On October 30, a 21-year-old man died after sustaining multiple knife wounds in Wembley.
The stabbing of Givani Espuet, in Harrow Road, was the 19th alleged knife crime with injuries in Brent that month.
In September there had been 21. In August it was 20.
Over the past year, Brent has seen a knife crime explosion. The number resulting in injuries has overtaken the pre-pandemic level.
Community leaders said the problem was fuelled by poverty and warned that the cost-of-living crisis and austerity could make things even worse.
The Young Brent Foundation said that if funding for its work with perpetrators was impacted, knife crime figures could hit “twice or three times what they are now".
History
Five years ago, in 2017/18, Brent was one of London’s worst knife crime hotspots.
It had the third-highest knife crime figures in the capital, and the second-highest number of people injured in knife attacks.
Between November 2017 and October 2018, there were 755 offences, 224 of which caused injuries.
By the following year (November 2018 and October 2019), things were improving.
Offences fell 18.7% to 614. Those causing injuries fell 30.4% to 156.
Then Covid-19 struck and lockdown restrictions dramatically reduced crime rates.
So after all restrictions were lifted last year, figures were expected to rise across the board.
But they didn’t. In some boroughs, new Metropolitan Police data shows, knife crime actually fell, year-on-year.
But not in Brent.
Today
In Brent, knife crime has not only risen, but done so disproportionately to the rest of London.
The borough recorded 492 knife crimes between November 2021 and October 2022.
Whilst still lower than before the pandemic, that was up 45.6% on the previous year – the third-highest increase in London.
The number of offences resulting in injuries, meanwhile, is higher than the last comparable pre-pandemic period..
Between November 2021 and October 2022, there were 160 knife crimes with injury.
Between November 2018 and October 2019, it was 156.
"Unacceptable”
Suresh Kansagra, Conservative opposition leader at Brent Council, said the increase was “unacceptable”.
“That is a big, big rise compared to the rest of London,” he said. “There is something going on in Brent.”
Labour’s Harbi Farah, Brent’s lead councillor for public protection, believed social factors were to blame.
“Reducing knife crime is one of our top priorities,” he said.
“To do this, we know that we need to understand and tackle the root causes of the problem.
“There are many reasons individuals may be more likely to turn to violent crime.
“Poverty, debt, exploitation, family issues and neglect are just a few examples of things that can make a person more likely to become involved in criminal activity.”
The council works with partners to tackle those root causes, he said.
Among them is the Young Brent Foundation.
Poverty
“Poverty is the driver,” said Chris Murray, the foundation's CEO.
It helps roughly 14,000 young people every year, including victims and perpetrators of knife crime.
They are referred by agencies, including the police, and encouraged into arts courses, sports, outdoor pursuits, ICT training and further education.
In the past 18 months, referrals rose by a “remarkable” 24%.
Mr Murray believes rising knife crime is being fuelled in part by “the cost of living having an impact”.
He worries that economic problems could affect the charity’s ability to keep diverting young people away from knife crime.
“We are concerned,” he said. “There no other way of looking at it.”
What now?
The Metropolitan Police Service declined to comment on why knife crime was rising so rapidly in Brent.
Asked what it was doing in response, the force said Brent had benefitted from its “introduction of town centre teams... to tackle violent crime”.
“The Wembley town centre team was launched in the last year to bolster local policing in areas of London where there is high demand,” a spokesperson said.
“Our plans for tackling knife crime are strong,” they added, saying tactics included “prevention and diversion activities” and “enforcement action”.
London-wide, it said, officers’ “relentless activity” had reduced homicides and knife crimes causing injuries to those under 25.
Brent Council said it was making neighbourhoods safer, including installing CCTV in “hotspot areas”.
“We also work to rehabilitate offenders by connecting them with new opportunities to prevent them from reoffending,” said Cllr Farah.
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