Is London a crime infested shithole?

So @Netcurtainnelly, have you read the link that I posted? Do you accept that London isn't a 'shithole'?

No, I certainly don’t think that sexual violence is a new thing. But it feels to me as though it’s a problem that’s getting worse rather than better, and I think this particular incident suggests that violent men are getting bolder. Possibly as a result of a) the influence of the manosphere and b) weak law enforcement - the chances of being convicted of rape aren’t exactly high.

I hoped - possibly naively - that the #metoo movement and the utterly horrific murder of Sarah Everard would be turning points. But half a decade later, men feel bold enough to carry out gang rape on main streets in middle class towns.

Lived in London, on and off, for over 40 years. In all my time here, I've never felt particularly unsafe - and I've lived in some rougher parts of town.

Been burgled, and one of my teens had a group of other teens try to take his phone outside school once (he walked off and they didn't pursue him). DH had his bike nicked once years ago. But that's pretty much it. It's a city, so shit like this will happen sometimes - but I refuse to give into this hysteria that our wonderful city has gone to the dogs...

No, but the site does allow threads/posts that are designed to stir up resentment and which often spread disinformation.

Then check your sources.

Also there has been a rise in 'decline porn', AI generated videos misrepresenting london (and khan) in a bad light.

"Have become"? You think that this is a new thing? Several thousand years of human hostory would beg to differ.

Which last time I checked wasn't governed by algorithms that encourage disinformation to run rampant.

Yea, a very naice, leafy town in Surrey. The kind of place people move to when they want to leave London, in fact.

There are lots of questions to be answered about this, but ‘is London a crime infested shite hole’ is not one of them.

Personally I’d like to know why it is that men in our society have become so emboldened that they feel capable of carrying out group sexual violence on a fairly main road on a Saturday night.

But all of us here use Mumsnet.

Personally I haven't used Twitter or Facebook in years.

No one is joking at the rape. Of course that isn't funny.
People are annoyed at the OP using that rape which didn't happen in London to claim that London is dangerous.
If anyone is minimising the rape it's OP alas she is using it to claim something that isn't true

Not something to be joked about nor weaponised in an attempt to spread fear, as OP has done.

That was really good, thank you!

Food for thought though. Should we be using platforms that allow hate and disinformation because it means more £££ for them?

I am referring to late 80s and 90s.

I would say growing up in West and South London, there was definitely quite a bit of crime but this changed when loads of areas became gentrified and people were pushed out of the communities they were born and grew up in.

The Booth Poverty Maps were representative of poverty in Victorian London so yes, actually I think I'm comparison to those times the wealth inequality gap is currently about the same. In the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s this was not the case. Equally, people actually lived in properties pre 2000, their didn't just sit empty, they were actually homes.

Not like this there hasn't, I know I grew up in West London!

Absolutely shocked by the comments. This is rape!

not something to be joked about at all.

Having moved from London a number of years ago, all I ever hear is what an even bigger shit hole it’s become. I loved living in London but I did witness a few things I’d never wish to see again. It is crowded, it is dirty and people are much happier in the summertime when the sun is shining.

unlike 20 - 30 years ago, everyone (including children) is walking around with a highly portable, highly fenceable personal computer worth several hundred pounds.

And a bloody nuisance they are too. Totally oblivious to what's going on around them. So busy staring at their screens they don't look where they're going. Don't walk in a straight line so you're switching from one side of the pavement the other trying to get past. Then stop dead in the middle of the pavement to fiddle with it rather than move to the side out of the way.

Central London id anything has too much wealth, on Saturday I saw a very expensive car and feel like this is not the London I was born and grew up in.

There have always been extremes of wealth and poverty in London, often very close together. The great noblemen's houses and palaces along the Strand and later Mayfair compared to the rookeries of St Giles etc. Tothill Fields almost opposite Westminster Abbey. See the Booth Poverty Maps.

Ive lived here for 20 years and I've literally never been a victim of crime - neither has my husband. Obviously we are cautious (with handbag and phone in particular). All capital cities have a fair bit of crime - i dont think London is dramatically better or worse than others.

Just like said bots claim that there's a Tube to Peckham.

Here's a link to the actual research, showing that it's a definite strategy of various 'bad actors' to make people believe that London is 'a shit hole'

https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/misinformation-and-disinformation-in-london-risks-and-responses-e6jd9/

With a little excerpt here:

...the following actors were assessed as active in
promoting or amplifying misleading content related to London:

4Annex – misinformation and disinformation in London
• Extreme-Right Wing (ERW) and UK ERW groups
• Russian-aligned or ‘Pro-Kremlin’ groups
• Beijing-aligned groups
• MAGA-aligned groups.

The relative prominence of actors varied across narratives. For example, within the structured sample over the two-year period from March 2024 to March 2026, UK ERW ecosystems appeared to be among the most prominent contributors to several clusters, particularly those relating to crime and violence against women and girls. They accounted for around 39% of phone snatching and knife crime-related content and 25% of violence against women and girls content.

Additional networks were also identified across multiple geographies. This included a Vietnam-based Facebook network of at least 42 pages, with a combined following ofaround 1.25 million. It used repeated, AI-generated imagery and coordinated high-volume posting, including impersonation of local media outlets, to produce emotive content at scale. The network targeted London and the Mayor, framing the city as a site of governance failure and housing injustices.

Further networks included a Sri Lanka-based content farm producing monetised AI-generated posts and a Nigeria-based cluster impersonating UK media outlets. Common tactics across these networks included impersonation of credible sources, use of sensationalist headlines, and AI-generated imagery to maximise engagement.

(Bold by me.)

Perhaps some of you, like @Netcurtainnelly, might actually have a read of this research and therefore realise that you're being played here.

Have you ever seen the pair of them in the same room?