Top Trauma Surgeon And Director Vehemently Rebuffs Donald Trump’s Assertion That London Is Like A War Zone
After Donald Trump made comments to the National Rifle Association in Dallas that the best possible solution to knife stabbings in London was to arm people with guns, top trauma surgeon and director Professor Karim Brohi called out Trump for what he believed was a ludicrous suggestion, maintaining that violence levels in London are nowhere near what they currently are in the United States.
The Guardian reports that Brohi was adamant about the fact that thanks to special programs created to curb violence, repeat knife attacks in London have dropped sharply.
“We are proud of the excellent trauma care we provide and of our violence reduction programs. The Royal London Hospital has cut the number of our young patients returning after further knife attacks from 45% to 1%.”
Karim Brohi also suggested that putting more guns onto the streets of London would only exacerbate current problems, noting that gun violence was much more lethal than violence committed with the use of knives.
“There is more we can all do to combat this violence, but to suggest guns are part of the solution is ridiculous. Gunshot wounds are at least twice as lethal as knife injuries and more difficult to repair. We are proud of our world-leading service and to serve the people of London.”
Trump’s knife crime comments are ridiculous, says London surgeon https://t.co/Twinn3YOkB
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) May 5, 2018
During Donald Trump’s Friday speech to the National Rifle Association, he regaled members with a dramatic story about the Royal London Hospital’s many supposed encounters with victims of knife crimes.
“I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital, right in the middle, is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds. Yes, that’s right, they don’t have guns, they have knives and instead there’s blood all over the floors of this hospital. They say it’s as bad as a military war zone hospital.”
At one point, Trump was seen pumping his fist in the air exuberantly, mimicking the slashing effect of knives, while crying, “Knives, knives, knives.”
Ex-lord chancellor and justice secretary Charlie Falconer also dismissed President Trump’s claims that London was a hotbed of crime and a war zone, explaining succinctly that Trump’s barrage of comments about the affairs of London would hardly help relations between the United States and the city.
“Trump makes Londoners dislike him more, and the US dislike London more. Mutual dislike is not good as the UK leaves the EU. Trump gives the impression he couldn’t give a fig.”
4.88 per 100000 murdered in US per annum, 0.92 per 100000 in UK. Implication UK has similar murder rate to US except knives not guns obviously false. Trump lies on everything, but lots of people in US now believe London a knife-armed war zone. https://t.co/4G9JGLeWBg
— Charlie Falconer (@LordCFalconer) May 4, 2018
When it comes to official data of violence in the United States as collected by the FBI in their most recent uniform crime report, it has been determined that out of 100,000 people there were 5.3 murders committed or 53 murders out of one million Americans.
By way of comparison, during the same time period, there were only found to have been 10 homicides out of 1 million citizens of the United Kingdom, showing that violence in the United States is markedly higher than in the UK, let alone the city of London itself.
After Donald Trump’s war zone comments about the city of London, it remains to be seen how many protests there will be when he visits the UK on July 13.
