Back in 2017, the Metropolitan Police, the force that polices Britain’s capital city, announced that the police had 900 ‘hate crime’ specialists, although the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, when questioned by the London Assembly, was vague about the whole ‘hate crime’ subject when it came to actual numbers. Mayor Khan has also created a ‘hate crime hub’ to crack down on what the police perceive as ‘hate crime’. To my knowledge at least five officers are working full time in this less than useful vanity project of the Mayor’s and these officers and the claimed ‘900 specialists’ may well have been deployed better elsewhere.

One thing that the London Mayor, who has responsibility for the Metropolitan Police, could have done when faced with a rapidly worsening crime situation in London, would have been to redeploy all those officers working on ‘hate crimes’ into general policing. Maybe, just maybe, if the Mayor and the Met Police management had prioritised general policing rather than the frippery that is ‘hate crime’ and ‘hate speech’ policing the latest crime tragedy to afflict London could have been avoided. If Sadiq Khan had been sensible and done the right thing and transferred some of these officers to the British Transport Police and the general Met Police pool of officers, then maybe there would not be a dead man on the platform at Hillingdon Tube Station.

According to a report on Sky News, police in London are searching for a group of ‘young men’ who got into an ‘altercation’ with a man who was then stabbed to death by one or more of the group of youths. The police have not yet issued a description of the men that they want to speak to in connection with this latest murder, but this may well be because the investigation is at a very early stage.

Sky News said:

A man has been stabbed to death at Hillingdon Tube station, British Transport Police has said.

Officers were called to the station following a report of a serious assault on the platform shortly before 4pm on Tuesday.

Emergency workers treated the man, who was found with a serious injury consistent with being stabbed, but despite their best efforts he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police believe the man was involved in an altercation with a group of young men before the attack.

His family have been informed and are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.

This is another death in London that could have been prevented with better more robust policing of the sort that Mayor Khan seems reluctant to provide whilst whining about how ‘Tory cuts’ are affecting London’s policing. More officers on the street or on the public transport system rather than having fits of the vapours over comments on social media that are ‘offensive’ may have stopped yet another life being lost in London to violence.