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I am not, in any way, disputing the case for police officers confronted with a knife-wielding attacker to be able to protect themselves fully and quickly, and use a gun, if it’s deemed necessary.
However, the above Herald front page, based on trade union data, like its even more melodramatic cousin in the Record yesterday, is in danger of unnecessarily panicking the wider population.
Why?
Murder by stabbing in Scotland has fallen in a steady trend to half of the level 6 years ago – From Knife crime statistics: FOI release, published today, we see that there were 49 homicides by knife in Scotland in 2017/2018 and that there has been a steady and significant fall to 25, in 2022/2023, the most recent data.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400427434/
With particular regard to larger ‘Zombie’ knives, in 2023-24, there were 15 crimes of Possession of certain dangerous knives in a private place (6 of which were used in other criminal activity and 9 which were not). In the same period there were 230 crimes of Possession of prohibited offensive weapons in a private place, 79 of these were used in other criminal activity and 151 were not.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/
England and Wales – 94% increase in Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the last 10 years. 55,008 Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument.
Finally, this from February 2016:
Why did BBC Scotland and STV not give the coverage this highly impressive demonstration of Police Scotland’s reputation, in the USA, deserved? I felt really proud of the commitment to human rights we have from our police?
Well-worth watching but especially from 28 mins in:
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Talking-up Scotland 