LONDON’S KNIFE CRIME SURGE: LOCAL EFFORTS SEEK TO END THE BATTLE AGAINST BLADES

For many of us, meeting someone at a coffee shop is an ordinary occasion. But for Jessica Plummer, every exit from her home and neighbourhood is an anxiety-inducing event that reminds her of her son’s tragic murder.

She sits in the corner of the Finsbury Station Costa with her back to the wall, facing the entrance as she shifts her gaze from the sidewalk to the door, monitoring passersby. She shudders with every new entrance to the cafe, her head jerking towards the sound of a bell and wet footsteps. “I’m forever reliving his death,” she said while blinking back unshed tears.

Her son, Shaquan Sammy-Plummer, was 17 when he was killed in an unprovoked knife attack at an Islington party in January 2015. Alongside school and working two full-time jobs, Shaquan was waiting to resit his A-levels to improve his grades but never got the chance.

After his passing, Jessica started the Shaquan Sammy-Plummer Foundation, a charity that tackles knife crime through education and campaigning. She hopes that sharing Shaquan’s story can help others understand the dangers of knife crime. She describes her foundation as a “platform and a voice where [young people] can talk about the things that affect them”.

Shaquan’s story is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Since the COVID-19 lockdown ended in 2021, the number of knife crime cases has slowly risen and is now approaching pre-pandemic levels, with 2023 marking a 21% increase in recorded incidents. More concerningly, 21 teenagers died as a result of youth violence in London in 2023 - nearly double that of 2022.

Knife crime stories have captured headlines for years, even predating the horrific stabbing of Ben Kinsella in June of 2008, but in recent years, youth violence has claimed even more lives and more pages in our papers.

So, why has this issue persisted? And what is being done to stop this cycle of vicious violence?

Plummer recalled minimal actions were taken in her local Islington community following Shaquan’s murder. This inspired her to start her foundation to address the root causes of knife crime. She emphasized the importance of awareness early on and created booklets and visual aids for primary schools to use as an educational tool.

Plummer said: “The only time you hear people talk about knife crime is after there’s a murder. We must all come together to cure this disease at its root.”

A local collaborative awareness campaign aimed to do just that throughout February.

‘The 21’ awareness campaign was a joint effort project by 20 local newspapers under the Newsquest parent company, which told the stories of the 21 teenagers who were murdered last year to humanize the victims of knife crime.

Simon Murfitt, the senior editor at Newsquest, said the campaign was launched in response to him and his colleagues' “feeling that [they] were reporting on the murder of teenagers all the time”. He noted that most Londoners have become desensitized to the prevalence of knife crime, especially if the victims are affiliated with gangs.

He said: “There’s a kind of acceptance that [the victims] are involved in gangs, so it’s ‘their fault,’ but the majority of victims are often just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

This is especially relevant to high-profile cases such as Elianne Andam, 15, who was stabbed at a bus stop in Croydon while on her way to school. Knife crime is not contained to gang members and areas with high criminal activity; it poses a growing danger to everyone in the community.

Both Plummer and Murfitt agree that the socio-economic positions that teenagers find themselves in can increase their risk of getting groomed into violent behaviour. “They don't feel like they have many opportunities in life and turn to crime,” Murfitt said.

Meanwhile, Plummer pointed to the shutdown of local services, like community groups and recreational centers, as creating environments that are more susceptible to gang culture. Plummer believes: “There needs to be more investment in the areas that need it most. The youth need to feel like they are actually a part of the community.”

While community activism and awareness campaigning are essential to addressing social issues, other solutions exist to combat knife crime.

Words4Weapons is a local charity that provides amnesty knife bins across London for anyone who wants to surrender their weapons. The large, sturdy bins are secured into the ground and offer specific instructions on how to package knives for disposal appropriately. The organization allows young people to deposit weapons safely and without fear of prosecution.

Sandra Campbell, the director of operations at Words4Weapons, described the process of selecting bin locations as extremely thorough. The charity conducts its analysis and communicates with local police forces to determine the different hotspots in each borough. They also check potential locations to ensure CCTV does not cover them. This is so as "not to erode the trust of people using it," says Campbell. "It's all about taking those knives off the street and out of circulation.” Currently, Islington has the ninth highest knife crime rate in London but the most Words4Weapons amnesty knife bins.

In January, legislation to ban the possession or sale of “zombie knives” and machetes was introduced to parliament and is expected to go into effect across England and Wales by September.

Though this marks a significant step forward in addressing knife crime, Sandra believes that it will not eradicate the problem as many people think. She said: “When you say ‘weapon’ people think of these zombie knives and these horrible things, but it can just be a normal knife that you use to cut your chicken. A knife is a knife.”