More murders committed in London than New York as stabbings surge

Cressida Dick pointed to research on the “loss of inhibitions” among “people in front of a keyboard” that leads to a soaring rate of knife crime, particularly among children, as a cause of the rise in violence in the capital.

After 13 Londoners were killed in a two-week period last month, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Commissioner told Police Professional that websites and mobile phone applications were “glamorising” the ability of criminal gangs to posture on social media.

Of the 48 murder investigations launched by the MPS in 2018 – which include two killings in Tottenham and Walthamstow on Easter Monday – 31 have been a result of stabbings.

People who are “incredibly abusive. . . would never dream of doing that if they were sitting in a room with you or me”, said Ms Dick. “It’s just the way of things; we know that this is happening.

“I think it makes gang violence more likely. It certainly makes it faster.

“Gangs can posture on social media and talk about who they are, what they are and what they’ve achieved. Their attitudes to this, that or the other are maybe not unlawful, but nevertheless are glamorising to lots of people. And they’re showing off with weapons.

“There is research about the level of disinhibition that people who are in front of a keyboard have. And that might be anybody. I think it’s extraordinary.”

While New York’s murder rate decreased from the end of January, London’s rose markedly from that point. Data from the MPS and New York Police Department, obtained by The Sunday Times and the BBC and confirmed to Police Professional by the MPS shows more murders committed in the city in February and March than there were in New York. It also highlights narrowing murder rates between the two cities, which have similar population sizes.

FBI data and studies by the late Eric Monkkonen, a researcher at the University of California, show that since 1800 London has had a murder rate per person of between half and a 20th of New York’s.

Ms Dick said trivial disputes could escalate into violence “within minutes” when rivals set out to goad each other on the internet. And insults or threats online “makes it harder for people to cool down before they get going and it allows a conversation of a ‘show-offy’ sort to go on and on and on between people”.

Ms Dick added: “That can involve talking about violence that probably does rev people up. I’m sure it does.”

Ex-MPS Chief Superintendent Leroy Logan says it is proof that “London’s violent traits have become a virus”.

Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office said it was “deeply concerned” by the latest figures, but, along with the MPS, insisted that London “remains one of the safest [cities] in the world”.

Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on knife crime, told the BBC’s Today programme that the UK should follow New York’s example in tackling violent crime.

“New York has been able to bring down serious violence through a public health approach,” she said.

“We need a proper strategy that looks at all of the issues.”

Ms Jones added: “Knife crime and violent crime acts like an epidemic, so you need to go in at the source to cut it off and then you need to inoculate the future young people against it.”

In January, the MPS investigated eight murders whereas the NYPD looked into 18 killings. By February, the NYPD’s figures had dropped to 11, while London’s rose to 15. Last month, 22 murders were investigated in London while 21 inquiries were launched in New York.

There have already been three murders in the first two days of April – a 20-year-old man, was stabbed to death after leaving a bar in the Earlsfield area of south west London in the early hours of Easter Sunday; a 17-year-old girl died after she was found with gunshot wounds in Tottenham; and a 16-year-old boy found with bullet wounds in Walthamstow within an hour of the Easter Monday fatal shooting died on Tuesday (April 3).

Last year, the MPS said years of funding cuts were partly to blame for the steep rise in crime in the capital.

The force has had to make £600 million in savings since 2010 and is tasked with finding £400 million more by 2020.

Meanwhile, a note of caution has been sounded by policing senior academic Jerry Ratcliffe on year-to-date figures that formulate murder comparisons. He says it is unwise to “necessarily worry about crime panics at the beginning of the year” and look, instead, to analyse mid-year to mid-year statistics.

The Office for National Statistics has previously warned that police-registered crime must be interpreted with caution, attributing much of the rise to changes in recording practices and increased confidence of victims in coming forward. Its preferred measure, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, shows that overall crime has fallen ten per cent over the last year, to an annual total of 10.6 million incidents.