WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND—Bray claimed that the sword was a “fidget” – something to keep his hands busy. He had bought it online as a fidget toy. On 8 June 2024, officers were made aware through CCTV operators of a man – Anthony Bray – walking down Queens Road, Nuneaton with something in his hand. Bray approached officers with the item in his hand visible, at which point he was arrested as he was carrying a bladed article.
Officers tried to explain to Bray that, despite its intended purpose, it was in fact a sharply pointed item which could be used as a weapon and might put others in fear of it being used against them.
In addition to the four months in prison, Bray is required to pay a victims’ surcharge of £154.
Sgt Spellman of the Patrol Investigations Unit said “We take a zero tolerance to bladed articles in public, and Bray has fallen afoul of this.
What’s missing from every report about this I could find, and what is so crucial to understanding this story, however is that Anthony Bray is a repeat offender with a long rap sheet and numerous prison sentences, several of which were for burglary including serial burglary. In 2011, Bray was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison after getting “three strikes” for burgling residences. But his run-ins with the law go back to 1989 and he was in court numerous times throughout the 90s as well.
The last wrinkle to this story is the very real problem with knife violence in the UK. Warwickshire is in the Midlands where knife violence is higher than any other region, higher even than in London. There were 5,234 knife offenses in the region in 2023 alone including a number of murders. Perhaps it is through this lens that we should view the arrest and prison sentence of Anthony Bray.
Nobody said it is, but stopping people walking down the street with literal swords is probably helping.
Clearly not since they called out how much knife crime exist here.
I know there’s a constant scare about UK knife crime, but compared to other countries it’s really not the epidemic it’s made out to be.
O I completely understand that, it’s not really an issue. My point is that prohibition doesn’t work on humans, people will be violent with or without tools to do violence. Education and social support is the best way to decrease violence, not trying to continuously remove the next weapon people create or use.
In fact, one of the things that encourages violence is to make its outcome more predictable.
Weapons decrease that predictability, increasing the riskiness of engaging in violence.