London’s Metropolitan Police have opened at least 72 murder investigations this year. By the end of 2018, London’s incidence of knife and gun crime will likely be at least 25 percent higher than in 2017.
This week testifies to the London melee.
Over Thursday night and into Friday morning, one woman was stabbed to death, one man was shot, and five others were wounded after being stabbed in separate attacks. That criminality aligns with what occurred on Wednesday evening, when a delivery driver and apparent father of three was stabbed to death in an exclusive area of London. His plight speaks to the serious threat facing delivery drivers across London, who are targeted by gangs for their mopeds and delivery money.
Oh, and the incident below also happened on Wednesday.
The visual extremity of that video aside, the statistics and the acid attacks illustrate London’s major crime problem.
But what should be done?
Well, first, the MPS commissioner, Cressida Dick, needs the support of London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Prime Minister Theresa May. While Dick has rightly come under increasing pressure, she has been commissioner for just over one year and with adequate resources, she will counter the chaos. While Dick has previously commanded various specialist divisions of the MPS, she also successfully led a major anti-gang unit. As important, Dick retains the respect of the officers under her command for her no-nonsense, non-political approach to leadership. She is the right person for this tough job.
Still, the MPS also needs more resources. While Britain’s largest police force previously wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on a bloated civilian staff and bureaucracy, the MPS now lacks the means to do what it must. In large part, that’s because restricted budgets have collided with dramatically increased counterterrorism responsibilities. And while Londoners have never been better protected against terrorist attacks, those policing efforts have come at the expense of other concerns such as neighborhood patrol, counter-gang and outer suburb armed response capabilities.
To fix the gaps, the MPS needs more money to hire more officers and bolster counter-violent crime units. Strengthening these high-impact units will allow for intelligence operations that lead to robust charge sheets against gangs. The problem is that such efforts take a large number of dedicated officers, vehicles, and expensive equipment. Much of those teams are currently used to support counterterrorism related concerns. The solution is to increase the MPS’ scaled capability.
One solution would be to support the MPS by diverting money from the nation’s utterly bloated welfare system.
Yet, the MPS also needs some reform. Too many officers continue to be deployed in van-based response teams of five or more officers. That drains police visibility from the streets. In addition, the MPS remains excessively predisposed towards two-officer patrols instead of deploying officers by themselves. An additional challenge here is that the vast majority of MPS armed response officers travel in groups of three. Adapting these procedures would give more proximate and responsive capability to the MPS’ various borough commanders.
Finally, the MPS also needs greater support from the courts. Even though the government says it is tough on gangs, many gang members continue to receive community orders or short custodial sentences even when they are convicted of possessing weapons and other serious offenses. It says a great deal that the knifeman in the video above was comfortable running down a busy CCTV-lined street in full daylight threatening a driver. To counter the gangs’ free-roaming violence, the police must make them fear for their own freedom. That requires more individuals facing longer prison sentences. Of course, education and an ethic of responsibility will also be crucial in drawing teenage boys toward more productive futures.
What about the gang leaders who make money and then post music videos online? Well, the government must make it easier to crush gang leadership structures by convicting those serving under their direction. U.S. federal RICO laws, which hold organized crime and gang figures responsible for the actions of their subordinates, offer a good template here. But because the English courts are far less amenable than their U.S. counterparts to joint enterprise convictions, parliamentary action will likely be necessary.
There is at least one sign of hope from recent weeks. Facing growing public concern, Sadiq “Uber” Khan has abandoned his global crusade against free speech to focus on securing his increasingly out-of-control city.
