Khan’s London: Homicides Soar Past 100 for Sixth Straight Year

SOUTHWARK, ENGLAND - MARCH 23: Police officers cordon off an area of the site of an unexpl
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Kurt Zindulka

Over 100 people have been killed in London this year under the leadership of Mayor Sadiq Khan, with 55 being stabbed to death since the start of the year.

Analysis conducted by the BBC found that there have been 101 homicides in London this year, with the killing of Poorna Kaameshwari Sivaraj and her three-year-old son this week pushing the death toll above 100 — meaning that in each of the last six years the British capital has seen over 100 killings.

Twelve teenagers, all of whom were male, are among those killed in London so far. A further six victims were under the age of ten, according to the report.

The analysis also found that fatal shootings in London have increased over 2019 — despite Britain’s draconian anti-gun policies — with 13 people shot to death so far this year, up from ten for all of 2019.

In response to the killings in the city surpassing 100, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden, said she felt “deep sadness and deep regret”.

“It is always sad that we have lost so many people in the last six years, and we have to remember that there are people and families behind these statistics,” Linden said.

“The difference in murders really shows the complexity, and ranges from young children to teenagers to violence on the street and women being killed in their own home,” she added.

As a whole, the number of homicides in London reached a ten-year high in 2019, with 150 people being killed. Teen stabbings also reached an 11-year-high last year.

In July, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in the year leading up to March, knife crime in England and Wales hit record highs, with London being the main centre of the rise.

The BBC report also found that during the lockdown there was a 25 per cent increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse hotline, with a corresponding increase in domestic abuse-related crimes.

The figures showed that during the China virus lockdown in London, some 18 people were killed. Last year ten per cent of all homicides were domestic violence-related, and local charities have warned that the lockdown measures have exacerbated the problem.

Despite concerns about rising domestic violence in London as a result of lockdown measures, Mayor Sadiq Khan said that further restrictions on liberties are “inevitable” in order to confront rising coronavirus cases in the city.

“We are at a very serious tipping point. The virus is accelerating in every part of London,” Khan said.

“My prediction is there will be more restrictions being brought in because we don’t want to see in October and November what we saw in March and April,” he warned.

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