Fifth Murder in London in Six Days - London's Worrying and Increasing Murder Rates

A man has passed away after a triple stabbing in Barnet. The condition of the two other involved men have not yet been released. This is the fifth murder we have seen in London over the past six days and as of June 16th there have been 56 murders that we know of so far.

So why are London's murder rates increasing? Last year, the number of recorded murders was as high as 132—the highest level it has been for a whole decade. Many attribute it to gang related behaviour, with the new rise of the moped gangs in the East, and the gang related stabbings down in south London. Knife crime is the most common in London, which isn't surprising, seeing as we barely have legal access to guns, and in gang related situations, a legal gun permit is rarely an option.

The London stabbings have left many Londoners very uneasy, while the amount of young adults who illegally carry knives in order to feel safe are drastically rising. It's no wonder that some heated disputes between young armed adults become heated to the point where knives are pulled out, where your instinct is either fight or flight, and these never seem to be situations that end well.

The rise of terrorism related attacks have made many Londoners anxious. Britain has not yet seen a major terrorist attack like the likes of the tragedy of 9/11, and many fear that there is one overdue.

A total of 36 people have been reported to have died this year due to terror attacks, including the attack on: Westminster, the Manchester arena, London Bridge, and Finsbury Park.

But what even is terrorism? The MI5 have made a statement about how there are no international definitions of the word terrorism, something that has widely caused problems of racial profiling and the media's misuse of the word. UK’s Terrorism Act 2000 describes terrorism as: “The use or threat of action designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public, or a section of the public; made for the purposes of advancing a political, a religious, a racial or an ideological cause.”

So what should we be taking from these elevated numbers of reported murders? If we have a look here at the statistics, it becomes a bit more clear that there is a spread of different types of murders when we exclude acts of terrorism.

The total number of London murders, excluding victims of terrorism, has shot up by 38 per cent since 2014.

• An article by the Sun outlines the crime rate in the UK as a whole:

Excluding those killed in terror attacks including London Bridge, Westminster and Manchester, there was still a 12 per cent rise in murders - the highest numbers in a decade.The total number of offences involving a knife or bladed instrument that have been recorded by cops in the year to March 2018 rose to 40,147, a seven-year-high.There was also a two per cent spike in the number of gun-related crimes too - that is now at 6,492. The figures revealed there was a 30 per cent rise in robberies to 77,103 in 2017, combined with a six per cent hike in burglaries too - to 437,537.

See the article here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8273147/london-murder-rate-2019/

Should we be worried?

Of course, an increase in murder and crime rates should be worrying, but what can we do about it? There hasn't seemed to have been much of a pattern within the killings, they are either seemingly random, or classed under terrorist or gang related activity.

The world is a dangerous place out there, so be vigilant!