What’s up in London? Murder rate surpassed NY

Penises are an instrument of crime

Just some interesting quotes from Orwell’s 1984.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, has accused the prime minister and home secretary of abdicating responsibility after a fatal stabbing on Wednesday night brought the number of killings in London this year to more than 50.
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Lammy, who has been an MP for 18 years, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What we’re seeing today is the worst I’ve ever seen it. There are parents, friends, families, schools traumatised and grieving. And there is absolutely no sign at the moment of reduction in the violence.

“There is no single cause. What I’m concerned about is what drives the gangs in the turf wars, and that’s an £11bn cocaine drugs market. We are the drugs market of Europe, and I think the police and our country has lost control of that drugs market. You have children, as young as 12, 13, being recruited into gangs to run drugs.

“I’m hearing nothing about what we’re going to do. Drugs are prolific. It’s like Deliveroo, they’re as prolific as ordering a pizza. You can get them on Snapchat, WhatsApp. That in the end is driving the turf war and it’s driving the culture of violence that’s now becoming endemic.”

Lammy said there were several “Mr Bigs” that headed structured organisations in the country. “It’s not young people in Tottenham who know where to get guns,” he said. “I do know from the police that there are big gangs, eastern European, Albanian, that traffic people and guns. It’s not being handled solely by the Met. We’ve cut our Border Force. The National Crime Agency, the lead agency in this regard, reports an increase in this activity.”

All this, he added, had to be considered in the context of inequality, with high levels of youth unemployment among black males and local authorities that had cut youth services and outreach programmes.

“We aren’t debating this in parliament. I’ve not had a phone call from the home secretary, I haven’t had a phone call from the mayor, no one’s come to visit my constituency. This is happening across London at large. I’m sick of the political football, what I want is a political consensus.”
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Wednesday’s attacks added to the UK’s soaring rate of knife crime, with fatal stabbings in England and Wales at their highest levels since 2010/11. The escalating violence has been especially acute in London, with 13 people killed within two weeks last month.
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On Tuesday, 16-year-old Amaan Shakoor became the youngest murder victim in London so far this year after he was fatally shot on Monday in Walthamstow. His death came after that of Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was gunned down around 30 minutes earlier three miles away in Tottenham. Both were apparently casualties of gang violence.

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, has also blamed social media for the rise in killings, particularly among children, saying trivial disputes could escalate into violence “within minutes” when rivals set out to goad each other on the internet.

Scotland Yard said it was currently investigating 55 suspected murders since the start of 2018, including the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in Sussex.

Martin Griffiths, lead surgeon for trauma at Barts health trust, said knife and gun injuries had become a core part of his work, with children as young as 13 coming in with wounds.

“Some kids are gang involved, but more often than not it’s young people with poor impulse controls,” he told the BBC’s Today Programme, adding that “lack of positive role models, lack of mentorship, lack of support of youth” were factors behind the rise in violent crime.

I’ve been looking into everything Scotland is doing differently. Bet there’s an answer in there somewhere.

Overnight, two people were murdered in my part of London, bringing the number of killings in the capital to more than 50 since the year began. In all the talk about statistics and policy, it is important to remember the victims, whose lives have brutally ended, and the loved ones they leave behind. Their lives will never be the same again.

All of us have a duty to act responsibly and think clearly in response to a crisis. Knee-jerk reactions and initiatives designed to grab a headline are not acceptable. We need to apply lessons learned from other parts of the UK and abroad in the fight against serious crime, including knife and gun crime.

The most recent victims are far from all gang members of popular stereotype, and the same seems to be true of the perpetrators who have been named. We appear to have entered a vicious circle, where cohorts of young men, some of them gang members, are involved in very violent offences. Because of the greater presence of deadly weapons on the streets, others are more inclined to carry knives too. We must break that cycle.

But the government has been in denial about crime. This has distorted the true picture, and wrongly justifies its decimation of the police service. Police funding has been cut in real terms, and tens of thousands of police officers, community support officers and police staff have been axed, since the Tories came to office in 2010. But despite eight years in office, everyone else apparently is to blame, be they the big internet companies or London mayor Sadiq Khan, on whom we have seen a renewal of disgraceful attacks.
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There are numerous causes of knife and gun crime, as shown by the latest attacks. Our response must address multiple sides equally, and it must be evidence-based. Scotland has had notable success in reducing knife crime by treating it as a public health issue. According to The Guardian’s Beyond the blade reporting, none of the 35 stabbing-related deaths of young people in 2017 happened in Scotland. This follows Glasgow’s long-unwanted reputation as the “murder capital” of Europe.

Since 2005, specially trained police officers from the Violence Reduction Unit have been working with ex-offenders and community leaders. Hardened criminals were initially brought to criminal courts. But they were also given help with literacy and numeracy skills, job training, and some were relocated.

The decline in gang-related violence led to a more widespread decline. A virtuous circle was established. Not all problems have been solved, and results have taken years to achieve. Much more needs to be done, especially when it comes to tackling domestic violence. But it has worked. The Glasgow experience itself learned from initiatives in Boston in the 1990s.

This government exhibits an extraordinary gap between its own estimation of its abilities and its performance. But it should not be so arrogant as to refuse to learn from the success of others. Tackling deadly crime is too important.

More to the point, NY and London are remarkably comparable in population, law enforcement budgets and number of personnel, etc — and the wide disparity of murders, rapes, robberies, etc happening in London is staggering. I imagine the high chances of being a victim of crime in London is at the forefront of concern every time a Londoner leaves the house.

Obviously, you aren’t following the reason for the thread. As usual.

Obviously, you aren’t following the reason for the thread.

what's going on in the US.