Knife attack in Whetstone a “senseless tragedy”.
Following the knife attack last week in Whetstone local London Assembly for Barnet Andrew Dismore AM said:
‘Thursday’s shocking knife attack involving a young school boy, aged just 15, shows the severity of rising knife injuries and stabbings across London. Knife crime with injury in Under 25s has been rising steadily across London over the last year. Since 2012 Barnet has seen an 89% increase in knife crime with injury in under 25s.
‘As a result of budget cuts police numbers in Barnet has decreased by 24% since May 2010 , losing 70 police officers and 118 PCSOs. With cut backs like this it is no wonder the Met are struggling to cope, and with a further £800 million expected to come out of the Met budget over the next 4 years, they will find themselves perpetually over-stretched and under-resourced.
‘I have been warning the Mayor and Stephen Greenhalgh of these rises in knife crime for months, but after harrowing events like this, it appears they have simply not done enough. It is clear that more needs to be done to prevent crimes like this from occurring.
This crime was a senseless tragedy, that involved a school child walking home on streets of London. The Mayor should be investing in more preventative schemes to ensure that school age children are not being dragged into street violence such as this. We cannot risk anymore young lives being devastated by these senseless crimes.”
