09/05/2017 London News

In current circumstances, I'm not how many votes will get.

First tonight, with six teenagers stabbed to death

in the capital so far this year, knife crime is a key issue

for police and politicians in the run-up to the election.

In a moment we'll look at how the parties intend

First, here's our home affairs correspondent,

Nick Beake who's been speaking to one father devastated

17-year-old Jamal Boyce was stabbed in the heart outside

Paramedics brought him back from the dead.

But seven months on, this is his life.

There is no form of communication with him.

He can't move, he's blind, there is no speech.

He cannot feed himself, he gets fed by a tube.

So it's a very low level of life he's got.

Jamal had never been in a gang, never carried a knife,

never been in trouble with the police.

What I thought was important is not important no more.

Well, spending time with people you love and who love you.

That's what I've realised throughout this whole experience.

Epidemic. It's insane.

It's like demons have just taken over the youth of today.

There is no morals, no love, it's insane.

One with a grey hoody, backpack, jeans, blue jacket.

This week we went out to see how police are tackling knife

And this is how the police are tackling knife crime

Here in Lewisham, this boy has been stopped because teenagers have been

He's one of 400 people arrested in the past week

Obviously in the moment you are more aware that these

people might have knives, and where he was wrestling with me,

obviously he was bigger than me, I have to be mindful where his hands

In this case, despite an extended search, no weapon is found.

Michael Gallagher nearly died 35 years ago when he was stabbed.

Now he's the officer leading the Metropolitan Police's crusade

A crime which has jumped by a quarter in the past year.

Yes, it is worrying, yes it is tragic, but we will work

through this as a society and I am confident we can fix it.

I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to allow it to go up,

we're going to everything within our power legally in order

to make sure we bring this under control and reduce victims.

Please, I am begging you, I cannot take no more.

The anguish of a mother who will never see her son again.

One of so many young Londoners stabbed to to death.

One of so many young Londoners stabbed to death.

This weekend the families left behind came together

The people on this march are of one voice.

But when it comes to the best way of tackling knife crime in our city,

But how would this dad even begin to tackle this problem?

To get these children into employment, into

That would be such a fantastic thing, if these guys

want to go out killing people, bring back...

A lot of these children have single parents,

they've got no father, they are the father in the house.

They have never been disciplined, so there is no boundaries

It's not just my son I've lost, I've lost my friend,

Nick after hearing Patting trick there and the Met, give us a sense

of how the parties are tackling knife crime? We are waiting for the

specifics of the manifestos, it's difficult, will there be new radical

ideas? Labour will fund an extra 10,000 police officers they've said

across the country, many would be in London. Today the Mayor of London

suggested that his party would reverse the ?400 million of cuts

that skward faces in coming years. -- Scotland Yard.

My worry is if the Tories win the general election we'll face not

just those cuts but some more, as well.

So a Labour Government won't have those cuts but also we'd have

additional uniformed officers which means a safer London.

So a Labour Government would reverse all those cuts?

I am saying to the Labour Party we shouldn't be having those

cuts already announced by the Conservative Party but also

we can't have any further cuts after the general election

and I welcome the additional uniformed officers.

The Conservatives? Well, we asked the Conservatives for an interview

but they weren't able to provide anyone for that today. However, they

told us they've introduced tougher sentences, particularly if you are

caught with a knife for the second time. Also they've taken action on

the sale of Blades to children. They make the point knife crime is down

compared with 2010. In light of this recent rise, told us today they take

any increase extremely seriously and will continue to work closely with

the police. As for the Liberal Democrats, they say that more

funding is the key to this, specifically more community

policing. In other words, more bobbies on the beat.

Visible policing increases trust and confidence.

If you know your local police officer, you can

If the police officers know who's carrying the knives, they can target

stop and search more effectively, you get community intelligence.

Overall, crime will reduce because the police and the community

What about other parties? The Greens say it's important to invest in

youth services, more engagement in schools. Ukip haven't given

specifics yet but previously they've criticised the mayor for focussing

more on online crime, rather than tackling knife crime, which as we

heard in my report many families believe is now an epidemic. Thank

you very much. A jury has ruled that excessive

force by 11 police officers contributed to the death

of a mental health patient. 23-year-old Olaseni Lewis died

in 2010 while being restrained at a psychiatric hospital in south

London. His mum described him

as her gentle giant. Olaseni Lewis was 23,

an IT graduate with no He was very popular,

lots of friends. He hated injustice,

stood up for people, marginalised people,

he tried everything. In 2010, Seni went out with friends

over the August bank holiday, and returned home complaining he had

been spiked with drugs. The following day his behaviour

became erratic so his mum took him He was transferred to

Camberwell and detained under the Mental Health Act,

but after a short time with no beds he was discharged and voluntarily

travelled for further treatment. Seni had been restrained

by staff twice, and then He died in hospital

three days later. A postmortem examination found his

brain had been starved of oxygen. Today, an inquest jury unanimously

found the level of restraint was unnecessary and unreasonable,

saying the officers had It has taken nearly seven years

for this inquest to be heard. Originally, the Independent Police

Complaints Commission Then in 2013, there was an external

review of the evidence by a QA. In 2015, the Crown Prosecution

Service said there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges

against any of the They have not faced

misconduct charges either. This is not the first time that

restraint has caused the death of someone,

and it is not the lasting. What we're calling upon today

is for the Home Office, the Department of Health

and the Metropolitan Police to urgently respond to the shocking

evidence in this case, We have worked tirelessly to improve

our training and services we have got. I hope I would give the public

confidence around that but it's absolutely right we go back and

reflect on what happened in 2010 to make sure if there is more learning

to be drawn out, we very much do that.

I do not want to see another parent going through this.

After so many years of bringing up your children, caring for them,

providing them love, educating them, for this

to happen when you take them to a place of safety...

The verdict could have far-reaching implications. For Seni's family it's

a kind of closure seven years after they lost him. Now here is the

weather. Thank you.

The red sky tonight will be a delight tomorrow. It's also a

warning for gardeners, under clear skies now it's going to turn frosty

tonight. A widespread frost on the grass. In some places as skies stay

clear and winds fall light we could be as low as three, lower than that,

we could have an air frost in some prone spots rurally. It will be a

nippy start to the day tomorrow. But the temperatures will pick up

quickly because the winds are light. The sun will be shining throughout.

We should get to 18 in London and somewhere further west of there. For

Thursday, it's a little more cloudy again. Temperatures up to 19.

Increasing humidity. You can see that will start to produce heavy

showers around on Friday. A lot of fine weather over the weekend. Now

for the fine weather over the weekend. Now

for the national forecast here is Tomasz.

Good evening. Beautiful day today across many

parts of the UK. Here is a picture from Wales, sunny skies and more of

the same tomorrow. In fact for many of us even better. There is that

last little lump of cloud across central and eastern areas, it's in

the process of melting away. Skies are clearing across most of the

country so that promises a beautiful day tomorrow. It's going to be

chilly, really chilly tonight. The stars are out, clear right across

the country. Eventually by the early hours of Wednesday morning

temperatures in the middle of towns and cities around six or seven. But

in rural spots, or even outside of town two or three and at its coldest

it could dip down to minus two. A nippy morning on the way for many

but a beautiful start to the day. Let's look at the afternoon.

Scotland, not so sunny everywhere because here northern parts of