Streatham: isnt it awful that this is the new norm?

[yolofish]

Man with a knife stabs at least two people in a shop in Streatham, South London. Man shot dead by police.

Isnt it dreadful that this seems to be new norm - only 2 other people hurt, not much to see here, move along now?

Like the gun crime too - we just seem to accept it.

Makes me very sad.

Yikes - three people stabbed, two very badly, all three in hospital now.

Two stabbed, one hit by glass when the police shot a window behind the attacker.

It isn't new but it has never been the norm.

When I first moved to London there were IRA bombings and bomb scares all the time. Really nasty incidents.

There was a bomb in the pub next to my student placement - The Sussex near Covent Garden.

Then we have had years of drug related and gang violence, yardies, triads etc - now mostly mopped up.

Now yes, there is horrible knife crime.

But I can tell you that no one local to Streatham tonight considers this anything like the norm.

I live in south London. This is not the norm.

I've lived in London for 23 years. What strikes me is that Londoners will help in a crisis, but the next day is a new one and everyone moves on. Sad, but true. I think everything, generally, moves more quickly.

Remember, London has always been volatile. In recent history: bombings, riots, stabbings, grand theft. The difference now is that there are not enough police on the streets, the ones that are about fail to connect with the communities they serve, so your average criminal has nothing to fear.

Absolutely the new norm. Get used to it.

We don’t get this out in the shires

Yet.

I suppose there was a change 15 years ago, with 7/7 and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes byvyhd police on the tube at Stockwell.

That day they shot the wrong man, believing in horrible error that he was on his way to central London Ti do something atrocious

Today, it seems they stopped the right car on its way to central London, and shot someone who would indeed have done considerable harm

I live in Streatham. This is not the norm.

It’s very sad

But of course it’s not the norm stop being so dramatic

But I do tend to agree that other shootings and knife crimes attract far less attention. That should not be the case.

I remember the night a car killed people on London Bridge and the attackers then got out and stabbed people in Borough Market. The news channels were also reporting a third incident relatively nearby where two people were stabbed. Within the hour it became known this third incident wasn’t linked to the terrorist attack so the news channels just dropped the story. It wasn’t reported the next day, no mention of the people stabbed or whether the perpetrator was caught. It wasn’t an important news story because the person doing it didn’t have a religious ideology as the reason for doing it, apparently. What a hideous world we live in where two people being stabbed is initially reported then dropped as unimportant.

I agree, years ago it would have been news headlines. Of course it's becoming the norm.

I was there today as I'm born & raised there. Growing up around there yes crime was present but this is absolutely not the norm.

@notanurse2017 my dad got held up at work at knife point 20 years ago there, you don’t ask people to put phones away at the odeon, everywhere in London it’s almost normal now

I agree, years ago it would have been news headlines. Of course it's becoming the norm

It is news headlines

I’ve lived pretty much my whole life here in Streatham and this not our normal.

I agree, years ago it would have been news headlines.

It is literally all over every news channel!

Who says it’s the norm?! It’s been headline news since it happened, no-one is brushing it under the carpet or moving on. Don’t know why you’re suggesting this is the case, OP.

I find it curious that the perpetrator came from Harrow but appears to have trekked all the way to Streatham to carry out this attack.

It is being reported that he was under surveillance having been let out of a prison sentence after serving half his term. Was he trying to shake off his surveillance and did he give them the slip, or was he under the illusion he had done so when he launched his attack?

As with other areas, terrorist attacks aren't the norm for Streatham but, even though these attacks are infrequent, they have become our new normal.

Many other would-be terrorists are unknown, are considered rehabilitated, are under surveillance, or have slipped through the net, and it seems that all we can do is be aware of our individual personal safety when out and about and wait for the next strike.

In the meantime we should all be thankful that, at the time of writing. none of the victims of this latest outrage have died

Streatham was very stabby around 20 years ago ime. Not as bad as coldharbour lane etc but it was pretty bad. If anything it's better now than it was then. There were some real nasty bastards around then, pimps and what are now termed human traffickers and the like, real flint hearted bad men. And the gangs were rough too. Even teenagers, they were hard rough kids, just so violent. It's way better now.

@busybarbara

And yet property prices are still through the roof and everyone wants to live in London. We don’t get this out in the shires

Can you explain why you felt the need to make such a comment? On a thread with people who live close to this terrifying (NOT the norm!) incident?

The Streatham Facebook page tonight is full of mums, your fellow mothers, who we are all here on MN to support ‘, seeking advice and support to comfort distraught children who saw this incident.

Streatham is a place where many ordinary families found cheaper housing than other areas, going about their ordinary lives, paying high prices because this is where they can find work.

Why do you need to be so smug?

And The Shires have plenty of atrocities, especially if you compare per capita of population.

But you know what? On a road that leads directly on to the High Rd this afternoon, residents opened a new public garden that they had made. In a wassailing ceremony (very shires) and even as the sirens were screaming and helicopters roaring, they pledged to support the community.

They didn’t make smug comments about the victims.

Perhaps that is a shires thing?

Until about 20 years ago, I lived in Balham. When we moved there, the big 'thing' was drug dealers making retailers use their scales in the shops. There weren't very many murders though, at least not according to the South London Press (which may now be defunct, I don't know). Shooting wasnt a thing, nor was knife crime

You are either being nostalgically romantic or you weren’t concentrating!

@yolofish

You keep talking about knife crime

This was a terror attack.
He was a known terriost, who had just come out of prison for that very offense.

This case is very complex and alot will come out over the next few days.

Undercover police shot him dead. Quickly, before he hurt more people

This is not normal OP

Everyday stabbings, Yes normal.

Terror attacks, No!!!

Streatham was very stabby around 20 years ago ime.

Ugh, I hate that term.

And it depends what part of Streatham you are talking about. Plus in the 80s Streatham high road was pretty well to do with Pratt's etc.

There's definitely less crime in general but I think it's easier to get caught up in crime these days. When I was a teen for example you avoided certain Battersea estates, Coldharbour Lane after dark & stayed away from drugs, were wary of the pimps & prostitutes on Tooting Common etc.

Streatham was very stabby around 20 years ago ime.

I lived and got married there 20 years ago. I don’t recall major incidents. I was forever on the high street in one of the pubs watching the prostitutes take their clients behind the cinema opposite O’Neills pub, but that was the biggest issue.

I remember the dh and I bemoaning the fact that we didn’t buy there because we’d be living in a massive property now having moved almost out of commuter distance.

We certainly never felt uneasy. We frequently got the night bus back from central London, never had a moment’s bother.

Even Brixton was starting to look gentrified at the time. I just remember the man in a red leather skirt, beard on a bike going round Tooting Common, apparently ‘operating out of a tree’. Highlight of living nearby.

@Cherrysoup Oh yeah sexy legs as we used to call him, not seen him for a few yrs.