On Thursday night our street WhatsApp pinged. A car had been accosted on the street by another driver who snorted a line of cocaine before getting out of his car, exposing himself threateningly and throwing rocks at the driver’s window. Neighbours sprang into action to help with video footage. What did the police say, you might ask? “This is not an emergency, so we can’t help you.”
I wish I could tell you that this is an isolated incident where I live in west London. But it seems that since Covid, crime and anti-social behaviour across the capital have skyrocketed. Women are regularly harassed in our beautiful parks, people routinely openly deal on the streets and the drug use is absolutely wild. Just last night, an innocent mother was gunned down on her Hackney doorstep in a suspected case of mistaken identity, while a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a separate incident in Sutton.
