News Comment

Gun and knife crime jumped in London over the last year, official figures show – as the Metropolitan police’s performance was criticised by the official inspectorate.

Gun crime was up 42% and knife crime rose 24%. Overall crime was up 4.5% to nearly 774,737 offences, with 16.72% counted as solved, down from 18.8% the previous year.

The Met published the figures on Wednesday as Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary highlighted “some areas of serious concern” – drawing attention to several problems faced by Britain’s largest force.

These figures are indicative of a system that is failing people in protecting and creating a safe society. It is young people that are offenders of possessing knives and guns. Research indicates that for many young people this is to protect them from situations in their community that requires them to be safe.

Indeed it seems that risking jail terms or more attractive than being ill equipped for the concrete jungle they live in.

Britain has been unable to deal with these problems in an effective manner. The solutions put forward fail to realise that the real cause of the crime epidemic is the underlying values that permeate throughout every facet of Western society – capitalism, individualism, materialism, personal freedom’s

The root problem therefore is not drugs, illiteracy, social deprivation, poverty or crime – the real problem are these values. Values that have created a society where young people feel safer carrying weapons and unfortunately ready to use them too. Values where they have no self accounting process, rather it is based on their environment and what they feel they need to do to survive in their community.

If Britain wants to reduce knives and guns culture, it must take a good look on the mirror and ask itself – what has led so many in society to reject law and risk their own lives and liberty?

Self accounting and holding on to strong values that drives a society to abstain from wrong and do good is needed, which is distinctly absent today.

فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ

وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

“Whoever has done an atom’s-weight of good will see it, but whoever has done an atom’s-weight of evil will see that.” {Az-Zalzalah: 7-8}

News Article: Gun crime in London increases by 42%

Gun crime offences in London surged by 42% in the last year, according to official statistics.

The Met Police’s figures showed there were 2,544 gun crime offences from April 2016 to April 2017 compared to 1,793 offences from 2015 until 2016.

Knife crime also increased by 24% with 12,074 recorded offences from 2016 to 2017.

The Met said although crime rates were rising they remained at a much lower level than five years ago.

Scotland Yard registered annual rises across a number of serious offence categories in the past 12 months, following several years of falls.

The total number of offences during the 2016 to 2017 financial year was 774,737, an increase of 4% from the previous year when total offences stood at 740,933.

Knife crime offences that resulted in an injury also increased, by 21% to 4,415 from 2016 to 2017, compared to 3,663 offences the year before.

The force said robbery offences, which increased 12% year-on-year, were at about half the level of 2006-2007 and there were 58 fewer homicides this year compared to 10 years ago.

Martin Hewitt, assistant commissioner responsible for territorial policing, said: “Similar to the rest of England and Wales, crime rates in London are rising, but many of these are still at a much lower level than five years ago and are against the backdrop of significant reductions in resources.

“Whilst we continue to focus on reducing stabbings by taking weapons and dangerous offenders off the streets, prevention and diversion from knife crime is key.

“There are complex social reasons why more young people are carrying knives and this cannot be solved by the police alone, we must work with communities to help combat knife crime.”

Drug offences fell by 9%, from 41,164 to 37,374. Burglary offences also fell slightly, from 69,703 to 69,501.

Sophie Linden, London’s deputy mayor for policing, said: “These figures are deeply disturbing, and a stark reminder of the enormous pressure our police are under every day as they work so tirelessly to protect us.”

A report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said it was satisfied with the Met’s overall performance, but warned there were areas of “serious concern” about its effectiveness that needed to be addressed.

BBC