Usual Suspects...

Elijah Seriki, 23, was found with stab wounds on Andre Street, Hackney at around 1.40pm on Monday July 13, and died a short time later.

Police have been surprisingly quick to generate a theory about who killed him too. 

Police have named and pictured two men they want to speak to.The Met have confirmed that they would like to speak to Cavalli Harriott, 22, and Jayqwan Stevens-Burke, 23, as part of their enquiries.

Isn't that handy - they both have official mugshots

 Ah, wonderful enriching diversity! 

No Amount Of Youth Clubs Will Make A Difference

The father of murdered teenage footballer Kiyan Prince set out a new vision for young Londoners on the 20th anniversary of his son’s death.

It might be new to him, but it won’t surprise most people! It is of course ‘more youth clubs’ as if the knife-wending street vermin would be only too happy to give up eternal  feuding over their ends if only they had the chance of a game of snooker in a rickety hall selling curly sandwiches and warn bottle of ginger beer.

Dr Prince dedicated his life to steering young people away from knife crime since Kiyan, 15, was fatally stabbed trying to break up a fight outside his Edgware school on May 18, 2006. The Kiyan Prince Foundation - set up in honour of the tragic Queens Park Rangers youth team player – today launches a campaign, The Champions’ Club, calling for more investment into youth services to help them succeed.It includes an ambition to raise £400,000 so that the charity can fund a new space for youngsters dedicated to Kiyan’s legacy.

No amount of this pandering will reach the demographic responsible for these type of murders.

Dr Prince has also created a 20-point blueprint to improve the lives of Gen Z – one for every year since the teenager’s death. It sets out 10 asks of policymakers – including better pay and recognition for youth workers, more long-term focus and greater prominence for community voices.

No point in that if they aren’t listened to and they aren’t. 

The other 10 recommendations are for young people themselves, and include prioritising physical exercise, developing critical thinking skills and volunteering for local organisations.

The government isn’t interested in anyone developing those, least they start realising uncomfortable realities .

Would there Be A Backlash If A Female Said This?

Reform UK’s Nadhim Zahawi has clashed with a senior Tory after doubling down on his claim that London is unsafe.

It demonstrably IS unsafe, how could anyone claim it isn't?  Anyone who wasn't knowingly trying to paint fears as 'rightwing concerns', that is? 

Mr Zahawi had told how he felt unsafe one morning after coming across a man in one of the capital’s most affluent areas who looked like he hadn’t slept and who he felt might be violent.

And that invited detractors to claim he was imagining things, something they'd never dare to say to a woman who expressed the same concerns. 

Reigniting the row, the senior Reform figure highlighted a report on crime in Mayfair and took a swipe at Sir Chris and Mr Hollinrake. “Both @kevinhollinrake @RhonddaBryant laugh and belittle people who think London is unsafe, only @policylaila @ZiaYusufUK and @reformparty_uk will take our streets, neighbourhoods & country back from the criminals & thugs,” he messaged on X.

 I applaud any such effort, doomed as it is to failure by people who will argue the sun rises in the west and sets in the east rather than admit the truth.

However, plain-speaking Yorkshire MP Mr Hollinrake hit back, posting: “Hi Nadhim, first time we’ve spoken for a while but we were very friendly last time we did. “No - as you actually know - I wasn’t belittling the problems we have in London and other parts of the UK - I was belittling your ludicrous example of a personal threat to you which never was.”

Trust your instincts, Nadhim - if they tell you someone is sketchy, they are probably right. 

Another One Of Those 'Isolated Incidents'.

A man who was fatally stabbed in a triple stabbing in Croydon was named by detectives as his family spoke of their heartbreak. A murder investigation has been launched after 22-year-old Lorik Abazi was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Just another day in Mayor Khan's London, as our wonderful enrichment kills each other off with depressing regularity, and the police do their best to sweep it under the carpet, so as not to frighten the tourists. 

Police were called to Hesterman Way at around 1.15am following reports of a stabbing. Three men with stab wounds were attended to at the scene, but despite best efforts from the London Ambulance, Mr Abazi died at hospital.Two other men stabbed in the incident, both aged 21, were also taken to hospital. They have since both been arrested on suspicion of affray. One man has potentially life-threatening injuries in hospital, while the other has been taken into police custody. In total seven people have now been arrested.

Just don't mention the gang war!  

“I know a tragic incident like this will concern people locally. We believe this to have been an isolated incident and I hope the fact we have a number of suspects in custody provides some reassurance to people in Croydon. We have increased patrols in the local area and I would ask anyone with concerns to speak to my officers.”

There's an awful lot of these so-called 'isolated incidents'... 

It's Also Very, Very Easy Not To .. Millions of Children Manage It!

Jodian remembers her son as a happy child, eager to learn, but she suspected something was wrong when Daejaun's behaviour changed in his early teens. She believes friends from secondary school introduced Daejaun to older boys who, in turn, groomed him into selling drugs. It can be all too easy for teenagers in inner city areas to get involved in this lifestyle, says Michael Jibowu, a former gang member from Woolwich.

The description of recruiting into a gang being described as 'grooming' crops up a lot in these stories lately. Is it because it absolves the perpetrator of responsibility, I wonder?

"Imagine being a young boy and you want to make money. The drug dealers are about, they have cars, they have chains, they have watches," he says. "It's very, very easy to get involved in selling drugs... Sometimes you can say literally nothing and they will approach you.

Then isn’t the appropriate response to continue saying nothing until they give up and go away? 

"Daejaun always wanted to be wealthy, says Jodian. She remembers telling him he had to find ways of making money legitimately: "But then you find that the influence on the outside was greater than mine."

Then you managed to raise a child with no morals. 

Daejaun had made a choice, she says, but adults were exploiting him for their own financial gain.

Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that you raised a defective child, could it? Perish the thought! It must have been outside influences that did it! These people never admit to their own responsibility in anything! 

Not that there isn't a lot of blame for the supposed 'authorities' who have swallowed the 'ethnicity equals victimhood' tropes.

In 2023, Jodian raised her concerns with his school, Woolwich Polytechnic for Boys. It arranged counselling for Daejaun and asked Greenwich Council to provide help for the family. However, Jodian says she remains critical of the school for not sharing important information with her about who Daejaun was mixing with. Some of his friends had been barred from school grounds, but the school did not tell Jodian why. She says she later found out it was because of their links to drug distribution and weapons.

Shocker!  

Woolwich Polytechnic's head of safeguarding, Jo Lumbis, says: "I wouldn't have been able to tell her about the drugs and the knives because that child is entitled to confidentiality. I can't give that information to parents."

I think you may need to rethink your title, Jo, if your concern is all for the privacy of future knife-wielding hoodlums...

Many experts believe the system for dealing with child criminal exploitation is not working properly at present, and children are slipping through the cracks.

Undoubtedly, but let's nor ignore the effect of poor parenting, or no parenting. It's a shame we don't hear from the boy's father in this article, after all. 

Coming Over Here, Picking The Pockets Our Home Grown Artful Dodgers Won't Pick....

A Chilean pickpocket who preyed on Tube commuters was caught carrying a contactless card reader in the first case of its kind. Daniel Maldonado Paulson, 35, had only been in the UK for two weeks when he carried out his “ghost tapping” crime spree at South Kensington London Underground station.

Hurrah! Isn't it nice to read a 'good news story' about crime in London for once?  

Plain-clothes British Transport Police spotted Maldonado Paulson scouting the Piccadilly line for victims at 7.30pm on February 7. They swooped when the thief displayed behaviour typical of a professional pickpocket and stopped him on the platform.As police escorted him up the escalator, Maldonado Paulson attempted to flee but was subsequently arrested and handcuffed. He was found to have Sophie Halford’s £1,300 phone which had been reported stolen just 20 minutes earlier and an electronic card reading device.

They haven't said exactly how this worked so presumably, they don't want to encourage copycats. 

The handset was returned to Ms Halford just two hours after Maldonado Paulson took it.

Lucky lady. Let's hope the courts did their part!  

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 13, Maldonado Paulson pleaded guilty to two counts of handling stolen goods and resisting arrest by PC Alison Levi. The defendant, of Alvey Street, Southwark, was jailed for six months.

*sigh* 

Canadians: Not As Friendly As 'Due South' Would Have You Believe

Two Canadian nationals have been charged with attempted murder after a young man was stabbed near the Tower of London. Jermaine Blackstock, 40, and Kamara Lewis, 26, are accused of wounding Cyrus Morgan-Flynn, in his 20s, on Pepys Street.

Good Lord! Don't we have enough drug dealers in the UK, that we have to import them from across the pond?  

They were also charged with possession with intent to supply class B cannabis and possession of criminal property, namely cash.

They aren't even based in London!  

Blackstock, who gave an address in Camden Street, Ladywood, Birmingham, and Lewis have been remanded in custody by Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

What would drive them here to deal drugs, I wonder? 

Oh...

Brutally Murdered In The Street, And For What?

A saveloy and chips? Is life so cheap in vibrant, enriched  London? Yes, Reader, it is!

In bodycam footage captured during his arrest, Augustine furiously told police officers: 'I've not murdered nobody... I've not killed no one. What you talking about?' Augustine, who refused to attend court, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years before he can be considered for release by Her Honour Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC at the Old Bailey today.

As always, this wasn't his first rodeo: 

The judge said Augustine, who has a host of previous convictions, may never be released from prison.

Sure, we believe you. 

Clues...

Harry Pitman, 16, died in front of revellers who had gathered to celebrate on December 31, 2023. He was allegedly attacked by Areece Lloyd-Hall, now 18, who had brought a knife with him to the scene.

Lots of photos of the victim, none of the alleged perpetrator, of course. But any clues to what we are dealing with here? 

As Lloyd-Hall approached Harry, he was allegedly holding his trousers and saying 'wot wot wot wot wot'. Amid the scuffle, Lloyd-Hall appeared to swing his right hand down on Harry's shoulder, the court was told.A knife glinted in the light and the sheaf (sic...it IS the 'Mail'!) flew off into the air, capturing the moment of the fatal stab wound.

Just before, a female voice was heard to shout 'mindi' - the Somali word for knife.

I’m getting a flavour here, for sure. And it seems this is a retrial. 

Police and paramedics administered first aid but the bleeding from Harry's neck wound was 'catastrophic and proved fatal', Ms Ledward said.

Lloyd-Hall, from Westminster, has denied murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter. Mr Justice Cavanagh told jurors in the retrial that Lloyd-Hall's defence would be that he thought the knife was covered by a sheath when he struck Harry and that he acted in self-defence or defence of others.

One to watch. 

'Disturbing Photos'..? I'll Say!

Back to the death in a car crash of freed Dubai criminal Marcus Fakana, and as Penseivat said there in comments 'Perhaps more information will come out when it's discovered why the driver failed to stop?'. Well, all the police are saying at the moment is that the car was 'of interest', and when they came upon it:

We know this because when a patrol car spotted the BMW parked up on and pulled up, rather than cooperate, Mr Hussen put his foot down and sped off.

 But a trawl through his social media proved illuminating.

People who knew him showed the Daily Mail a disturbing photo which they say gives an insight into Marcus' associations with north London gangs.

 All his photos are pretty illuminating, actually, not just the one the ‘Mail’ has singled out.

They say the boy on the left with his hood up wearing a black balaclava covering his face and making a gang sign is Marcus. Next to him, perched on a kitchen counter in the picture, is a teenager called Tyler McDermott. Shortly after the photo was taken, Tyler, 17, a rapper who went by the name 'Trizz', was murdered outside a recording studio, shot in the head and sliced up with a machete as he lay bleeding on the floor. Trizz was said to belong to a drill rap group called WC8. His crime? He got into a row with a gang from south London at a party when one of the rival group objected to being filmed. Four men – Tyrese Barnett, 20, Leo Reid, 21, Rhys Antwi, 21 and 19-year-old Kalam Bagge – were convicted of his murder.

And then there’s this one: 

Reader, in how many of your 'photos with friends' are you both balaclava-clad? 

Mr Huseen appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates 24 hours earlier on Saturday. He will appear next on Monday, October 13, at the Old Bailey.

That should be an interesting day in court, eh? 

How Many More Must Pay The Price?

A man has been charged with the murder of two pensioners after they were found stabbed to death in the street.

Yes, the perpetrator is exactly who you'd imagine it to be.  

Mouhamadou Fall, 23, has been charged over the deaths of Sidy Fall, 75, and Norman Scott, 68, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed today. Fall, of Milverton Road, Manchester had previously been detained under the Mental Health Act following the stabbings.

And out police farce?  

Chief Superintendent David Meeney, district commander for the City of Manchester division said: 'This morning, two lives have been lost in our community, and our thoughts go to their families who have lost a loved one today.

'We are treating this as an isolated incident with no threat to the wider public.'

How many 'isolated incidents' do we have to suffer before someone draws some connecting lines on a whiteboard? 

If You Want The Public's Help, Show Their Faces!

A CCTV camera behind the counter caught the two horrific incidents on camera, and he reported it to the police.

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'We are investigating following two reports of robbery at a shop near Leicester Square, WC2.

'If you were a witness or have any information which might help police, please call 101 quoting 7996/5MAR.'

Great, CCTV, that'll help immensly! Show us the pictures!  

 Wait, what? FFS!

Is The Law An Ass?

Well, hearken back to this case:

A police appeal for the named and pictured (note: from mugshots!) wee scamps thought to have been responsible.

And now, without recourse to the Men In Black's neuralizer, we are expected to simply do our own forgetting! 

Two boys, aged 15 and 16 – who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Bromley Youth Court in separate hearings on Thursday this week each charged with Kelyan’s murder and are due to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday. Bromley Youth Court heard that Kelyan was stabbed repeatedly on his journey home from school and died from a severed femoral artery.

So I think we can conclude (assuming they are the same youths) the answer is 'Yes. Yes, the law IS an ass'. 

I Don’t Have Any Thinking To Do, Gaby…

Mainly because, under other circumstances, the police would undoubtedly be hunting him for the murder of another identikit black kiddy-thug. Except they struck first.

Kelyan was a caring boy, according to his mother, and his teachers called him “funny, kind and ambitious”. But he was not an angel. An aspiring drill rapper, he had been expelled from school, spent time in care, and lately got into trouble with the law. He was on the way to meet his social worker when he died and, according to the BBC, was due in court shortly himself on charges of carrying a machete.

QED. 

His mother used a word we have heard a lot over the past few days to describe what had gone wrong for him. He had, she said, been groomed. That adult criminal gangs are using increasingly sophisticated tactics to recruit schoolchildren should not be news to anyone.

They aren't forcing them to make TikTok drill rap videos as well, are they Gaby?  

Boys such as this, Longfield has argued, aren’t freely choosing a life of crime any more than 13-year-olds in Rochdale were choosing (as some police officers wrongly concluded two decades ago) to become sex workers, and in both cases what they need is swift protection from predatory adults.

The children of Rotherham and Oldham didn't get that, yet they killed nobody, they haven't recorded rap songs about killing their tormentors, have they? So I'll pass on any further taxpayer-funded efforts to stop these street rats from killing each other.  

Now the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is leading a cross-government “young futures” unit designed to bring together the threads of everything that is happening in young people’s lives, from a mental health crisis that may be aggravating offending rates to the loss of specialist youth services. (One recent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that teenagers in neighbourhoods where all the youth clubs in walking distance had closed – as 30% of youth clubs in London did between 2010 and 2019, thanks mostly to budget cuts – were 14% more likely than their peers to have a criminal conviction.)

Ah, the magical qualities of youth clubs. No, don't quibble, just pay up, taxpayer, and England will be a better place again... 

The Restaurants Are As Much A Danger As The Music Venues And Carnivals...

A man is still fighting for his life after a group of people were stabbed and a gun brandished during a fight in Forest Gate. The condition update comes as the Metropolitan Police has issued an appeal for information about the incident in Romford Road on August 10. Officers were dispatched to the street at 3.40am after receiving reports of a group of men trying to enter a restaurant with a knife.

Pizza? Fish & chip? Chinese? Sushi bar?

According to Newham Council, the restaurant that they attempted to enter was Bronze Royal African Bar.

Ah. 

Police are yet to make any arrests in connection with the fight, in which a firearm was brandished, and the condition of the other three men has not been confirmed. Newham MPS (@MPSNewham) took to X yesterday (August 10) to appeal for information.

The 'victims' not cooperating in naming their attackers again? 

They No Longer Want Your Goodwill, And That’s The Real Danger

A phone is reported stolen in London every six minutes. And last Thursday night, mine became one of them. Seamlessly taken from my pocket on Charing Cross Road without me realising, before it was switched off — and pinged on Find My iPhone a couple of hours later on the A12 in Ilford.

'Welcome to London' indeed! 

My first response was to ask the manager of the pub next to where it happened if anything had been handed in — or if they had CCTV. He simply replied: “Nah mate, happens outside all the time. They take them and run straight to the Tube or jump on a bus. And the police do nothing. It’s gone.”

Surely not? 

He was right. After hearing the experiences of friends and people I’d met through previous reporting on this, getting my phone stolen in London at some point felt like a statistical inevitability.

Within 48 hours of reporting it via 101, the Met closed the case with no investigation or attempt by any officer to contact me. Like many Londoners, my phone is the most expensive thing I own. That it can be taken from me with no attempt to retrieve it at all is deeply troubling.

I'm afraid it's just inevitable, when no-one is holding the police to account for their failures.  

I’m aware it’s difficult to trace a phone once it’s been switched off — but other victims report telling the police exactly where it is on Find My iPhone and they still do nothing. The main use it seems of reporting a phone stolen is to get a crime number which can then be used to make an insurance claim. I didn’t have insurance — but I have now bought it for my replacement phone. But this cycle just encourages phone theft. If victims have insurance, they get a new phone anyway and there’s no pressure for the police to investigate. So thieves know the police simply won’t bother to find them and keep stealing, effectively decriminalising phone theft.

Indeed so!  

As someone who isn’t particularly trusting in the police, their refusal to even attempt to find such an important item hardly fills me with goodwill. Like assurances that police will attend every burglary, making victims of crime at least feel listened to feels like an easy win in rebuilding that trust.

Your mistake is assuming that that's important to them, You should join Twitter and see what they say about that, anonymously.  

A Snail's, I Assume?

A man who was fatally shot in Peckham has been named as Jesse Lloyd-Smith. The 20-year-old was shot in East Surrey Grove, shortly before 17:00 BST on 10 July and died the following day in hospital. DCI Alex Gammampila said the Met Police's investigation is continuing "at pace".

Don't rush, or anything... 

H/T: Ian J via email

Stop Giggling, It’s Not Funny!

Does it produce that vacant expression, or was that already there? 

Keating, 20, stood in the dock at Manchester magistrates court alongside her mother, Nicola Keating, 48, jointly charged with possession of the Class C drug, more widely known as laughing gas, in Manchester last month. The footballer, wearing a black trouser suit and trainers, spoke only to confirm her name and address. She was asked to indicate a plea and replied “not guilty”, as did her mother.

Magistrates granted Keating and her mother unconditional bail and adjourned the case until 10 September back at the same court for a district judge to fix a date for trial.

At This Point, I'm Starting To Wonder Whose Side They Are On...

...because this sounds less like the usual lackadaisical incompetence and more like protection for the criminal underworld:

A man whose luxury watch was stolen from his wrist while he ate at a central London restaurant says he wants to "leave the country" after an "appalling failure" by the Metropolitan Police to convict those responsible. Luca, who works in the finance industry and did not want to give his full name, said his Rolex watch was stolen off his wrist by three men while he was having dinner at a Chelsea restaurant in September last year.

He chased the suspects down the King's Road and caught one of the men...

Hurrah!  

....but says the Met Police was unable to gather CCTV footage of the crime and suggested that he drop the case over potential threats to his safety.

Oh.  

A Met Police spokesperson said the force was "sorry" to hear the victim felt let down and remained "regretful that we were not able to achieve justice in this case".

How could he possibly feel anything other than 'let down'?  

Luca said that in June an officer suggested he should drop the case because, if it went to court, the suspect would learn his identity and could therefore endanger his life due to "potential retaliation". He says he was also told that if he pursued the case, the suspect would likely receive only "a few hours of community service" as a court sentence.

Firstly, what's this 'drop the case' stuff? This isn't America, victims of crime don't 'press charges' over here, that's the Crown Prosecution's job. Looks like they aren't doing their's either... 

So all this talk of him 'pursuing the case' sounds like an attempt to make him withdraw support for the prosecution. Why? It can't just be because they are lazy, incompetent bastards who want a quiet shift. Can it?

The finance professional added the Met Police failed to secure CCTV footage from the restaurant and other public areas from the night of the theft, and told him this was due to "capacity and understaffing constraints".

Bollocks! It doesn't take that much work. Someone should look into what's really going on here... 

H/T: Ian J via email

Well Done....Now Let's See What The Other Part Of The Justice System Does!

Police want to return stolen mobile phones to their owners after recovering 24 that they believe were snatched in the City or West End on March 26.The appeal follows an arrest outside the Bank of England that day when City Police said they found the devices.

He presumably didn't have them on him at the time or he might have done down a bit harder, with a bit of luck.  

Sonny Stringer, a 28-year-old from Islington, has been charged with nine thefts, one robbery, dangerous driving and having no motor insurance. He has been remanded in custody to appear at Isleworth Crown Court on April 22.Two suspects were seen on camera riding electric motorcycles who police say were identified as phone snatchers. CCTV operators kept them on camera and alerted officers. One arrest was made.

If he won't name his fellow thief, he should be sentenced to double time. If, knowing our justice system, he sees any jail time at all,