Face to face with ‘lawless London’

LBC has watched as a group of police officers arrested known offenders, seized two machetes, a flick knife, and Class A drugs in just three hours.

We were invited to join the Metropolitan Police on an operation to seize illegal bikes and scooters in Northwest London but ended up following them as they responded to other emergency calls.

They included reports that two teenage boys had been seen brandishing machetes on Kilburn High Road, which led to the discovery of weapons inside a barber shop.

Two suspected drug dealers were also detained inside a coffee shop, for continuing to offend just 24 hours after one of them had been picked up by the same officers and released on bail.

The findings have reignited the debate of whether London has become lawless, which Mayor Sadiq Khan has rejected, blaming a "blizzard" of online disinformation.

But Conservative leader at City Hall, Susan Hall, told LBC: “There are not enough police officers. The numbers are going down but there's at least half a million extra people in the city.

“There are people that think it's absolutely fine to carry knives, to trade drugs all the time. You witnessed that on just one of the occasions you were with them for a few hours.

“Certainly, in parts of London it does feel completely lawless.”

Official figures from the Mayor of London show crime is falling, overall, down 3 per cent compared to last year.

Homicides, gun crime and robbery offences are also on a downward trajectory.

But as we watched the Met officers search and seize three blades in as many hours in Kilburn, an officer told us one of the arrested men had been detained for the very same thing a few weeks earlier.

“We had a long foot chase, I hopped out the car and ran after him all the way down Wembley Park, Olympic Way and into an alleyway where I threw him to the floor.

“Right next to him was a very large machete so I arrested him and that was approximately three weeks ago.”

The London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has repeatedly hit back at political rhetoric and online disinformation which he says is creating an “outrage economy” of painting London as a dangerous place.

Speaking to LBC, after watching our report, he said: “There are two big issues: one is the issue of crime in London and across the country, and we've got to take it seriously.

“You'll see from City Hall examples of record investment in the Met Police Service. Because they've been starved of decent funding for 14 years.

“We've tried to fill this massive hole that's led to big challenges in terms of crime, particularly high volume crime.

“But without in any way taking away from our need to address crime in London, there is also a campaign of disinformation.

“There's evidence now of China, Russia and MAGA influencers being involved, but also we know that the way these algorithms work from some of the big tech companies, it monetises negative messages.

“So we've got examples now of people in faraway Sri Lanka and Pakistan and Nepal and China making huge sums of money by churning out misinformation and lies about London.”

Aside from the arrests LBC witnessed, the Met Police team also seized 34 illegal bikes and scooters in a crackdown aimed at reducing high-volume crimes like phone snatching, drug dealing and antisocial behaviour.

Inspector Yu Zhang, who led the operation, said: "This crackdown has seen drugs, weapons and dangerous illegal e-bikes taken off the streets.

"We know these offences are ones that our communities care about, and they want to see officers taking robust action.

"We have done exactly that. This operation will disrupt the criminal networks in Kilburn, ensuring the area is undoubtedly safer for the community.

"This builds on the work we have already been doing in the northwest with neighbourhood crime cut by 6.4 per cent over the last year."

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