Yahoo Finance Teenage murders are a ‘stain on our city’, says Cressida Dick
Scotland Yard chief Dame Cressida Dick says teenage murders are a “stain on our city”.
The Met Commissioner hit out as she defended her record with London teetering on the brink of equalling the record 29 young lives lost to violent crime in 2008.
A 17-year-old boy on Friday appeared before Wimbledon magistrates charged with murdering Rishmeet Singh, 16 - the 28th victim - who was stabbed in Southall last week.
Police warn 2021’s final grim toll could sadly exceed 30 for the first time.
Dame Cressida told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “The deaths of the teenagers this year are absolutely horrible. I regard this as a stain on our city.
“Each and every one of them is a child with a family and a community.
“The people who perpetrate the attacks are themselves children and often in a group.
“There’s a whole swathe of people whose lives are completely wrecked by this horrible, horrible phenomenon.”
"Has she ever put on handcuffs?"
A police officer presses Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick on when the last time she personally arrested someone was.@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/g0uIQ1E9ff— LBC (@LBC) December 3, 2021
Dame Cressida said her officers were working hard to get knives and guns off the streets and dismantling organised crime groups.
She added research showed the viciousness of recent knife attacks could be behind the rise in youth murders but prevention work is underway.
Britain’s most senior police officer said: “I believe that we are absolutely doing the right things in policing and we are surpressing a great deal of the violence.
“It pains me horribly that we have had these homicides. And we all pray next year we don’t have these but it is a significant problem and in some communities.”
Defending the force policy of publishing pictures of knives seized by officers on social media which critics say makes the problem worse, Dame Cressida said: “My officers are up against machetes and hunting knives. We need the public to be aware of that.”
To combat violence, she wants 10,000 taser carrying officers by the end of next year.
Meanwhile, Dame Cressida said the Metropolitan Police have not received any complaints related to a Downing Street party alleged to have taken place last Christmas amid Covid lockdown rules.
Separately, she ruled out a police investigation into Michael Fawcett, the Prince of Wales’s former most trusted aide said to have co-ordinated with “fixers” over honours nominations for a Saudi billionaire donor to the Prince’s Foundation.
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