A PLAQUE recognising efforts to keep residents safe by campaigning against violence has been unveiled in Lichfield.
It was presented to Lichfield District Council following the visit of the Knife Angel last year.
The plaque, which has now been placed in a flower bed at Speakers’ Corner in Dam Street, was made by The British Ironwork Centre which created the statue made up of 100,000 knives.
Lichfield District Council’s principal community safety officer, Yvonne James, said:
“It’s hard to believe it has been a year since we had the Knife Angel in the district.
“Since then we have educated in and out of schools and we have trained people in the use of bleed kits and distributed them across Lichfield.
“We are continuing this work and will be getting more bleed kits and training out across the district and have plans for more education to be offered to our schools.”
Cllr Richard Cox, Lichfield District Council’s cabinet member for community engagement, said:
“Lichfield District has one of the lowest numbers of recorded incidents of violence in the county but we are not complacent.
“The campaign continues and the plaque, prominently displayed at Speakers’ Corner, stands as a symbol of it.”
Sorry but I don’t think normalising stabbings by providing bleed kits is the right way to go. It just sends the wrong message. Does LD have a big problem with knife related injuries?
@RFW, is there any evidence to suggest that distributing bleed kits ‘normalises’ knife violence amongst those more likely to use knives in this way? Surely having a proactive response for the occasions when it does happen is a good thing?
I suspect maybe RWF’s. point is rather than talking about how to react when there has been an incident (which really is a given), the main discussion should be how to prevent it in the first place.
The most recent police recorded crime data published by the Office for National Statistic shows that knife crime has risen 44% across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent since 2015/16.
The plaque, as well as the ‘civic awards’ were all part of the contract using public money. I am pleased to say that the new Government is not putting up plaques but cracking down on Zombie knives and machetes. From 24th of September, it will be illegal to own zombie-style knives and machetes.
A legacy from the Knife Angel’s visit, are the knife boxes where such knives can be deposited. They can also be left at police stations between 26 August and 23 September, without repercussions for surrendering them but of course we have no police station in the district anymore.