Covid has 'thrown smokescreen' over severity of Sheffield's knife crime problem

A leading Sheffield campaigner tells us Covid has "thrown a smokescreen" over the intensity and severity of the city's problem with knife crime.

Anthony Olaseinde, who runs Keep Sheffield Stainless, says there's not enough pro-active action to tackle serious violence in the city, and he fears another wave of violence when lockdown restrictions are lifted.

It comes after two murders in Sheffield in the space of a week earlier this month.

South Yorkshire Police are joining other forces across the UK in a national operation to tackle knife crime this week.

But Anthony says it's not enough:

"Three years now I've been saying the same thing. I'm absolutely sick to death of it. I don't know how many people are going to have to die - especially young people - until we think we've got a problem here, we need to sort this out.

"We need safe spaces for young people to go that are off the streets, where there are professionals that can look after them, that can engage with them, that can help them progress in life, and do something positive with their time instead of hanging around on the streets doing nothing.

"As soon as everything gets back to normal and there's the opportunity for young people to mix and clash with each other unintentionally, that's when we'll see a rise in knife crimes and deaths unfortunately."

The week-long campaign this week is called Operation Sceptre and is being led by the National Police Chiefs Council.

Forces across the country are taking part.

NPCC’s lead for knife crime, deputy assistant commissioner Graham McNulty, said:

“Coronavirus has been a huge part of everyone’s lives for over a year now but we want to remind people that our normal policing role hasn’t stopped during this time.

“Forces are determined to tackle violent crime and with the restrictions easing, taking knives off our streets and helping people understand the dangers of carrying a knife remains a top priority.”

But Anthony Olaseindesays he's worried the coronavirus situation has shifted attention away from knife crime:

"There was a lot of attention on knife crime and just as the ball got rolling all that attention got diverted to Covid, rightly so, but while we've been in Covid there's still been murders, I've still been getting phoned by NHS staff saying there are a lot of under 16s coming in with stab wounds."

Operation Sceptre will see weapon sweeps and amnesty bins across the country this week but it's not clear specifically what will be happening in South Yorkshire.

Anthony's been running his own weapon's surrender recently and found some worrying items.

He said:

"A young boy found a knife going to school, we had another instance where a member of the public found a knife in the bushes, and one machete - this machete was the longest machete I've ever seen, it must have been four foot long.

"This is where I live, this is where my family live, my children grow up here. It's very daunting. I've seen the transition in the types of blades I'm collecting - at first it was your little three inch, four inch blades, then it came to the carving knives, and now it's machetes and evil knives with lacerated edge."

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• knife crime
• keep sheffield stainless
• South Yorkshire Police