SADIQ Khan has blamed academy schools, middle-class dinner parties and drill music for the knife crime epidemic – instead of taking responsibility himself.
Since violent crime in London started rising to worrying new levels, the capital’s Mayor has repeatedly pinned the blame on anything but his own policies.
London News Pictures
Yesterday The Sun revealed he’d hit out at Government funding cuts 20 times while being criticised over the crisis.
But he’s also hit out at a variety of other supposed causes.
Mr Khan says he’s done all he can to curb violent crime even as increasing numbers of young people are being stabbed in London.
Asked yesterday what his biggest regret was, he replied: “I wish I’d been more effective in getting the Prime Minister to meet me.”
DRILL MUSIC
The London Mayor said last year that the “drill” genre of rap music was partly to blame for rising crime.
And he also suggested that social networks such as YouTube and Facebook had contributed to the problem.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Khan said both drill music and social media “have a role to play, of course”.
MIDDLE CLASSES
In another 2018 interview, the Mayor blamed middle-class drug users for fuelling gang violence.
He accused them of funding the drug industry by taking drugs like cocaine at dinner parties.
Mr Khan said: “We have got to make sure we take action among those young people who are involved in criminal gangs as well as those who are buying them at middle-class parties.”
ACADEMY SCHOOLS
This week Mr Khan suggested that Tory education reforms had made it harder to control knife crime.
He claimed that because academies and free schools are supervised by local councils, police can’t keep track of pupils.
The Mayor said: “In England many of the schools are academies or free schools. Councils have very little locus over those children in those schools.”
LONDONERS IN GENERAL
Violent crime is made worse by negligent members of the public who fail to report incidents, Mr Khan said last year.
He insisted the burden should fall on all London residents to stay vigilant, saying: “Londoners have responsibility too.
“We’ve got to be the eyes and ears of the police – if you see something that you think is a criminal event, ring 999.”
AFP
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