Turf-war London beats New York for murders
London recorded more murders than New York over two months this year as a spate of drug-related gang feuds was blamed for a death toll that has topped 50 this year, politicians and officials said.
The English capital has experienced some of its highest levels of knife crime for a decade, tarnishing its reputation as a safe place to live and work as the UK prepares to leave the European Union.
The statistic has left policymakers scrambling for answers to the long-neglected problem of violent youth crime, campaigners said.
During the spike, 13 people were killed within two weeks last month, contributing to London having more murders in February and March than in New York, a city traditionally seen as a global business rival but with historically higher rates of crime and violence.
Politicians blamed the crisis on cuts to police budgets, fierce competition to supply illicit drugs in the capital, and social problems caused by fractured families and the lure of easy money with street gangs.
The victims and perpetrators are disproportionately from black and minority ethnic communities, according to police statistics and analysts.
Twelve of those killed this year were teenagers, according to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, including the last victim, Israel Ogunsola, 18, who was stabbed to death on Wednesday.
Ogunsola was a Facebook friend of a 17-year-old girl, Tanesha Melbourne, who was shot dead by a bullet fired from a passing car in north London on Monday.
Mr Khan blamed central government budget cuts of £700 million over the past seven years. “My message to the government is please work with us to solve this national problem,” he said.
The rise in murders came as a ground-breaking project to mediate disputes between rival gangs was forced to cut its operations because of uncertainty over funding.
The police-funded project has been credited with preventing murders by bringing warring sides together to negotiate settlements.
Under the unorthodox approach, mediators set up debt repayment plans between gangs in dispute over the proceeds of drugs sales. Police have justified the methods by saying it cuts murders, each of which is estimated to cost the state £1.7m.
“When we were busy, it would have an impact on youth violence in the areas where we were working,” said Andy Simon, the chief executive of Capital Conflict Management.
He said that mediation efforts had been “massively down” in the past six months because of the funding problems at London’s main police force, which has publicly promoted the group’s work.
“They [the police] were con-
Martin Luther King said a riot is the voice of the unheard – is this what we are seeing here? BARRY MIZEN Father of Jimmy Mizen, London teenage murder victim
cerned that there wouldn’t be any more money and couldn’t refer cases because they might not be able to pay for them,” he said.
David Lammy, an opposition Labour MP who represents the north London constituency of Tottenham, said that the violence was the worst that he had seen during his 18 years in parliament. London was becoming the drugs market of Europe, which was driving turf wars and a culture of brutality between rival gangs, he said.
Barry Mizen, whose 16-yearold son Jimmy was murdered by an 18-year-old gang member during the last major surge in youth violence a decade ago, said that successive governments had failed to tackle the problem.
“There are almost discarded parts of our society,” he told The National. “Martin Luther King said a riot is the voice of the unheard – is this what we are seeing here?”
Cressida Dick, the chief of London’s Metropolitan police force, highlighted the use of social media to taunt rival groups that has resulted in murderous violence.