this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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[–] fonix232@fedia.io 7 points 14 hours ago

London is a good example of what happens in a society where law isn't enforced. Please hear me out - I actually love this city but the societal issues are undeniable.

It all goes back to Boris Johnson being a vindictive little prick, and withdrawing tons of government level funding from the Metropolitan Police - all because London decided that they wanted a Labour mayor instead of continuing the disastrous Tory policies, which had one primary goal: syphon off as much of the city's money as possible into friends' pockets. Londoners had enough and elected Khan after de Pfeffel was picked as PM, so the Tories continued cutting budgets left and right.

This forced the Met to cut back spending, including police presence in high traffic areas, what cases they investigated and to what extent, as well as reducing the overall force size.

The tipping point came in 2024 - up until then, the Met managed to round out the budgets by selling off property they owned all over London, but by 2024 they only had mission critical things that couldn't be sold. So even with the major increase in funding by the new Labour govt, maintaining the city policing was becoming impossible. Meaning petty crime became the lowest priority item. If there were no injuries, no lives at risk, the case became a number for insurance companies to refer to, then promptly closed. You got robbed? Good luck with your insurance claim. Phone snatched? Insurance, or buy a new one. Mugged? The Met might look into it if you got stabbed in the process. People blatantly stealing from a high street store? Official guideline was to not interfere, let them take shit. From around the beginning of 2022 till mid-2025, the situation was untenable, really. You'd be walking down a busy road and bam your phone grabbed right from your hands.

Again, things have gotten better thanks to the Met starting some special task forces to deal with not just the phone snatchers, but the buyers of those stolen phones, rounding up and eliminating entire criminal networks. And suddenly the phone thefts have dropped in numbers. Didn't stop completely but considerably lower nowadays than it was just half a year or a year ago.

The funny thing is, most of society still abided by the rules. It was mostly the lowest ranges of society, the extremities, fringes, the outcasts, the people who've never felt they belong, those who see little to no way of breaking out from their quite desperate situations... Which wouldn't be an issue if the Tories haven't spaffed off billions to their mates, resulting in community centers closing, kid's clubs shutting down, general social services stopping because of no funding, jobcentres giving fuck-all about the people (like, it's seriously fucked up - I've got a friend who's wheelchair bound, relies on PIP and disability payments, who's nearly got said payments discontinued because he turned down a warehouse job that literally required full mobility...). These people require help, to be shown ways out of their destitute lives, ways that don't involve criminal activities. Otherwise they'll just turn to drug dealing, peddling stolen property, or worse, get involved with gangs.

So yeah, the past ~5 years of events in London should be a grim preview of what to expect once societal norms start to break down. It's not nice at all.