The Knife Angel

The Knife Angel currently stands outside Coventry Cathedral: a sculpture fashioned from some 100,000 knives removed from UK streets. Under the banner of ‘Save a life, surrender your Knife”, the British Ironwork Centre sought permission from the Home Office to work with all 43 UK Police Forces to retrieve knives from the streets by providing knife banks.

The scourge and ever increasing problem of knife crime is currently going largely unchallenged, with more and more weapons surfacing on our streets. “The sculpture was created for one purpose only, to focus a spotlight on this national embarrassment, both our government and our educational system need to accept there’s far more to be done, and grasp this nettle”

The number of crimes related to knives and other offensive weapons dealt with by the courts reached its highest level for nine years in 2018. The Ministry of Justice said 21,484 offences were dealt with in England and Wales in 2018 – the highest number since 2009 (25,103).

Something to reflect on…