Crimes committed with a knife increased in Catalonia by 44% in 2022

In Catalonia, a total of 1,823 crimes were committed throughout 2022 in which a knife was involved, according to data from the Mossos d’Esquadra. This figure means an increase of 44% compared to 2019, prior to the pandemic and during which criminal activity was similar to that of the last year. As EL PERIÓDICO reported, this figure quantifies a police concern regarding the use of knives by, above all, a young population and in nightlife settings.

Also during 2019, 6,267 people were reported for carrying a bladed weapon on public roads. This volume is also much higher than that registered in 2019, 88% more than three years ago.

Unlike the first data, this second requires a nuance: given the concern of the Mossos and police forces such as the Urban Guard, over the last few months controls to search for bladed weapons have increased. La Urbana, specifically, has equipped metal detector blades to search for knives hidden in clothing without having to resort to a physical search of the suspect. Carrying a bladed weapon with a blade that is more centimeters than stipulated or whose design is to disguise that it is a knife is an offense in Spain.

“Whenever there is an upturn we have to act”, has recognized the ‘councillor’ of Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena. “Because they are a danger”, she has continued. “We will work to remove these weapons from common spaces, there will be firmness.”

The spokesperson for the Mossos, Montse Escude, has detailed that the ‘Pla Daga’ came into operation a week ago and that it pursues a “double objective”: to prevent the commission of crimes with bladed weapons and reduce the presence of these on public roads. To contextualize the dimension of the phenomenon, Escudé has remarked that the facts known with knives represent 3.26% of the total that are registered annually against people. “It is relevant, it generates social alarm and we are attentive to this and any phenomenon that puts our community at risk,” he assured.

Both Elena and Escudé have asked for time to analyze the causes behind this upturn. “But in Catalonia there is no culture of the knife”, underlined the ‘minister’, alluding to the expression that the person in charge of security of the Barcelona City Council, albert batlle, he used a few months ago to refer to an increase in bladed weapons that the Urban Police of Barcelona had also detected. One of the objectives of the plan is also to generate police intelligence that allows to know the phenomenon.

Plan in youth leisure areas

The Daga plan continues the police pressure that began in the autumn. It will consist of increasing police controls in leisure environments, such as discos or parties, to which some young people, and not so young, go carrying hidden knives in their clothing that they later brandish when the slightest touch arises. For this reason, sometimes the owner of the knife is not reported because it does not violate the regulations, but if it is considered that it may entail a risk, they intervene and the owner can pick it up the next day at the police station.

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The Daga plan also includes sending Mossos agents to offer educational talks in secondary schools. And meetings with the nightlife sector and private security, two groups that are considered essential allies to combat sexual violence and, also, the presence of bladed weapons among more and more citizens.

threats

The majority of crimes in which bladed weapons have been involved during 2022 have been threats: aggressors who, to frighten their victims, have shown a knife. After this crime, injuries appear, that is, fights in which a knife has been used to attack the adversary. The third crime in which they appear most frequently is domestic abuse, when a member of a family attacks another using knives. The fourth is robbery with violence and intimidation, although, as the Barcelona commissioner recalled a few days ago, Marta Fernandezin most of these crimes neither serious injuries nor knives are involved.