Increased Brazen Pavement Bandit Activity does seem to show Police have lost control of London to some degree

I last wrote a piece on ’Pavement Bandits’ back in May of last year - almost one year ago now - highlighting the brazen attitude of Moped-riding thugs who were tearing up the streets of London in a most brazen and unruly manner - wielding Machetes and Sledgehammers and attacking stores at will and in broad daylight - up and down the West End of London - Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street - as well as the ongoing more petty mobile phone and bag theft.

Yesterday at roughly 09:50 in the morning, a gang of Pavement Bandits armed with Machetes and Sledgehammers raided the Watches of Switzerland store directly opposite Selfridges on Oxford Street - on a Saturday, right in the middle of London’s shopping hinterland and right in the middle of all those shoppers and tourist - this follows raids on a variety of shops in the area, including even Canada Goose on Regent Street - it’s really not difficult to profile who the likely culprits are, but the Government, the Municipality, and the Police Force have done nothing at all constructive in a whole year to prevent this sort of thing from happening - and most of these crimes are still going unsolved.

On top of that we have something of a murder epidemic in London - mostly from knife-crime, but also a significant increase in gunshots. This is all long past crisis point for us Londoners - Theresa May has done nothing, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has done nothing, Mayor Sadiq Khan has done nothing, and London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has done nothing either. All these people are busy politicking and stating that resources and actions in place are sufficient - while in effect they are really just siting on their hands.

We still have not definitively solved the Acid Attack problem - where we are still seeing all too many incidents. The Police and Politicians have to tell you that everything is under control, otherwise they would be wilfully admitting to the chaos that is out there - yet it is clear to every London resident and visitor that none of this is under control in the slightest. These Thugs and perpetrators are more brazen than ever before, and they seem to be still mostly getting away with it.

At the same time the public seems to be increasingly defenceless against these sorts of perpetrators - with the law all too frequently serving the perpetrators rather than the victims of these crimes. The Government has been wholly blindsided by how much work is involved in Brexit, and how many resources are required which are nowhere near being put in place yet - all of this is taking a attention away from a very domestic problem of a serious rise in crime in not just London but several other big cities in the UK. We see Police Stations closing down, and fewer and fewer bobbies on the beat than ever before. I’m not one to encourage vigilantism but something seriously needs to happen soon - we’ve had a year of inaction now and things are steadily getting worse. It does not seem like any one is doing anything constructive to solve this.

The plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street also may come too late - if the public looses more confidence. The Shopping Malls have more security staff and barriers - and generally seem to be safer - bar Croydon and Westfield Stratford where there are still too many incidents occurring. It seems quite evident to me that there are fewer Police around with far less capacity to respond quickly to incidents. I believe crime clear-up rates are also at an all time low - with Police refusing to attend to most forms of domestic crime - which had lead to increasing lawlessness. It’s impossible to figure out currently which political party is the party of Law and Order or the one that supports Business and Commerce - where modern society needs both to survive.