One Labour Party MP has broken with the party line in order to blame immigrants for London's growing problem with violent crime. David Lammy of Tottenham recently told the BBC that the "McMafia" are to blame for London recently overtaking New York City in terms of criminal violence rates. The term "McMafia" was coined by British journalist Misha Glenny in a 2008 book that chronicled the rise of organized crime in the formerly Communist nations of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
"What drives these gangs and the turf wars is an 11 billion-pound cocaine drugs market," Lammy said on Thursday.
The MP (Member of Parliament) also said that in London "drugs are prolific." In response, the Metropolitan Police have stepped up stop-and-search patrols for weapons and drugs. Also, London police officers have zeroed in on what Lammy has called the "big gangs" from Russia, Albania, and elsewhere.
Lammy also used London's crime problem to direct attacks against Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Amber Rudd. While Rudd is a Conservative, Khan is a member of the same Labour Party as Lammy. However, Lammy says that both are not taking the drug crime menace seriously. Khan has defended himself against accusations from a BBC interviewer, saying that he has spoken to London police officials on numerous occasions about rising crime rates.
Uncomfortable truth
Recently published data has found that London is now more deadly and dangerous than New York City. Overall, crime in the United Kingdom has increased by 13 percent, with most of this increase coming as a result of rising rates in London. Residents of the capital city are eight times more likely to be robbed than residents of New York.
While New York's murder rate continues to be higher than London's, London's rape rate is six times higher than New York's. The gap in murder rates is also closing.
These figures make many in the U.K. uncomfortable because London and New York are about the same size, contain large and well-funded police forces, and both receive plenty of attention from the central government.
Also, given the common British refrain that so much of America's crime can be blamed on easy access to guns, it must be shocking to accept that mostly gun-free London is statistically more dangerous than America's largest metropolis.
Blame game
London's predicament has already become a game of what Lammy has called "political football." While Lammy places blame on Eastern European immigrants, U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to claim that London's woes are the work of jihadist and Muslim gangs. These words received major pushback, with former Labour Prime Minister candidate Ed Miliband using his own Twitter account to denounce President Trump.
The American president's conclusion, while unpopular, does have some support in terms of auxiliary evidence.
2017 was the worst year for acid attacks in London, with 465 total incidents. Acid attacks have long been the calling card of Muslim "honor" crimes where individuals are punished by the community for going against religious rules. The Times also reported in May of last year that as many as 23,000 suspected jihadists lived in the United Kingdom. Since then, London and other English cities have seen several deadly terrorist attacks linked to Islamic fundamentalists.
More disturbingly, several English cities, including Rotterham, Rochdale, and Telford, have been the scene of massive "grooming" scandals where mostly Muslim Pakistanis sexually exploited underage white British girls. The most recent findings from Telford indicate that over 1,000 British girls were raped and forced into prostitution.
Two deaths have also been linked to the case.
The British government itself has even concluded that these campaigns were allowed to occur for decades because local police departments intentionally covered them up out of fear of causing racial tension between British Muslims and non-Muslims.
