Resist the calls for ‘solutions’ to London’s murder surge | Simon Jenkins
An intruder is stabbed to death during a burglary in London’s Hither Green. Across town in Hackney, two men are killed by stabbing. The killings sent London’s 2018 death tally to 50, up by a half on the same period last year. Britain is facing a “murder crisis”. Or is it facing a crisis in the journalism – and politics – of statistics?
Personal tragedies are hard not to report. Carnage on the streets of London is a story. If it bleeds it leads, especially if bolstered by a usable, and abusable, fact. London’s recent killings generated a sensational one. For the first time in living memory, its murder rate overtook New York’s, with 22 deaths in March to the Big Apple’s 21. Those of us who were once smug about America’s urban violence had a rude shock. Was Harlem to be upstaged by the killing fields of Hackney?
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uMa602
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