WT bloody hell happened in Birmingham last night?

[TheQueef]

I'm watching the press conference on the news, they are skirting around something.
One fatality and several injured in different locations.

Anyone?

@theworldhasfallenoutmybottom

It's just strange how in London someone goes on a stabbing rampage and is shot dead within minutes yet here it seems like the suspect wandered leisurely through town stabbing 7 others over a two hour period

Perhaps the offender is white.

Not being funny, but if they don't care about the "it's not OK to stab people" laws, they probably don't care about social distancing rules either

Then why are they on the streets? They should be locked up.

@annabel85

Tbh if it was London rather than Birmingham it probably wouldn't make the headlines, as people are desensitised to all the violent crime.

It’s been front page news in the Amsterdam paper today, FWIW.

Update says 3 men arrested and 2 females aged 15 & 28 arrested.

Presumably anabel85 because no one knew this person was going to stab people. Stupid much. And who should be locked up exactly, we done know who it was yet.

It all seems v odd.

@annabel85

Tbh if it was London rather than Birmingham it probably wouldn't make the headlines, as people are desensitised to all the violent crime.

Nonsense. Similar incidents in London have been fully reported.

I thought v strange too, incident overnight yet 12h later they still couldn’t even give idea of number of people involved. Think they now saying 2 but if was “only 2” then why big mystery. Why was 2 casualties to many to count?

Usually someone posts footage on line in London so we tend to see more what happened. May be no one has in Birmingham. I also found the coverage a bit strange and kind of "held back" earlier.

12h later they still couldn’t even give idea of number of people involved.

7 people in total, 1 dead, 2 critically injured (man & woman), 4 wounded but not badly. According to the local news, anyway, but the figures don’t seem to have changed since they started reporting them at 5amish.

Reporting of it around the country seems a bit bizarre, based on this thread.

@pushananas yes of course 🙄

_ annabel85 Sun 06-Sep-20 15:20:13

Not being funny, but if they don't care about the "it's not OK to stab people" laws, they probably don't care about social distancing rules either

Then why are they on the streets? They should be locked up._

Because our legal system doesn't use a crystal ball to predict future crimes and lock people up because of what they're going to do next week?

@ReggieCat

Well I bet this person is known to the authorities. A violent attack on this scale doesn't tend to come from nowhere.

DH has been discussing this with a friend who was there & witnessed part of last nights violence. apparently, there were several unrelated incidents. The brawl was separate from the stabbings.

Friend witnessed a guy ask someone at a bus stop for a light. Totally unprovoked, he then stabbed him Think this must be the one who is still out there.

I think this will take some time for the police to unpick what happened.

@theluckiest if your DHs friend saw that then he should get in touch with the police if he hasn't already. It sounds like he's a potentially important witness.

They've set up a website for doing it here Operation Mooring

Oh he has. Thanks for that link tho.

A close family friend and his mates (all early 20s) were visiting an old school friend who'd settled in Birmingham after graduating. This young man I know is the loveliest most community-minded and kind person, the sort you feel honoured to know, who would no more be in a gang than fly to the moon. It was one of the friends in the group who died, having had his throat slashed in front of them all. Another in their party in very seriously injured in hospital. They are all absolutely traumatised.

@theluckiest I'm glad he has. That must have been very frightening for him to witness, the shock must have been terrible.

annabel85 Sun 06-Sep-20 15:58:14

@ReggieCat

Well I bet this person is known to the authorities. A violent attack on this scale doesn't tend to come from nowhere.

So if he's known to have mental health problems he should be incarcerated 'just in case'? Let's take it further along your line of thinking shall we? How about any woman who ever has mental health problems should have her kids taken into care and adopted. Does that one wuit you? Because she'd be 'known to the authorities' as well.

@annabel85

Not being funny but why weren't they social distancing? If people followed the rules then there'd be no scope for this kind of wanton violence.

@annabel85 Well what are the rules on social distancing now anyway? We're being encouraged to get back to offices, to eat out to help out, to go to pubs, etc.

@BitOfFun

A close family friend and his mates (all early 20s) were visiting an old school friend who'd settled in Birmingham after graduating. This young man I know is the loveliest most community-minded and kind person, the sort you feel honoured to know, who would no more be in a gang than fly to the moon. It was one of the friends in the group who died, having had his throat slashed in front of them all. Another in their party in very seriously injured in hospital. They are all absolutely traumatised.

Oh my goodness, you must all be in pieces. I know it won't help, but for you.

@BitOfFun

A close family friend and his mates (all early 20s) were visiting an old school friend who'd settled in Birmingham after graduating. This young man I know is the loveliest most community-minded and kind person, the sort you feel honoured to know, who would no more be in a gang than fly to the moon. It was one of the friends in the group who died, having had his throat slashed in front of them all. Another in their party in very seriously injured in hospital. They are all absolutely traumatised.

Really sorry, that sounds horrific.

The news has just said that cctv will be released in the next half an hour to try to identify it the person.

@BitOfFun that sounds utterly horrific, I hope your friend and his friends are all being looked after

I know this is speculation but I can’t help thinking it has echoes of what happened to Christina Edkins on the bus in 2013. In the absence of any further details I do wonder if it’s someone known to health services. Of course illness is no indicator of the capability to do something like this but inherently violent people also get mental health issues and become known to authorities, the combination of personality type and lack of inhibition if experiencing an episode needs far more support than our services currently offer. That’s pretty much the summary of why Christina Edkins death happened.

I hope the perpetrator is located quickly, they’re clearly dangerous.

It’s complete madness and I suspect it is better for the police to give out information that is correct rather than speculating before they know what went on