for a ban that would be ‘one step in combatting the menace of knife crime on our streets’.
The West Midlands is in the midst of a violent crime epidemic that has seen eight people knifed to death, including 15-year-old Keelan Wilson, who was killed in Wolverhampton in May.
There have been dozens of other serious stabbings since the turn of the year.
MPs from the region, including Dudley North’s Labour MP Ian Austin, are set to discuss the E&S campaign at a meeting with Mr Javid in Parliament next Wednesday.
Mr McFadden said: “There is increasing public concern at the horrific loss of life we have seen through knife crime, both locally and across the country.
“There is no single answer to the problem and the police, local authorities and other public agencies have to work together to try to combat this problem.
“One positive step we could take would be to ban the kind of zombie knives currently on sale which have no discernible domestic use.
“I applaud the Express and Star campaign on this issue and today local MPs have written to the Home Secretary supporting a ban on the sale of these knives.”
Ms Reynolds added: “I fully support the E&S campaign.
“We need to do more to tackle knife crime.”
The letter to Mr Javid calls for ‘an urgent need to think what more Government and public authorities can do to save lives’. A change.org petition calling for new legislation has received more than 5,500 signatures.
The E&S campaign has received cross-party support and has been raised in the House of Commons by Tory MPs Eddie Hughes and James Morris.
It has also been backed by anti-knife campaigners, the families of the knife crime victims, frontline paramedics, and senior police officials, including West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson. The campaign follows an E&S investigation, which showed that town and city centre shops were selling machetes for less than £14, as well as knives and ninja swords to customers with only minimal identity checks.
Express & Star comment: Action on knives has to happen
On the back of an earlier campaign by the E&S and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson, the sale of zombie knives is now banned.
However, shops are able to get around the legislation by selling almost identical weapons without any graphics or wording suggesting violence.
Poundland this month announced it had stopped selling kitchen knives in 59 West Midlands stores due to the increase in knife crime across the region.
It is the first high street retailer to enforce such a ban but others are expected to follow suit.
