Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said this morning that the streets of the capital are “not safe for everyone all of the time”.
Black communities and women and girls face inflated rates of violence, the commissioner said today, adding that nearly half of London’s homicide victims were Black.
“If I look at victims of homicide this year, of the total 40, 19 of those come from our black African-Caribbean communities. Of course, that is hugely out of proportion with London.
“And when you look at the accused, you’re talking about 60-70 per cent coming from our black communities. Some geographic areas are far more prone to this than others.”
There have been 14 teenage victims so far this year, just one short of the 15 killed in 2020, which puts London on course to surpass its 2019 figure of 26.
In March, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said that the capital’s streets were not safe for women and girls. However, Dick told LBC: “I wouldn’t put it as strongly as that.”
“I think we have been hearing from women and girls not just in the past few months but for years.
“I absolutely understand that many women feel fearful and also that on occasions we see horrible, horrible events in which serious crimes are committed against women when they are simply out.”
Sarah Everard
The safety of Women saw a showering of attention in March when Sarah Everard was abducted as she walked from Clapham towards her home in Brixton.
Serving Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, has been charged with her kidnap and murder. He is due to stand trial in October.
“I think there is far too much violence against women and girls, of course, there is, I would like them to be very much safer, of course, I would.
“The streets are not completely safe for everybody all of the time and we would love to live in that world. Unfortunately, there is far too much violence against women and girls. It is of course the case that people are more at risk at home than they are on the streets in many respects.”
The case sparked protests geared towards the issue of safety for women and girls and the Home Office’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which seeks to curb protesting freedoms among other police reformations.
“I cannot tell you how outraged people in the Met have been, as everybody has been across the city and the country at Sarah’s horrible. horrible death…murder and the circumstances surrounding it,” Dick said.
“Obviously [it is] sub judice. I can’t say anymore except that we are appalled by that.”
