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21 Jun 2021

Debate: Are we fighting a losing battle against knife crime?

Social Affairs Editor and Presenter

The number of people being killed or injured by knife crime is rising. The country’s biggest police force, the Metropolitan Police, has warned that London is now on track for its worst year of teenage killings in more than a decade. Seventeen teenagers have been killed this year. That’s more than in the whole of 2020.

We heard from Jhemar Jonas, whose brother Michael was stabbed to death aged 17. Jhemar says London is a “war zone” and has urged authorities to tackle the scourge of knife crime.

We asked the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police to come on and discuss the issue, but were told no one was available. We talk to Shadow Policing Sarah Jones, Conservative MP David Simmonds, and Leroy Logan, a, retired superintendent who spent 30 years in the Metropolitan Police.