London needs an urgent plan to end knife & gun crime. Take action now!

177,144

The Issue

Growing up in the forgotten areas of East London, some of my closest childhood friends have either been stabbed or involved in the stabbing of someone else. I felt powerless back then. I thought I was too young and ill-equipped to really do anything that could make a difference. Violent crime is making headlines right now, but for me has always been there. Such violence was the norm growing up and it shouldn’t have been.

A decade after leaving secondary school, the problem is still there, and terrifyingly the data says that the problem is growing. The night before I wrote this (5/4/18) six people were stabbed in London in 90 minutes.

Seeing the recent increase in violence and murders around London shows  that not enough has been done to improve the lives of the forgotten people in our city. This is not just a London issue, violent crime is affecting many other cities in the UK. It feels like to those in power, some people’s lives don’t mean as much.  Another death from knife or gun crime is treated as “just another statistic” and in doing so some are desensitized to the real meaning or gravity of another person's death and the direct impact these crimes have on the lives of a victim's family or the indirect impact it has on our society as a whole.

It feels like authorities have forgotten the people dying are people’s brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, colleagues, cousins, friends. Victims like Iuliana Tudos, Kwabena Nelson, Leyla Mtumwa are real people who have had their lives stolen from them.

After the sharp rise in acid attacks last year, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd produced an urgent action plan to tackle the problem. Right now, it is knife and gun crime in London that is killing and destroying people’s lives, we urgently need the authorities to step up and produce a similar plan to tackle it.

It doesn’t feel like the Mayor’s Office or the Home Office are doing anything to help. And I have had enough. I have started this petition to urge Sadiq Khan and Amber Rudd to work together, and produce an urgent action plan for how they are going to stop stabbings and gun crime in our capital.

This week Sadiq Khan has been using the hashtag #LondonNeedsYouAlive. If he really believes that I want to see him produce some urgent, concrete solutions.

Please join me by signing this petition. Together we can make our voices heard. #LondonNeedsUSalive

avatar of the starter
Alexander AinaPetition Starter
Media enquiries

The Decision Makers

Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan
Mayor of London
Responded
“Dear Petitioner, Thank you for the petition submitted on the change.org website about your concerns around rising knife crime. The Mayor understands your concerns and has made tackling violence a key priority. He has been clear that the levels of violence, which have risen in London and around the country, are too high. Every life lost to violence is a tragedy and every injury has serious impacts on those affected and touches London’s wider communities. The Mayor has urged the Government to reverse the £850 million of cuts forced on the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), because of Government underfunding. The MPS has already had to make significant cuts since 2013-14 and will be required to reduce expenditure by a further £263 million by 2022-23. To make up for these cuts the Mayor has recently announced through his budget that he will be giving an additional £234 million for policing and tackling crime. This includes the £95 million announced earlier in the budget process which has been funded mostly from an 11% increase to the Mayor’s council tax policing precept which is an equivalent of 46p a week. These funds will be used to enable the police to carry out the vital work of protecting our city, through initiatives like the Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) which enables the MPS to be even more proactive on the streets of the capital, bearing down on violent crime and serious criminality. The VCTF has already achieved a number of successes, between its launch in in April 2018 and February 2019, the taskforce has carried out 5,910 weapons sweeps, recovered 610 knives, 450 offensive weapons, 230 firearms and arrested 3,049 suspects. However, the Mayor is aware that enforcement is not the only solution and therefore he has committed £6.8 million to establish a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). The VRU will include specialists in health, youth and social services to lead a long-term public health approach to tackle the causes of violent crime. The VRU will build on the approaches taken in Glasgow, where a similar approach has delivered large reductions in violence over the past decade. In addition, the Mayor has also created the Young Londoners Fund (YLF) to help London’s children and young people fulfil their potential, particularly those at risk of getting caught up in crime. The Mayor’s initial investment of £45 million into the YLF will support a range of education, sport and cultural activities for children and young people, at a time when government cuts have had a devastating impact on the preventative and youth services which we need to keep our city safe. Finally, the Mayor’s ongoing social media campaign LondonNeedsYouAlive #LNYA raises awareness of the consequences of knife crime and provides reassurance and advice for people who are concerned about someone’s involvement in knife crime. A toolkit has been developed for schools, colleges, community groups, parents and others to make use of the campaign’s materials. More details about this, and other work carried out by the Mayor’s Office, can be found on the City Hall website through the following link: www.london.gov.uk/london-needs-you-alive. Taken together, this short-term enforcement by the police and long-term preventative activity in London will deliver a relentless focus on tackling knife crime and violence across the capital. Once again, thank you for petitioning about this important issue. I hope that this provides some reassurance that the Mayor is committed to doing all he can to tackle the rise in knife crime in London and making London an even safer place for all. Yours sincerely Public Liaison Unit Greater London Authority”
Amber Rudd MP
Amber Rudd MP
Member of Parliament

Supporter Voices

Petition Updates

Share this petition

Petition created on 6 April 2018