Boris Johnson considers knife amnesty after rise in attacks

Jeremie Malenge, a 17 year-old who in January died from stab wounds in Arcola Street, E8.

The London Mayor and the Met Commissioner are to consider a London-wide knife amnesty after mounting pressure from Hackney’s London Assembly representative.

Assembly Member Jennette Arnold made the call following a serious rise in stabbings across London in the last year, nearly half of which involved young people.

Knife attacks causing injury rose in London by 11 per cent in the last year, with 3,657 incidents in the year to October 2015, compared with 3,288 in the previous twelve months, Metropolitan Police data shows.

This year 15 teenagers have been stabbed to death in the capital, seven of whom were in Ms Arnold’s constituency, which includes Hackney, Islington, and Waltham Forest.

Ms Arnold urged the Mayor to recognise “the positive impact allowing people to hand over their knives without fear of prosecution could have”.

“After the recent increase in the number of young people stabbed to death in the capital the last thing anybody wants to see is another life lost and another family devastated by these horrendous acts,” she said.

“I think that the amnesty proposal is something that should be considered,” Boris Johnson said on 16 December during Mayor’s Question Time following a question from Ms Arnold. He said he would consult the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, about the proposal.

The Commissioner confirmed he was “having a look” into ways of organising the amnesty, after Ms Arnold had pressed him on the subject during a London Assembly Police and Crime Committee meeting on 17 December.

Ms Arnold said: “With both the Mayor and Commissioner now agreeing to look at our proposals for a knife amnesty, we’re one step closer to getting more of these weapons off the streets where they can do so much damage.