Four of those who died were teenagers, all of them black victims of growing youth violence. The youngest was just 14; stabbed through the heart on a summer evening on his way to a football game.
The outsider might believe that in the corridors of Scotland Yard, at management meetings and at the forefront of every single mind within the Met, these figures, and those teenage deaths, must have dominated. But the whispers from every rank strongly suggest otherwise.
Nearly 10 years on from the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence, the Met and its commissioner Sir Ian Blair - appear to be engaged in an all out race war with black and Asian staff.
Yasmin Rehman, the force's head of diversity, became the latest to publicly announce she was suing the Met for racial discrimination this week, following the high profile claim by assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur and the case of commander Shabir Hussain. And there are likely to be more to come.
Next week the National Black Police Association will escalate the dispute with its plans for a march on the Yard, a public campaign to urge young ethnic minorities not to join the Met and a vote of no confidence in the force's leadership.
In addition, in a few days time Blair and his force will face their greatest scrutiny since the Lawrence inquiry at the inquest into the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian mistakenly thought to be a terrorist; a hearing which many fear will expose damning details about the operational effectiveness of the force on that day, and the overall efficacy of its current leadership.
What then of policing London, of disturbing crime statistics reflecting a growing violent youth crime problem and the terrorist threat?
Those who have worked with the force in the nine years since the Macpherson report to improve race relations do not believe it is fundamentally racist.
But the National Black Police Association, led by commander Ali Dizaei, says race discrimination claims have doubled in the last two years.
They say only one person has been promoted to chief inspector rank in the last six years although there has been no shortage of applicants and that the six most senior black and Asian officers have made or are making employment tribunal claims for racial discrimination. They blame a failure of leadership from Blair which has allowed those beneath him to exercise prejudice when awarding promotions.
Dizaei has reasons - he was subjected to a multimillion pound inquiry into corruption allegations and eventually acquitted of all criminal charges and reinstated.
This week the picture was complicated further when Shahrokh Mireskandari, the lawyer chosen by Dizaei to represent Ghaffur, Rehman and others in their race tribunals, faced allegations about his background in the Daily Mail. Mireskandari, who has threatened to destroy Blair's "golden circle" of white officers.
And yesterday the Metropolitan Police Authority said it was investigating Dizaei for alleged misconduct over another matter - helping Mireskhandari defend a woman facing prosecution by the Met for death by dangerous driving. Dizaei denies wrongdoing.
How Blair brings the Met out of its crisis will be a test of his much-criticised leadership. Many believe he is reaping what he has sowed and the repair job will have to be carried out by another commissioner.
Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has been making clear Blair retains her confidence. But Cindy Butts, deputy chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, believes public confidence in the force is falling away. "We have two major issues to tackle, terrorism and youth crime.
"Both demand good working relationships between ethnic minority communities and the police. This is too big an issue to be hijacked by the playing out of differences within the service."
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