10 May Is London’s knife crisis burgeoning?
A 14-year old boy was stabbed in the head in broad daylight down a busy Croydon street last night. It was the 50th knife-related murder recorded in the capital this year so far.
Last year was the bloodiest in the last decade with 132 people dying as a result of knife crime on the streets. This year’s on course to surpass that with 50 already recorded in the first five months of the year as the Metropolitan Police struggle to get the problem under control.
The latest victim of knife crime south of the river was Ian Tomlin, 46, outside his Battersea home. The father-of-two was stabbed and beaten with a baseball until it split in half. The family man drove buses for the elderly and disabled in Wandsworth.
The murder reportedly occurred after Tomlin challenged Gary Beech, 48 and Michael Swan, 45, for selling drugs on his estate.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan recently came under the fire on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ from presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby and was accused of ‘wasting’ money which could be given to the police to help their effort on stopping knife crime in the capital on banning adverts which promote the consumption of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon.
Scotland Yard have come under significant criticism from the general public since the turn of the new year. However Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick maintains that the force are making ‘good progress’ in their fight to tackle the rise in knife crime. Ex police Superintendent Leroy Logan has issued a conflicting statement and has said the Met was a long way from regaining control of the situation.
Mr Logan has been working with victims of knife crime since retiring from his position in 2013. He said in an interview to the Telegraph that ‘it’s not much good talking about an improvement when murders and fatal stabbings are still much higher than they should be.’. He continued: “The Met are nowhere near getting a grip on this. The thin blue line is so thinly stretched and people are still feeling scared. Youngsters are still feeling scared and are carrying knives as a result.”.
Ms Dick has also claimed that a 30% rise in stop-and-searches have contributed to a decline in violent crime since 2017-2018. She said more than 170,000 ‘very effective’ stop and searches were carried out by the Met in the last year.
Perhaps supporting evidence towards Ms Dick’s claims that knife crime is on the decline is knife-related injuries among under-25s has been reduced by 15%, from 2,079 to 1,768 young people.
One of the Home Office’s more recent initiatives to help stop the increase in knife crime is a programme called ‘_#knifefree’. A campaign aimed at tackling the issue of young people carrying knives it focusses on stories of people who have gone knife-free and looks at trying to inspire others to do the same.
Home Secretary Mr Javid is expected to argue for the use of data to improve our understanding of the pathways into and causes of crime.
Stop and Search figures from since 2009 show a clear decline.
