Popular Twitter user Burnside appears to have had a run in with one of the London’s criminal fraternity when Burnside was involved in an incident in St James’s Park in the heart of the Capital. He was a witness to an incident where a man was shouting at and attempting to steal bags from tourists. Another man noticed what was going on and slapped the shouty thief at which point said thief pulled out a knife.

Burnside said:

I think that Burnside did the right thing here in rushing off to get the old bill. I don’t for one second believe that he was a coward here. He acted in the best way he could and that is to be commended. In this case it’s right and proper to praise the Metropolitan Police officer who rushed towards rather than away from the trouble and the other officers who piled in on the assailant. This incident could easily have been a whole lot worse, but thankfully it was not.

I’m pretty shocked to see that this sort of thing is happening in St James’s Park in broad daylight, which is when it appears to have happened. I’m quite familiar with this park as I used to go and eat my lunch there when I worked in the Westminster / West End area. Yes it was a busy park, especially in the Summer, but I never felt unsafe in the partk or perceived the tourists were unsafe there.

For this incident to happen in somewhere like St James’s Park and for the assailant to be so ready to engage in violence shows just how out of control crime in London has become. London has always had more crime than areas that are well, not London, but the situation regarding crime under the London Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner Sadiq Khan, has considerably worsened as we can see from the fact that thugs like this are venturing into places that are normally and in my experience previously very heavily and well policed.  He’s not managed London’s policing priorities very well at all and it’s starting to show in areas that were once, as this park was, considered relatively free of this sort of crime.