The streets of Birmingham were quiet on Sunday as residents, workers and shoppers talked of how violence had become “normalised”. “This city has become unsafe,” said Phil Paul, 45, from Shelby, who had travelled into the city for a drink, as police hunted for a man who had gone on a 90-minute stabbing spree overnight.
One man was killed and seven people were injured in the apparently random attacks. “I am not surprised this has happened. I’ve lived here all my life and it has got worse and worse,” said Paul. “When incidents like this take place, it just feels like an average day in the city.”
Ieuan Joy, 24, a student, said Birmingham was becoming dangerous, echoing claims from West Midlands ambulance service at a press conference on Sunday that stabbings were “not a rare occurrence” in the city. “People are used to it. It has become normalised,” Joy said, remembering a particularly brutal stabbing in Snobs, a popular nightclub, two years ago.
Around Hurst Street, an area known for its diverse bars, clubs and restaurants, police turned residents and workers away from one of a number of cordons set up across the city.
One man had been unable to reach his workplace at PureGym, inside the Arcadian shopping and entertainment centre. Like many locals, he said violence had become common in Birmingham. “I didn’t imagine it [the latest incident] would be this bad – stabbings happen unfortunately all the time – but it looks like it’s worse than anything that’s happened so far,” he said, asking not to be named. “Nowadays Birmingham is dangerous, especially the city centre. I’m not really surprised. It’s something that is basically happening on a daily basis in Birmingham, stabbings and other violent crime.”
One worker from an LGBT bar described being locked into his venue after the stabbings. “We heard helicopters and saw a lot of police vehicles. Soon, across the whole of Gay Village, the shutters were pulled down and all of our staff had to stay inside for our own safety. We did not leave until 4.30 in the morning, and only when it was safe to do so. We had to be escorted by management away from the scene.”
Although initial reports claimed a hate crime had taken place, police said there was no evidence to suggest the stabbings were specifically targeted LGBT people. But for many who were working at the time, the idea was worrying.
“It was silent and eerie. We weren’t panicked, but many of us were thinking: what does this mean for our village? ” said the bar worker, praising the security staff for handling a difficult situation “really well”.
The West Midlands police and crime commissioner, David Jamieson, said on Sunday that a rise in violence during the coronavirus pandemic had been “almost inevitable” and warned that there was a lot of “pent-up feelings” and a “growth of violence among younger people”.
But for Asif Mohammed, 24, regional chair of Unite and an inner-city resident, a lack of leadership had contributed to the rise in violence in Birmingham. “The city has become desensitised to knife crime. Local policymakers have traditionally ignored the inner city, and the only time when they care is when it makes the headlines,” he said. “I think West Midlands police has failed to take the violence seriously. I don’t see the police [and] crime commissioner or Birmingham city council visit our areas. It is almost for the community to be left with tackling drugs and violent crime.”
The police focus on Sunday was squarely on catching the knifeman and piecing together exactly how he had wrought such violence and then escaped undetected. But when he is in custody there will be difficult questions about Birmingham’s knife crime problem – and what the city can do to turn it around.
