Another six young people have been stabbed overnight in Sadiq Khan’s London, which recently surpassed New York City for murders for the first time since 1800.
The first victim was a man believed to be in his early twenties, who was stabbed in Billet Road, Walthamstow, around 12:50 p.m., The Telegraph reports.
Then in the early evening, at around 5:30 p.m., a 15-year-old stab victim was found on East India Dock Road, East London.
Shortly afterwards another two 15-year-olds were stabbed in Mile End, Tower Hamlets, leading to two arrests for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm and attempted murder.
The status of the boy stabbed on East India Dock Road is unclear, but the Mile End victims are said to be in a “serious but stable” condition.
Around an hour later at 6:57 p.m. police and paramedics were called to the stabbing of a 13-year-old boy, who is also currently in a “serious but stable” condition.
Three “juvenile males” were subsequently arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent — rather than attempted murder, for reasons which are unclear.
Finally, the last known victim of the night’s violence was stabbed in Ealing Broadway, West London, at around 7 p.m. — a male said to be in his late teens.
The spate of attacks comes as it emerges that the use of police stop-and-search powers is continuing to fall, with searches down 6 per cent on the same time last year, according to The Times.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the fall in the use of stop-and-search since 2010 was “welcome” before he took office, and that he would “do everything in my power to bring it down further” — believing its use on ethnic minorities was problematic.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick recently admitted that constables may have become “fearful” of searching suspects as they “might get into trouble or might not be supported if they had a complaint”.
Both she and Mayor Khan promised a u-turn on stop-and-search and a significant increase in its use after the crime wave began to slide out of control last year, and the news that it is, in fact, continuing to fall will be extremely damaging.
Khan is already under fire for failing to speak to any of the families of recent murder victims, but has stuck to the Labour Party line of blaming Tory cuts for the crisis.
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