What's happening in London? Brawl involving 100 people?

[AllTheCarsForMe]

I've just seen on Sky News that a teenager has passed away after a "brawl" involving more than 100 people! What on earth is going on?

Although I'm not the OP;

I emigrated from England 50 years ago. The London I left was very safe, even at night. My sister and I used to leave the club in the wee hours of the morning and walk a few miles in the direction of her flat before we got a taxi, in order to save money.

Sure there were football hooligans and the Rockers and Mods battles at the seaside, but ordinary people going. about their lives were not in danger.

Frankly, HundredMilesAnHour, if anyone was being patronising it was you with the 'Educate yourself' malarky. I'm not sure how telling you that you're not the only Londoner on here is patronising.

I live in a not so posh area of London and have never felt unsafe, so I'm sorry you feel you can't even go out with a bag. There's a huge problem with poverty and deprivation and all that comes with that where we are (north London), but I don't know anyone personally who's been mugged and any violence seems to be gang related where we are, so it's contained, so to speak.

@ThisIsMyHappyFacee why as soon as its youths you instantly jump to its a gang thing. Majority of youths killed are actually not in gangs!

@BlodynGwyn

Sure there were football hooligans and the Rockers and Mods battles at the seaside, but ordinary people going. about their lives were not in danger.

But ordinary people going about their lives are still not in danger.

These incidents are terrible but they are almost exclusively gang-related. These incidents touch a tiny fraction of Londoners' lives and the proportions of people whose lives are affected is roughly equivalent, or higher, in other large urban areas.

Obviously they are deeply worrying incidents and people are right to feel angry and scared about them. But its inaccurate and inflammatory to say it only happens in London.

Posts like this really drive home the fact that lots of people have no concept of just how big London is. No reason why they should, but it’s interesting. OP, in terms of population, we’re bigger than quite a lot of countries.

I also think they show how many live in a bubble. eg "not my area", "gang related" even if the victim isn't actually in the gang it's often assumed so because they are not white. Many find it easy to ignore that way.

He may be ultimately in charge of policing, but its central government that sets the budget for policing in London, which has been reduced ever since the mayor of London ceased being a Conservative. So whilst SK is in charge, there's nothing he can do about the fact there just aren't enough officers working in London, because he isn't given the budget to recruit more, let alone all the other increased costs the Met are facing. Which is down to the Tories.

If it’s gang related then rarely do people unrelated get hurt. I know that sounds awful but I lived on a gang boundary there was frequent violence but I walked through in the middle of it and no one would harm me. It’s massively a worry if you have teenagers particularly teenage boys.

Except if your a teenage boy & particularly if black. I'm a Londoner & there are plenty of crime I could avoid but some friends didn't have the same luxury.

I've lived in London for 55 years of my life - mostly in nice areas but they are mixed in composition but also in less salubrious parts. I've seen very little crime - experienced some burglaries, had my wallet stolen off a pub table and out of my bag in Oxford Circus. But I've never seen any violent crime or brawls. Given 9 million people live here (nearly as many as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together) its hardly surprising there's some crime. But in fact its Bradford that ranks highest in the uK for crime.

This particular incident was down to youths turning up uninvited to a party, but I'd say, based on what's reported so often, that the majority of youths murdered in the capital ARE in gangs and it stems from the explosion of county drugs lines like this one.

It does my head in when I hear naice middle class people joking/boasting about taking drugs recreationally and then sneer at 'Lawless London' – not talking about anyone on this thread! – without appreciating the irony that the shit they shovel up their noses when out clubbing at weekends is at the root of the gang violence problem we have here!

& of course when we talk about the gang violence related to drugs there's very little said about the actual drug users who are often the same ones looking down their noses at the uncouth young in a "rougher" part of London!

Serious youth violence is a growing problem. It always spikes in periods of political or economic instability (2011 riots, anyone?) but the added element of social media makes it more attractive and contagious.

Agree

Yes, it does depend on what part you live in. That’s rather the point. It’s a big city and there’s lots happening at any point.

If you’re going to complain about condescension, then displaying some level of reading comprehension might be helpful.

Tower Hamlets, say no more!

thank you for proving my point!

I grew up in a rural small town with about 17000 residents. I now live in London.

A few years ago two teenagers murdered a girl and her mother.

So if you scale up the numbers then that tiny town is way more dangerous than London. It’s all relative.

Violence in young people is shocking wherever it takes place but it doesn’t help to tar an entire region as dangerous.

Quite.
Always reported as “ people”, “gangs’ or “kids”. But always in fact males doing the stabbing, stamping, thumping.
It’s not where you live or poverty or race. It’s bringing boys up not to be entitled and violent. Females live in these places and are poor and from different ethnicities. Whilst some are completely vile humans capable of horrible things they aren’t responsible for crap like this every week all over the country.

Crossed post! Absolutely agree with this. I have friends outside London who think it's a terrible place to live but take drugs recreationally and don't see they're part of the problem.

London has a very high rate of very serious crime compared to other capitals in Europe. It was by far the worst last time I checked. Other cities in the UK are even worse and feature among the most dangerous places in Europe in any of those lists.
Of course it is mainly men and mainly men in trouble, like everywhere else.

And on the other side of the coin, Eilish McColgan set a new course record for a half marathon - on a course that went through Tower Hamlets and had considerable community support.

It's one of the weirdities of London, the good and the bad cheek by jowl

GB News love to peddle this narrative of Khan the muslim mayor, London out of control, immigrant gangs, blah blah blah...when the truth is a huge city like London will never be murder free, or free of gangs and it always has and will.

Yet I live here and have never been robbed. I don't actually know anyone who has been robbed or killed and I don't live in a well to do area either, an area similar to Bow - part gentrified with a Victorian house costing over a million , with pockets of council estates with very very poor people. By and large everyone gets on with it.

Hate to blow the bubble of the London haters, but its one of the safest cities in the world. Tower Hamlets is a good example of London, it has Canary Wharf and all the wealth contained in it, yet a 10 mins walk and you'll be in council estates. Tower Hamlets has the highest number of people living in poverty

You can bet these 100 boys fighting aren't privately educated, from wealthy homes and because of that, the police don't really give a shit, never have , never will....

@Youaremysunshine14 yes, I hadn't get to the end of the thread when I posted.

I don't touch drugs & the vast majority of people I grew up with don't. when you see the impact it puts you off big time. Plus if some of my friends had been caught with say cannabis then they were unlikely to get a slap on the wrist.

I think we'd better get used to crime. With the cost of living rising and rising there is going to be more theft and violence. I see it where I live in the west country. People are angry. I think there will be rioting before long.

I was curious, so checked. Coventry and Bradford are currently the most dangerous cities in Europe.

• https://www.numbeo.com/crime/region_rankings.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=0&region=150
• https://expatriateconsultancy.com/most-dangerous-cities-in-europe/
• https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-city-gets-unwanted-title-27786351.amp
• https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-named-second-most-dangerous-24814094.amp

Yup. A substantial share of the blame here falls on the Tories, there's no getting round that.

Apologies, I don’t think those links worked.

www.numbeo.com/crime/region_rankings.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=0&region=150

expatriateconsultancy.com/most-dangerous-cities-in-europe/

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-city-gets-unwanted-title-27786351.amp

www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-named-second-most-dangerous-24814094.amp