To wonder who is actually responsible for rising murder rates in london

[SaucyJane]

So slimy frog faced Nigel Farage is blaming Sadiq Khan as mayor and particularly for reducing stop and search. There are also other calls for Khan to resign.

But surely there is only so much Khan can do if the government makes huge cuts to the police. And weren't those cuts made under Maggie May?

I didn't vote for Khan to be the mayor, and I am no fan of his, but it seems to me that it is unfair to blame it on him, and that the answer is probably partly government cuts and partly some of his changes since being mayor.

AIBU?

The people who murder people are responsible.

retirednow beat me to it.

Yep...murderers are responsible. Next question?

Yup what retired said

Right, cheers.

Maybe share your ideas about how we can go about reducing the numbers rather than allowing them to rise? Or of course we could just stick with the snarky one word comments as that makes for a fabulous forum?! 🙄

There is clearly something behind a sharp rise in murder rates. I don't think a glib "murderers are responsible" reply is particularly useful.

www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-misplaced-panic-about-londons-murder-rate/21268

I agree saying the murderers are responsible is no way helpful.

I live in an area which has a very high murder rate in London. I don't want my children shot in a drive by shooting.

Theresa May slashing police numbers, funding, and powers, is responsible.

I'm not sure what Sadiq Khan can be expected to do on this backdrop.

Apparently there are some reports saying "SHOCK london murder rate now worse than new york!!!" but if you look, london is reltively static and NY is coming DOWN. So real headline would be - "Great news! NY murder rate down!".

Why is it going up? Going to be austerity linked I'd have thought - less outreach, youth work, community centres, mentors and all of that stuff, the funding all went kaput. Plus, police in London are not in evidence generally, they are interested in big exciting things like terrorism, they aren't interested in everyday stuff and sadly kids stabbing each other in london is not uncommon and it's not a section of society the police (govt) are that fussed about. The shootings are less common so why these are up, I would hope is being looked at.

The UK does generally seem to be becoming more violent. Knife and gun crime is definitely on the rise. I don’t expect the situation to improve

I am only speculating, but gang warfare could be a cause. So could increased poverty. As could ethnic tensions.

The whole story seems a little overblown for now

www.vladtv.com/images/size_fs/video_image-472987.jpg

Dukes - that's interesting, thank you.

In terms of the gang related murders, as opposed to say robbery, i was wondering about the effects of internet and social media too; whether there's any desire to appear hard/intimidating; whether violence is incited this way; whether people can be tracked more easily and therefore targeted? It's one of the things that has really changed in the last few years.

First,

Parents. These kids have no respect, thy run around in gangs because they want to feel as part of something, because they don't have a family unit at home.

Police need more powers to stop and search not less. Government need to sort it.

Then there are the acid attacks too. Really horrible

I agree saying the murderers are responsible is no way helpful.

Maybe not, but it is accurate.

A massive loss in community services must have contributed, especially where you are talking about youth crime and gang behaviour.

I saw a news report at the weekend that suggested the real reason the rate in London has overtaken NY is that New York’s rate has decreased. I’m afraid I can’t quote the stats, but if true the story might not be the one that is doing the rounds.

Having said that, every single loss of young life in this way is a tragedy.

Many of the young people caught up in gang activity are running drugs for criminal gangs. London is a hub for cocaine import and distribution and until this is tackled, there will always be young people who are vulnerable to be exploited to carry drugs for people in their area.

I work for a charity that works directly with young people who are in the middle of this, so I know what I'm taking about. Many of them talk about how they can be targetted by someone from a different postcode if there's rivalry and therefore they don't feel safe - this is why so many young people in London carry knives. Many of them are from broken homes, disadvantaged backgrounds, and I can completely understand why the idea of making money dealing or running drugs appeals.

There needs to be a multi-agency response. Yes, the police need more funding, there also needs to be funding to break up criminal gangs who are controlling drug imports. Young people who grow up on poor estates need to see a viable alternative to dealing or petty crime, and they need real help on leaving school to find meaningful employment. Councils have cut youth budgets massively - many boroughs have no funding for youth clubs or youth work, leaving young people with no where to go at weekends and during the evenings. All these issues matter. There's no one quick fix.

I'd blame Nigel Farage if I thought it made any sense

Sadly acid attacks will become more common because when they are stopped and searched the police dont check what's it there drinks bottle. It's a way to get away with having something if you need it but not getting charged as having a weapon in a stop and search.

Myriad of reasons that feed off each other. Cuts to policing, youth services and mental health services all play a role. More young people hanging around the street makes them .ore likely to be involved in gang-rated activity. A lot of gang activity is linked to drugs and drug-dealing. I live at the end of one of the tube lines in a place that has traditionally been low in creating but we've seen an increase in crime caused by gangs of youths which the police say is gang-rated activity spilling out from inner London and it is all to do with selling drugs.

It's male violence, innit...

It's a culture of "untouchability" - stop & search has been cranked down as it was perceived to target certain subsets of people.

These are also the subsets of people that are killing other people.

Crank Stop & Search back up, put more police on the ground in certain areas & that'll be a start.

If it was police cuts by the Tories you would expect similar rises in crime nationwide as police budgets have been cut nationwide.

This simply isn’t happening outside of London at anywhere near the same levels. So whatever is causing it is likely to be something unique to London, which would obviously be Sadiq Khan and Mayoral involvement with policing.

It’s simple logic it’s got to be down to Khan’s policies. I don’t know how anybody could argue otherwise with a straight face.