‘I’m horrified’. The horrors of knife crime.

Lucy Martindale is lady who has dedicated her life raising awareness of knife crime and supporting its victims. She is London’s biggest anti knife crime campaigner and community advocate and today she starts her column in our London news section.

Murders during lockdown haven’t stopped, which doesn’t surprise me. It does anger me and I feel helpless and furious about it.

If you think things were bad pre- Covid, they’re only going to continue getting worst. Poverty, lack of opportunities, mental health illnesses etc, all on the rise.

Each day or night being informed about another senseless and tragic murder is devastating. Knowing what that poor family is about to go through, having lost their loved one. Mainly very young people with their whole life ahead of them, stolen.

People believe it’s only gangs that are committing murder and the ones being killed. That’s simply not true. Innocent people are falling victim every single day.

I have been involved in this field for years and experienced losing loved ones to murder. It has never been this bad. It has got worse week after week. I often lose track of the “number” of murders. Due to knife crime.

But, these victims are more than just a number. They are people, with a name, a story and a family.

The media need to treat all victims equally and not pick and choose who they will have sympathy for.It’s very biased.

I have set up a new community organisation, soon to be a charity, that focuses on supporting victims, because there isn’t enough help or support for them. I’m inundated with request for help. Things shouldn’t have to be this way. Victim’s deserve the upmost support after such a tragedy. Don’t get me wrong the police do a fantastic job, from the minute they arrive on scene and work on the victim to try and save them and in the fight for justice, catching the perpetrators and making sure they’re convicted. However, the Government doesn’t do enough. Even some police are fed up with it. But too scared to say anything. Something has to change and fast.

The public see in the news another murder has happened but they don’t fully understand what is about to happen behind the scenes. From police investigation to the funeral and the fight for justice. The horrific mental health crisis ripping through community’s. The devastation it causes. Is unbearable and hard to even describe.

The government simply doesn’t care. That’s the conclusion I have come to. They talk a good talk but that’s all it is. Talk. Never any action. A little bit of money is thrown at violent crime and that is meant to solve everything. People on the ground and frontline are left to pick up the pieces with little resources.

Covid has shown us that there is a magic money tree and unless the government start to seriously shake that for the communities that need it most, then the killings will continue. Worse than before Covid hit us.

I have not long got off the phone to a bereaved mother who lost her son last year. The trial has been postponed and she isn’t receiving any support for her mental health nor being rehoused, when there is a threat to her life. I wish the public saw what some bereaved families have to go through on top of grieving.

The fight for justice and basic human rights, continues.