Walsall dad determined to turn the tide on knife crime after losing son six years ago
Mark Brindley launched a petition six months ago to get knife crime awareness into the school curriculum.
Last updated 7th Aug 2023
Mark Brindley lost his son James in 2017, as he was stabbed to death walking home in Aldridge.
James was just 26 years old when he died.
His family launched the James Brindley Foundation in his name and work to fight knife crime.
Their latest mission is to get knife crime awareness in the school curriculum to help tackle children getting into the criminal activity.
Mark said: "Knife crime is now 20 percent, at least, committed by children aged ten to seventeen years old."
In the past few months, knife crime has been on the rise - with many killings involving young people.
Mark and the foundation have launched a petition and are fighting to get the motion into Parliament and make a change.
He said: "We've had about 60,000 signatures just from Walsall Council, so I've been asking Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell for their support.
"I'm just not stopping until we got to that 10,000. I know we have a target date of September 14, but we're close we've got six weeks.
"It's just too important isn't it? Our children, our future are dying on our streets yet people aren't picking up the baton and responding.
"I will not give up and certainly the foundation won't give up."
The petition is currently over 8,000 signatures, when they hit 10,000 the government will respond.
You can sign the petition here.