There is so much violent crime happening on the streets of London now that we have almost become desensitised. However, the brutal and inhumane killing of Thomas O’Halloran, an 87-year-old grandfather stabbed to death on his mobility scooter in Greenford, has shocked us all. It is a truly monstrous crime that defies explanation. This was a vulnerable man, much loved in his local community, playing music outside Greenford station to raise money for charity. His family and friends will be devastated, and our thoughts are with them.
But the sad reality is that London is caught in a crime wave. People are stabbed in broad daylight in occupied public areas. Last week we saw a large mob descend on Oxford Street on a Friday afternoon, looting shops and attacking police officers. Criminals have become emboldened. There is a growing feeling that the British capital has become a wild west, that people can do whatever they want and the police will do nothing to stop them.
Front-line police officers are just as frustrated and angry about this as the rest of us, and they’re not to blame. This has been a failure of leadership and has been for a long time.
Indeed, it can sometimes be easy to forget that the Mayor of London is our city’s Police and Crime Commissioner. This means Sadiq Khan’s job is to oversee the Met Police and make sure it works effectively. Under his leadership, the Met police have become dysfunctional, have been placed in “special measures” for the first time in their history and are facing a serious loss of public trust.
Instead of addressing these issues, Sadiq Khan has played cynical political games to avoid taking responsibility for the Met’s failures and claim credit where it is not due. He’s fired from the sidelines, acting more like a media commentator than the person whose job it is to solve the problem. We saw this recently when he went public with his feud with ex-commissioner Cressida Dick, irreparably damaging his relationship with the police.
Meanwhile, there has been an epidemic of black Londoners being killed and jailed under their watch, who are disproportionately affected by the rise in crime. The mayor struggled to even say sorry when I asked him last month, nor would he accept his own failure to deal with the problem.
Last week, he blamed the recent crime wave on the rising cost of living. This week is about the weather and the school holidays. Either way, he’ll always find someone else to blame. But in the real world, those watching will find that Sadiq Khan has always been soft on crime. It is their reluctance to support the arrest and search that has me particularly concerned.
The weapon that was used to stab Mr O’Halloran is one of thousands of knives on the streets of London. Stop and frisk is a vital tool in weeding them out and primarily acts as a deterrent to carrying guns. But it can only work properly with strong political support.
When he first ran for office, Sadiq Khan said, “I will do everything in my power to stop and search.” During his first term, stop and search rates dropped significantly to 10,000 per month. When violent crime immediately began to rise, he was forced to make a partial U-turn. And yet it continues to fail to get stop-and-search rates back to the levels they should be, or to give police the confidence to use this tactic more consistently.
When criminals can take guns onto our safe streets knowing they are unlikely to be stopped and searched, it is Londoners who face the consequences.
Sadiq Khan’s response to this week’s horrific killing has been to send his thoughts and prayers. But Londoners need much more than that. They need a police force that works for them, they need guns off our streets and criminals to face justice for their actions.
Until the mayor takes responsibility, I fear that crimes like this will become more common.