London overtakes New York in highest murder rate in the world for the first time
A 16-year-old boy has been left battling for his life after he was stabbed on the streets of London. The capital of the UK now has a murder rate higher than that of New York. The boy is the latest victim of violent crime after an incident was reported in Bow, east London, at around 6:05 p.m. on April 1 night.
It has been speculated that the teen was stabbed near a bunch of shops just off the A12 motorway and witnesses in the area at the time reported seeing 2 people being taken away from the scene on stretchers. Two men were arrested in connection with the stabbing. The boy is in a hospital in critical condition.
This is the latest in a series of violent crimes gripping the nation and it is beginning to have an effect on the residents. A mother-of-2 who was driving past the scene said: "Too much s*** happening in this area. 'Every day there's someone getting hurt or killed. Can't wait to move away from this hopeless, horrific, disastrous place."
The area of the crime was cordoned off as almost 20 police vehicles arrived at the shops. The men who were arrested are under custody at a police station in east London.
Official figures from the police show that the latest incident had edged London past New York in the past two months as the highest murder rate city in the world. Scotland Yard has been desperately battling the 38% rise in killings since 2014.
London saw 15 killings in February as opposed to the 14 in New York for the same month. Urban violence has long been a problem in New York but the killings number in London hit 22 in March which was one more than in New York.
The murder spree kept going on Sunday when 20-year-old Devoy Stapleton was stabbed to death on his way home at 1 a.m. after a night out in Wandsworth. This will bring the grand total fatal stabbings in London for 2018 to 31 so far.
The authorities found the young man in a pool of his own blood at 1:10 a.m. just 1 street away from where he lived in Wandsworth on a residential road near the expensive Common homes. He died at the scene of the crime less than an hour after he was stabbed.
On April 1, his cousin Billie Shuter said: "My little cousin was murdered last night, my heart is broken. RIP Devoy Stapleton." His family is too shaken to speak about the stabbing but a lot of tributes and flowers were left at the scene by a large crowd.
The authorities have arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of murder and he is currently being held at a police station in west London.
The onslaught of murders comes as the rates of robbery, rape, and violent crimes in London have already gone past the rates from New York.
Both the cities have almost the same number of residents at around 8 million but the Office of National Statistics published figures in October 2017 that suggested a person was 6 times more likely to get burgled in London and 1 and a half times more likely to be robbed compared to New York.
London also seems to have almost 3 times the number of reported rapes however, New York still maintained the highest murder rate till February this year.
The total number of murders in London has increased by a dramatic 38% since 2014 and this figure even excludes the victims of terror attacks. In contrast to this, New York's murder rate has fallen by 87% since it hit its peak in the 1990s.
Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, has said that reducing the number of violent crimes in the city is the number one priority.
She spoke in February saying: "The frequency with which some of our young people are prepared to take each other's lives is shocking. London must come together to make it clear that this cannot continue. We will not police our way out of this problem."
She continued: "There is a role for all of us – London's public, our partners and the police." Dick spoke directly to youngsters in the city saying: "There will be young people out today who are carrying knives - stop and think."
"Do you really want your life to end? Or end someone else's and waste your own life in prison? My challenge to everyone in London is to ask each and every person to think about what you can do to help us tackle this blight on our city."
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has requested an urgent meeting with PM Theresa May and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service to talk about how to "tackle the evil of knife attacks on Britain's streets".