It's definitely worse now, someone walking along a street randomly slashing people with a sword would have been unheard of 20-30+ years ago. Then there are the Islamic terrorists doing similar.
There was organised crime in the old days, but it wasn't public like this.
It's not just violent crime either. Fraud and money laundering is rampant in London. Everyone can see it (American candy shops etc), its obvious, but thr police and Khan seemingly ignore it
There was IIRC a judge at a tribunal killed by someone with a sword 25 years of so ago, the guy also attacked multiple others. It's the reason all DWP tribunals now have security.
There were definitely attacks similar in the past, but they didn't tend to get massive press attention, and they're far enough back that people don't remember them. I remember previous periods where there were issues with people carrying various types of large knives "for protection" and the sort of idiots that typically did so.
I also remember that back in the 70's there were gangs that used knives, and in the 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's...Not to mention the spate of "care in the community" related murders back in the 80's and 90's when Thatcher shut down many of the psychatric hospitals and secure units with a view that people should be getting looked after in the community, but with no real provision in terms of manpower to do so or follow up on missed appointments (a policy that definitely wasn't aimed at reducing costs and freeing up what was often valuable real estate to sell off).
Money laundering is a matter that IIRC is both a police and a HMRC thing, usually HMRC and other specialist units because it tends to require forensic accountants not you run of the mill bobby on the beat, and as I think has been mentioned the first port of call for checking on businesses is the local councils various trading standards and similar departments, the police can't go into a shop and say "'ello ello ello, what's going on 'ere then, can I look at your accounts, receipts, stock and invoices please" (they'll support the other units, and they'll often start an investigation if it comes up in regards to another crime, but they're simply not set up to investigate this sort of tax evasion and fraud)..
