London’s murder rate continues upwards

springtide

Maybe the new Mayor of London can take on a few more knife crime incidents as Khan doesn't appear very bothered with knife crime outside of London??

Maybe, just maybe, the issue is with the current government ???

CRIMEWAVE BRITAIN: 'CRISIS' as Birmingham stabbings rate overtakes London
CRIMEWAVE BRITAIN: 'CRISIS' as Birmingham stabbings rate overtakes London

Violent crime reaches record levels in Bristol area
Violent crime reaches record levels in Bristol area

Manchester’s knife crime epidemic is no different to that of London
Manchester's knife crime epidemic is no different to that of London | Metro News

Knife crime up to highest level in 10 years on Merseyside
Knife crime up to highest level in 10 years on Merseyside

Police take 140 blades off the streets of Hampshire as new figures reveal knife crime is on the increase
Police take 140 blades off the streets of Hampshire as new figures reveal knife crime is on the increase

More than 100 stab victims admitted to Leeds hospitals last year as knife crime soars
More than 100 stab victims in Leeds hospitals as knife crime soars

Knife crime in Oxford - is it on the rise?
Rise in Oxford stabbings - what's going on?

Crime Commissioner says knife crime has 'peaked' after five incidents in four days (nottingham)
Crime Commissioner says knife crime has 'peaked' after 5 incidents in four days

Knife crime 'has become a normality' in Sheffield
Knife crime 'a normality' in Sheffield

Knife crimes increase by more than a third in Lancashire as violent offences spiral (blackpool)
Knife crimes increase by more than a third in Lancashire as violent offences spiral

Knives involved in one in four robberies as warning children as young as nine falling victim (middlesbrough)
Knives involved in 1 in 4 robberies with victims as young as 9

The soaring amount of knife crimes in the North East - in numbers (Newcastle)
The soaring number of knife crimes in the North East

The huge knife crime surge in Cambridgeshire amid 'national crisis'
The huge knife crime surge in Cambridgeshire amid 'national crisis'

Knife crime and violence: Brighton and Hove MPs call for action
'This is a national crisis'- city's MPs call for taskforce to tackle violence

Knife crime in Kent increases at fastest rate in country
Kent is nation's fastest-growing knife crime county

'Serious and unsettling' - Community reacts to rising tide of knife crime in Norwich
'Serious and unsettling' - Community reacts to rising tide of knife crime in Norwich

Knife crime convictions in Cornwall and Devon at highest level for seven years
Knife crime convictions in Cornwall and Devon at highest level for seven years

Knife crime trebles in parts of Wales, Home Office says
Knife crime trebles in parts of Wales

Knife crime in Dorset rises more than 60 per cent in just five years
Knife crime in Dorset rises more than 60 per cent in just five years

Violent crime soars to highest ever level across Berkshire and Thames Valley
Violent crime soars to highest ever level

The terrifying knife crime to plague Kent's streets in 2019 so far
The terrifying knife crime to plague Kent's streets in 2019 so far

A violent or sexual crime happens in Margate every 6-and-a-half-hours - and this what people think is behind it
Violent crime is reported in Margate every 6.5 hours - this is what's behind it

Concern over increasing proportion of youngsters involved in knife crime (ipswich)
Rising level of knife carrying youths 'need to know the consequences'

Have I missed any major city???

raduv1

But the increase in London is way out there and perhaps a catylist for this rise elsewhere.

                                                                       

springtide

The link you showed is per region compared to London. How does say Manchester compare to London?

How does London's spate of killings compare with other cities?

The Metropolitan police investigated twice as many murders as Greater Manchester police in the year ending March 2017

Population of Manchester = Approx 500K  Population of London = Approx 8M (~ x16)

As the UK’s biggest city by far, London would be expected to have consistently the highest number of homicides, and it has, excluding Hillsborough, but murder rates as a proportion of population are higher elsewhere, and not just in other large cities.

OK so you blame Khan for all of the knife crimes across the whole of the country!

If you want to believe that then I'll not argue, but personally I think you are wrong.

It is about time this government does something other than argue about Brexit.

raduv1

Depend if one believes  he has delivered on his manifesto pledge on knife crime in the capitol .

Challenging gangs, knife crime and violence For many communities, gang activity, the related threat of violence, and in particular knife crime, are a shocking daily reality. No Londoner deserves to live in fear, and nor does any young Londoner deserve to be sucked into the gang lifestyle for lack of hope, opportunity or a strong role model. I will challenge gang culture and knife crime head on. I will: • Implement a tough knife crime strategy that focuses resources on tackling the city’s gangs, cracking down on shops illegally selling knives and working on tougher community payback for those caught with knives, in addition to jail time and traditional sentencing. • Work closely with local authorities, schools and youth services to develop anti-gang strategies, while working with community organisations to further youth engagement, building upon a review of the anti-gang Matrix system. • Ensure that school liaison officers continue to work closely with schools, and continue to back the City Safe Haven initiative. • Sell Boris Johnson’s water cannon and spend the receipts on youth projects aimed at decreasing gang crime. • Fight for further powers over youth justice, probation and courts, so that the Mayor has a joined-up role across the justice system in cutting crime and reoffending

Notice its " I will " as such then only one person to blame with the rise in knife crime in the capitol .

Toko Black

You are conflating several distinct arguments:

1) measuring failed promises and pledges.
It is not unreasonable to evaluate a list of pledges and promises someone makes, rate their effectiveness at being achieved (or not) and of course highlighting the failures.
It is somewhat of a subjective opinion and relative to context as to what an overall success/failure is measured upon. For some situations or people, success may be a simple as delivering > 50% of what they aimed to achieve, while for others it's a failure if even one single target is missed.

2) false promises or naivety:
While it is fair to say that a failure is a failure regardless of the intentions of the individual or organisation, the reasons and scope of those failures has some impact upon guilt/responsibility and effects.
Is the failure a result of deliberate and wilful attempts to mislead the public or the result of the naive belief that the individual was capable of delivering something that in reality they were not ?
Did an individual or organisation deliberately intend to not do something they said they would ?
One could reasonably argue that neither case makes someone suitable for high office, but most certainly the deliberate attempts to mislead should result in greater condemnation and punishment.

3) Scope of powers and influence:
Does the particular role have sufficient scope to cover all aspects of the causes and solutions to a problem ?
If it doesn't, and significant aspects of the problem are outside of their control, then potentially it doesn't matter what they do or how well they do it, they are not going to be able to achieve a successful outcome soley as a result of their own abilities and actions.
If it is either unreasonable to assume someone else could have achieved a positive result by either the limitations of the specific powers they were given in the role, or as a result of the limitations and capacities of human beings, then it is unreasonable to apply or assert blame.

If the individual by misleading or naivity stopped someone else taking a role that was able to make a positive impact, because a) they had the skills and abilities AND b) the role gave them all the opertunities required to do what was needed, then I would argue it is perfectly reasonable to blame that individual.

However, at present the evidence available appears to suggest that in the role of Mayor of London, any individual would be severely restricted by the limitations of that role with regards to effecting the causes, occurances and results of knife crime.
That cohesive and far reaching Policy across many aspects of the law, society, health and politics would be required to make a significant difference to gang murders, knife crimes etc.

NB: I accept Sadiq Khan to be guilty of naivity in making pledges and promises that couldn't keep.
That however does not automatically equate to being responsible for the increase in knife crime.

springtide

I believe anyone with half a brain can see from the above that knife crime has become a major problem across the UK.

Stop and Search has massively increased within London but it’s been stated the Met don’t have the people resources to cope with what is needed.

Both Khan and the Met have highlighted this to the government many many times and have asked for an increase in Police numbers.

The sad story of this is the government haven’t delivered, and what they have has been too little too late. As I said, too busy arguing about Brexit and they have their heads stuck in the ground.

We all know drug gangs are a major issue, most of the Tory MPs running for PM have admitted taking class A drugs, so maybe for a start let’s have some drug law reform?

Mayors can make promises but unless they have the tools for the job then the changes they can make are fairly limited.

As I pointed out, London murder rates are x8 lower per capita than Manchester, so London is fair from the worst.

domtheone

Maybe we just have to accept it as the norm.

We have a sterile police force (limited powers and numbers).  

We have a lenient criminal justice system, and, as a society, we tolerate criminals far too much.

We have an open border immigration policy (undesirables can come and go with relative ease).
  
Without radical reform of all of the above, there can be no really effective solution.

The solutions are patently obvious, yet we have no stomach to go there.

Cliff

I see little point in arguing about which city gets the gold star for the highest murder rate. We (Khan) should look at why there are so many stabbings. In terms of the numbers and motive this is a relatively new type of crime. Murders make the news but stabbings that are non-fatal are incredibly high. Our hospitals are having to deal with it on a regular basis.

nheather

Khan is constantly trying to delegate responsibility, often saying that the problem is lack of Police funding as a result of Tory government policies.  Not saying that is not a contributing factor but if it were the most significant contributor then you would expect to see the same pattern across the whole country.  But in reality we are seeing knife crime rising much faster in London.  So maybe we should look at what other things make London different from the rest of the country.

Cheers,

Nigel

weaviemx5

The national statistics don't support that;

Knife crime rising more steeply outside London, police figures show

                                                                               

Whilst an 11% increase in London may result in more individual knife crimes (as the population is so much larger), it doesn't mean that knife crime is growing at a faster rate there.

“Lots of different things can happen and each on their own might not lead to anything significant but if they all happen in tandem you can get quite a big shift as is the case here,” said Muir.

Craig Kelly, a criminology lecturer at Birmingham City University, said the data showed that knife crime is a national issue and that politicians, media and academics were “far too focused on London”.

He said: “We’ve focused predominantly on knife crime and violence in London for generations. We’ve literally forgotten to ask what happens to the young lad growing up in Wythenshawe or Longsight [in Manchester].”

Kelly said Britain was in the grip of a cyclical spike in knife crime, after a surge of violent offences in 2008 and in the early 1990s. “It always comes after we’ve had some kind of economic turmoil,” he said.