London is safer than every American State

DaisyAnneReturns

James O'Brien debunks misinformation about London

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JT8GJcsfAc

"As crime rates in London drop, James O'Brien dissects why certain right-wing figures have such 'determination' to believe that the capital is awful.

"This comes as Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says figures show “London is safe and getting safer each year”.

"Robberies, thefts, and vehicle crime have also seen a significant reduction, after what’s been described as a “sustained focus” on targeting the capital’s most prolific offenders."

If the people who occasionally pop up on GN to repeat the far right claims about London are also those who won't click through or won't watch YouTube then we're on a hiding to nothing when it comes to this thread. But it's really worth ensuring you have the facts so I hope at least some who tell us London is so much worse than other cities, watch and see how wrong the propoganda is.

I listened to James O'Brien this morning, and found his views, and some of his callers, to be interesting, but not unexpected as I have always felt safe living in London, including taking night buses when appropriate. I interact with a wide variety of people via work, volunteering, friends and family. Not one of those people has ever said that they feel unsafe in London.

There was an article quite recently about how foreign visitors staying in upmarket hotels in London were advised to hire security personnel to accompany them when out and about in the city. Almost all cancelled their security within a day or two as they felt perfectly safe.

It's obviously distressing for girls and women to be 'touched up" on the tube, but unfortunately this can happen anywhere. It certainly happened to me when I experienced sexist behaviour on my way to school in the leafy, Cotswold town where I grew up.

Oreo

Since almost 50% of Londoners living there are foreign born it’s not surprising that men who come from cultures that have no respect for women commit offences of that nature.I wouldn’t live in any city in England now if you paid me.So glad all my family are out and living in a town.

I get where you're coming from , but stranger rape was always a thing in this country.
Yorkshire Ripper had precious little respect for women.
& there are going to be foreign born men who come from cultures with more respect for women than UK has traditionally had - not hard!

There is very high level of women who state they've been assaulted on the tube over 33 per cent. Knife crime is still an unfortunate facet of London life, as is gang warfare. We've even seen childen caught in the crossfire. Then there's the thefts of phones and watches, I 'd say London's a microcosm of how the worst crime ridden cities of the US operate and they tend to get worse when they go soft on crime, for instance not prosecuting theft under 1000 dollars not to mention open drug taking and the proliferation of tent cities. I remember hearing an American police officer comment that as far as crime is concerned we're maybe 10 years behind the US.

I'm not a fan of James O'Brien he lacks impartiality.

My younger son, DIL and teenage grandchildren live in central London and I don’t think they would dream of moving. There are so many advantages. My brother recently moved from the London suburbs to Nottingham, but that’s because their only son and his family live there, not because they were fed up with London.

*need

Maybe M0nica, someone would nbleed to look more closely. It's a very difficult area.
Maybe the definition of sexual crimes has changed?
What worries me is the "touching up" or inappropriate groping that goes on on the tube when DGD and friends travel home from school. These are young teenagers, they're unlikely to always report.

Is it really that the number of rapes has increased or that women are more willing to report them?

When you see rape trials reported. Often the rapes reported happened 10 = 20 years ago. Women are still more likely not to report rape than report it.

In many cases one person reports someone and then many other women attacked by the same person come forward.

I think at the moment it is impossible to have reliable comparative rape statistics, simply because of this historic under-reporting and that as women become more confident about what happens when they report a rape, more are willing to report them, but, I think, even today there is asignificant under reporting of rape cases.

Thanks for the figures to substantiate my comment, GrannyGravy13. There are times when we don't need to quote stats because we speak as those who know. And it mustn't be ignored that these sexual crimes are just those that are reported to the police.

Met Police say rape and sexual assault is up and rising in London.

There were 26,803 police recorded 2024-2025 in London.

How come people can’t move out of London fast enough then? Most of the houses sold up here now go to Londoners and they say they are fed up with the crimes and they don’t feel safe.

Since almost 50% of Londoners living there are foreign born it’s not surprising that men who come from cultures that have no respect for women commit offences of that nature.I wouldn’t live in any city in England now if you paid me.So glad all my family are out and living in a town.

I agree with Martavtaurus and it’s one thing getting certain crimes down, all good to be sure, but another to not take into account violence and sexual crimes again girls and women.
Who are the ‘certain right wing figures’ btw?
I’m a Londoner born and raised who was glad to get out of there.

Why does that guy choose to ignore the fact that the number of rapes or sexual crimes in London is rising year on year and is at an all time high?
I'm a born and bred Londoner, went to university there, worked there, married someone from there and raised our family there. Yet, I fear rape for my DGC, both male and female living there. more than anything, because it's now one rape every hour.
In that respect London is certainly not getting safer every year.

Neighbourhood offences are down 14% in the year to June

Thefts from person down 23%

Average of 40 knife-related offences per day

First three months of 2026 3,300 knife crimes were logged with Met Police, with 267 resulting in severe or fatal harm.