OPINION:
London’s Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to assume a mayor’s role for a major Western city, thinks he’s found the cause of the uptick in stabbings his community’s seen in recent times — wayward knives.
And as such, he’s banned the carrying of knives in the city. In the city where migration counts have escalated in recent times, by the way. Coincidence? To Khan — apparently.
He’s put out this message to all the knife-carriers of the city: Leave the blades at home. All violators will be arrested — they will not pass Go but instead, be sent right to Jail. Not to make Monopoly light of the situation — but really, what kind of game is this mayor playing?
“No excuses,” Khan tweeted. “[T]here is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.”
His message came as London recorded more homicides than the comparatively-sized New York, a historical first. By the numbers, London’s suffered 50 homicides already this year, most of which have been stabbed. Why? ‘Cause guns are already pretty much outlawed in London so the murderous-minded need to find a different weapon.
Just goes to show what conservatives and Second Amendment advocates have been saying for some time: It’s not the gun, stupid.
It’s the heart and mind of the person.
Of course, liberals don’t see it that way. They also don’t want to see the murder surge in any sort of migrant-tied light.
“Immigrants to make up HALF of London population in 15 years,” one Express headline blared, back in January of 2016.
That’s panning.
According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, the foreign-born population in the United Kingdom more than doubled between 1993 and 2015, from 3.8 million to 8.7 million.
“London has the greatest number of migrants (3.2 million foreign-born people in 2015) among all regions with comparable data in the UK,” the Migration Observatory reported. “Foreign-born people constituted 41% of Inner London’s population in 2015 (the highest share among all regions with comparable data).”
A ONS Labour Force Survey found similarly.
“Overall,” PWC.co.Uk reported, “one in three Londoners were born overseas (37%), an increase from 31% in 2005.”
The influx is putting a burden on the city.
“London’s migrant population is markedly higher than in the rest of the UK — 37 percent in 2015, as opposed to 10 percent across the country,” the Financial Times wrote in March of 2017.
Yet all this movement into the city has been welcomed by Khan.
“Sadiq Khan boasts of 1.5 million new people to capital as he reveals shock ‘London Plan,’” the Express wrote, back in July 2017, in reference to the mayor’s open-door intents for those seeking to relocate into London.
Well, that high-migration rate has apparently been having an effect — and it’s called Uptick in Murder.
But let’s not blame the overpopulation, or the fact that mass migration over short periods of time often leads to surges in certain types of crime (just ask Germany). Let’s not even blame the illegal drug trade that London’s own police say is fueling the rising crime and murder rates.
Nope.
It’s the knives. It’s the knives that are doing the killing, not the people.
Hopefully, Khan’s ridiculous ban won’t catch on in America. Conservatives have been saying this for some time — that it won’t be long before anti-gun leftists turn their anti-intents toward knives, as well.
That day has now arrived. But let’s confine the crazy to London, please.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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