Pennyfields Park in Poplar may have an appealing name, but yesterday, it was the scene of yet another brutal act of violence in the capital. At around five o’clock in the afternoon, a group of young men armed with machetes chased another teenager through the park before cornering him. The gang threw him to the ground, punching and kicking him as he desperately tried to shield himself. One attacker then raised a machete and slashed at him, the blade cutting deep as he raised his hands in defence.
This horrific assault, like so many others, was recorded on mobile phones and shared widely across social media. It is yet another chilling reminder of how normalised extreme violence has become in London. The victim survived, but the psychological scars will remain. More worryingly, it’s an incident that won’t even make a dent in official homicide statistics – because, as brutal as it was, he didn’t die.
Knife crime has reached epidemic proportions in the UK, with machetes now a common weapon of choice. Once the domain of gardeners clearing brambles, these deadly blades are now synonymous with attacks on our streets. For anyone old enough to remember London in the 1960s and 70s, the idea of teenagers carrying such weapons in broad daylight would have been unthinkable. Back then, such violence was largely confined to organised crime groups. Now, it is an everyday occurrence.
A city desensitised to violence
What is perhaps most disturbing is that these incidents no longer shock us. The public’s reserves of outrage have been exhausted. We have become numb to the frequency of knife crime, treating it as just another grim reality of city life.
Last weekend, a gang stormed a birthday party in a school hall in East London, armed with weapons. On Monday, two teenage boys allegedly attacked each other at Queensbury Station, leaving one seriously injured. These incidents barely make headlines anymore.
Consider this: in 1991, around 3,000 individuals were charged in magistrates’ courts for carrying knives or offensive weapons. By the year ending March 2023, that number had soared past 10,000. Shockingly, while adults commit most of these crimes, around 17 per cent of offenders are under 18. In 2019, it was even worse—one in five knife crimes were committed by minors.
The sheer scale of young people carrying weapons is staggering. Thousands of teenagers are walking around London armed with blades, and many show no fear of the consequences. Whether they wield a garden machete or the terrifying “zombie knife” – already banned by law – the impact is the same: ordinary people no longer feel safe in their own city.
Ignoring the root causes
While the public debates TV dramas about adolescent crime, the real issues go largely unaddressed. In reality, the number of under-16s committing murder remains rare—just 14 in the past year. But there is an undeniable trend in the background of those involved in knife crime.
Statistics show that young black (14 per cent) and mixed-race (10 per cent) boys are disproportionately both perpetrators and victims. A common factor? Family breakdown. A shocking study by the Centre for Social Justice found that young boys in London are more likely to own a smartphone than to have a father present at home. Former England football manager Gareth Southgate even referenced this research in a speech, highlighting the stark reality of fatherless households.
A stable family structure, particularly the presence of a father figure, plays a crucial role in keeping young people away from violence. Yet, society continues to sidestep these uncomfortable discussions, fearful of offending sensitivities. But ignoring the root causes will not make the crisis disappear.
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What needs to change?
Instead of reacting to each violent incident with temporary shock, we need a sustained, long-term strategy. The most obvious and immediate solution is expanding youth services.
London urgently needs more youth clubs—places where teenagers can socialise, play sports, and engage in activities like boxing. Former professional boxer Peter McDonagh is a vocal advocate for using boxing as a way to instil discipline and provide young people with an alternative to crime. Under Boris Johnson’s tenure as Mayor of London, youth initiatives were prioritised. Now, they are being sidelined.
Beyond youth programmes, we need full transparency about the backgrounds of knife crime offenders. We already have a clear picture of the socio-economic and family factors that make young people more likely to carry knives. Yet, policymakers shy away from openly discussing these issues, preferring to tackle the symptoms rather than the root causes.
If we truly want to reverse the knife crime epidemic, we must stop pretending it is an inevitable part of modern life. It is not. And if we are no longer shocked by the sight of machete-wielding teenagers attacking each other in our public parks, then that is a crisis all by itself.
