Learn from New York

WHO would have thought we would live to see London become more deadly than New York? Yet as 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne becomes the capital’s 47th murder victim this year and Amaan Shakoor the 48th, that hideous distinction is ours.

Such is the tragic price we pay for too few police on the beat, crimes uninvestigated and kid-gloves treatment by the courts.

Meanwhile, New York – with 8,000 more officers than London (though its population and police budget are similar) – has made great progress in cutting the murder rate through zero tolerance of all crime.

Britain must learn from New York before gangsters drag us into anarchy.