‘Fear stalks streets’ after series of violent attacks MP claims some residents are now scared to leave home
ASHOCKING increase in violent crime has left some Birmingham residents scared to leave their homes at night.
That was the blunt warning from Erdington MP Jack Dromey in the House of Commons, as he told Home office Ministers that people were dying.
Mr Dromey highlighted the murder of 16-year-old Ozell Pemberton, who was found with chest injuries in Sutton Coldfield.
Last week Abdul Rahman, a university graduate in his 20s, was also shot dead in Highgate.
Then on Tuesday this week a road rage attack in Small Heath saw a man stabbed, causing life-changing injuries.
Later that night another man was shot dead in Handsworth.
The MP said: “He [Ozell] is the latest casualty of the rise in violent crime, which has doubled since 2013, with knife crime up by 36%.
“In my constituency and in many parts of Birmingham, fear stalks the streets.”
And this was one of a number of shocking incidents, said Mr Dromey.
“What is happening on our streets is truly frightening, affecting young people but not only young people.”
He set out recent incidents in his constituency, including:
Two men stabbed Road; Guns going off in Gravelly Lane; A robbery in the Greggs store on Kingsbury Road involving a twofoot-long machete; Shootings in Dovedale Road; Two men stabbed on Edgware Road;
A gang of 30 men with machetes attacking a local shop on Witton Lodge Road;
An attack on school pupils from St Edmund Campion School by two men with machetes, as they waited at a bus stop.
Mr Dromey said: “It is not about the young people who in Tyburn just are directly affected. Fear is being generated by growing gang crime and gangs on the streets.
“A 60-year-old woman in Slade Road said, ‘I’ve lived here for 55 years, but I’m now afraid to leave my home.’
“A woman who has lived on the Perry Common estate for 48 years said, ‘I don’t go out after dark’.”
He said cuts in funding to police had contributed to the lence.
“There is a simple, blunt reality: more people will die who might otherwise have lived if we do not reverse this deeply damaging policy of the biggest cuts to any police service in western Europe.”
Official figures show the number the vio-
What is happening on our streets is truly frightening MP Jack Dromey
of violent crimes recorded by West Midlands Police rose from 42,280 in the 12 months up to December 2010, to 52,176 in the 12 months up to December 2017. At the same time, the number of police officers fell from 8,626 to 6,758.
Home Officer Minister Victoria Atkins told the Commons the Government had published a strategy for cutting violent crime, which included £40 million to be invested to support initiatives to tackle the problem.
She said: “This will focus on early intervention and prevention and on the root causes of the violence. It will look to help young people before they go down the wrong path, encouraging them to make positive choices and to live productive lives away from violence. It will tackle head on some of the theories about why these crimes occur, and explore the reasons behind the violence, including the links to drugs and gangs.”