Stockwell Battlezone

A gang fight has left a teenager dead and another seriously injured as up to thirty young men weilding knives went to battle with each other.

Four boys ranging from 15 to 24 have been arrested in conncetion with the death, all with minor stab wounds.

One resident describes, “pools of blood everywhere” which makes me struggle to concieve what it would be like to live in an environment like that.

Violence on a daily basis, right outside your locked and bolted window.

The most alarming thing about the whole story is right at the bottom;

“Residents claimed a dog had it’s throat cut in the battle”, which conjures to mind images of a young man at the front of one group, facing another, holding the dog by the scruff of the neck and slitting it’s throat, as the owner, the boy at the front of the opposing crowd, grits his teeth and readies himself for vengence.

it doesn’t have to happen…

The youth crime prevention programme, “It doesn’t have to happen” was mentioned in Parliament on Monday.

The scheme focuses on ways dissuade young people from carrying knives.

Minister of State, Vernon Coaker made reference to the good work being done to bring kids together at a range of eventS covering art, music and dance, and public forums where they can share their views and experiences.

I think this is a vital step forward.

Have a look at their Bebo page, also mentioned by Mr Coaker and linked at the side.

This is an excellent use of social networking ,allowing kids to engage with each other not just locally, but on a national scale, about problems affecting them. I think this gives outsiders some glimpse at the issues, relating to crime within their community, that young people have to face.

Lord of the Flies

Police have been allowed more time to question two eleven year olds that allegedly attacked a ten and a nine year old.

Paints a grim picture of two young children being interrogated intensely by big men in dark clothes.

As you’ll see it started a debate between Chris Grayling and School Secretary Ed Balls, where Mr Grayling said, “We need to start fixing Britain’s broken society by getting to grips with the deep-rooted problems in many parts of this country.”

More sensible talk from a nonsensical system.

Keep the public safe and the kids at arms length.

Big Boris took a poignant step towards “deterring” youth crime by launching his scheme for London buses in the borough of Bexley.

Stood outside Bexleyheath police station, he proudly stated that, “One of the key things we said we were going to do is to remove money from Transport for London’s publicity budget in favour of more policing on the buses…” and this £11.3 million cost is primarily being funded from exactly there.

While I feel this is a great “deterrent” and will undoubtedly help keep the public at ease when cruising between the couch and the dole office, i don\’t see it dealing with the “criminals” themselves.

A plan that will no doubt, judging by the attitudes of the Metropolitan Police Service that I witnessed at the G20 riots, cause further demonisation of an entire generation of people.

Will anyone…

Save The Youth

Have a quick look at these violent crime figures , relating to the Tackling Gangs Action Programme, over the last three financial years (theirs something oddly disconcerting about measuring violent crime within the boundries of the civil service’s tax year).

You’ll notice that, obviously, there is more crime recorded by the Metropoliton police in London and Birmingham combined, but even halfing the figure’s doesnt bring the rate of violent crime in Manchester Merseyside and West Midlands, even close, which isn’t suprising, it’s the other figures that are interesting.

Firstly, crime across the board isnt falling on last year, it’s rising. This year the knife has taken preference to wound but not kill (including air weapons and crossbows), firearm offences (without intent to kill, including air weapons and crossbows) are also up across the board, attacks with sharp instruments are up everywhere except from the Met, as are shootings.

Gangs have always been part of life. These figures merely focus on the summation of the problem. Young men involved in gang culture, for whatever reason, plus readily available weapons on the street equals a spate of shooting’s, stabbing’s and assualt. These are kind of figures the mainstream media would jump on and spin across our face, making you scared to leave your house but unless your actually involved in gangs its unlikely you’ll be directly invovled in a shooting or stabbing.

The question is, are people content to stand back, study the figure’s and let them all kill each other before they begin to address the reasons why?

Twitching Curtains

spies...everywhere

Further draconian values from the government as their plan to “name and shame” people who have broken the law were announced. Type your postcode into the link and you’ll be able to find out who’s been getting up to what in your area.

Considerations of door to door leafleting campaigns to publicise known offenders are also being considered for places with high crime.

This is reminiscent of the ASBO which is now held in high regard by those who’ve won them in the past. The town caller calls your name, states you’re crime and you’re peers then judge you accordingly.

I can’t see this working at all. In rough neighbourhoods people are too concerned with living their own lives in peace than persecuting killers, rapists and thieves.

In middle to upper class areas of low crime, however, I can see this working too well. Every beady eye ready to pounce on anyone who’s name happens to appear on, “The List”.

The Good, The Bad and The Grimey…

A conviction against three boys involved in a knife fight in hackney last year was secured last week. The judge laid down the law, “Hackney is not some Wild West town where people can go around stabbing one another…” before spitting hell, fire and damnation as the hammer came slamming down.

Thirteen years between the three of them.

A lot of time to sharpen you’re trade.

Hackney…

Another shooting. As you’ll see, a twenty year old and a fifteen year old were arrested in connection with the incident.

Seems like a big age gap.

Grooming at it’s darkest.

Time For Action…some questionable results.

Just before the weekend the results of Boris Johnsons youth crime initiative “Time For Action“were released, detailing his plan to tackle youth crime in London. Five days later and another young man is dead,executed on the street, shot in the back of the head in broad daylight, and as this article reports, what followed was a wave of violence that engulfed the capital; with stabbings, arson attacks and shooting sprees in Greenwich and Hackney.

But cast your mind back to November when the plan was announced.Everything suggested exudes a distinct middle classness, calling for, “…life tools that will enable careers other than profesional criminality…” proclaiming that, “Sport can unify and redeem. Healthy bodies lead to healthy minds…” and “Organisations like the Scouts, Girl Guides and Police Cadets know a lot about character…” .

So, how far has Boris come in abolishing the sickening rate of teenage murder in London. Well he’s asked the young people themselves for suggestions via submission to his webpage for the scheme.

After three months these have been reviewed and released. According to the press release 240 youngsters responded, although theirs no indication of what age range or social background these kids come from, but nonetheless, some suggestions.

1.Longer prison sentences for people who commit violent crime.

One goes to prison, another takes his place. Filling the already bursting jails with confused adolescent young men is not a solution.

2.More youth clubs and after school clubs offering a range of activities.

Judging from the youth club that I frequented as a teenager you’ll learn more about drink, drugs and other such vices in no better place.

3.Better media representation of young people…

This was a point I could agree on, until it continued.

…many thought the extensive coverage of knife crime glamorised carrying knives.

The issue doesn’t lie in the glamorisation of knives, it’s centered around the depiction of all young people as weapon weilding maniacs. There is a dire need for better representation to achieve the abolition of the hysteria being whipped up surrounding kids on the street. We run a great risk of a pre 20’s genocide that will leave every person aged between 9 and 19 dead on the streets; disregarded, rotting in jail and committed to a life of criminality where they’ll achieve the respect they don’t get from, “normal” society.

4.Parenting support from birth onwards

I can see it now…the mother lies drowned in pools of sweat and tears as the doctors severe the chord and take a good look at the new born baby.

“May I hold her Doctor?” the mother asks, still out of breath.

“Well, Mrs Ford, I’m afraid you’ve not had the state approved, “Induction to Motherhood Training” which every new Mother is required to undertake before being allowed to hold, look, talk or smell her child, lest she empart any notion of his becoming a young offender in the future. Just fill out these forms and hand them in when you leave. We’ll ensure little Jack is contained in a non violence capacitating state for now….”

5.Schools should take more responsibility for children’s behaviour.

I fail to see how this could be effective. If I wasn’t going to listen to my mum and dad, I certainly wasn’t going to listen to some other, and far lesser, authority figure who saw me two or three times a week for gym.

Unless of the course the answer is pushing powers of the law onto non qualified citizens. People can’t handle power and placing it in the hands of those who are not trained to use it will be devastating. Your opening the floodgates to bullying, singling out and oppression in schools.

As yet these “suggestions” are being considered and I’ll be following Boris’s plan and the actual figures closely over the coming months to see if he can make any dent in the tsunami of violent crime affecting every part of the capital.

Working Hours Knifecrime

Stabbings. Once thought to be a night time affair, but now increasingly commencing within normal office hours. Knife and gun crime is frequently happening on London streets as you step out from the office or buy your morning paper. The forsight you use when walking home of an evening appears, for some, to be applied at all times of the day.

A man stabbed and shot dead in Camberwell at 1pm on a Friday afternoon in December 2008, and a woman jogger stabbed by a fifteen year old in Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, at 5pm, in December 2003, are just two examples.

And on Tuesday three young teenagers, 15, 16 and 17, were stabbed in Chingford at 5:10pm. This is violence affecting not only the people involved but everyone around them as well. The men, woman and children that are coming home from school, going for a pint of milk or coming out of work, and maybe this is what makes a daytime stabbing appear so much worse than under the cover of night.

It’s hard to say without knowing the reasons behind it, whether an increase in working hours knife crime would affect people any more than just the sheer horror of witnessing one man stab another, or whether, when we bump into someone on the bus, or meet someone’s eyes on the street, we’ll be met by the sharp end of a knife.