It was another evening of horrific violence in the capital. Two boys, 15 and 16, stabbed to death within hours of each other in separate attacks.
If the current, appalling rate of teen murders continues, our city is set to break an unwanted record of 29 recorded in 2008. And with lockdown restrictions due to be lifted on July 19, one former armed robber who has since turned his life around noted ominously that he is “anticipating a violent summer”.
The 21 teenage murders are not spread evenly across London, either by age or ethnicity. Each one is a crime, a tragedy and a family whose lives will never be whole again.
Last month, Commander Alex Murray, the Met’s lead for violence, made an urgent intervention, calling for local communities to help prevent more bloodshed. He is right — fighting and preventing violent crime requires a partnership between police and local people.
We also need the Mayor and Met to provide immediate solutions to make Londoners feel safe. And protect these teenagers.
But for Covid-19, this epidemic of knife crime would lead every conversation. We need this to be treated like the emergency it is.
If the Government is serious about reducing violent crime nationwide, it must fund the additional police Sadiq Khan and the Met have called for.
In the longer-term, we need to redouble our efforts to get knives off our streets. That means the judicious and intelligence-led use of stop and search, as well as the public health approach that this paper has campaigned for, and since adopted by the Mayor.
But these take time. Parents are afraid their sons may go out and not return. We need more visible police and a sense of urgency that matches the scale of the crisis. The Mayor and Met must get a grip.
