UK: Knife Crime Soars to Five-Year High After Stop and Search Deemed 'Racist'

Knife crime has soared since Theresa May kerbed police use of stop and search, a tactic that activists condemn as “racist” but which senior officers insist saves black lives.

The year ending December 2016 saw 32,448 criminal offences involving a blade or other sharp weapon take place in Britain, a rise of 14 per cent from the previous year and the biggest knife crime total since 2011.

With five young men having been stabbed to death in London already this year, police warn that these are the first signs of a knife crime epidemic in major UK cities.

The increase comes as figures revealed the number of stops and searches shrunk 57 per cent in 2015-16 compared to 2013-14.

Knife crime recorded in England and Wales was in decline at the beginning of the decade, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) notes the trend has reversed in the past two years.

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