Gang Crime ( prisoners to the street)

Members of the black society who live in London are confined to visit other areas in London than the actual area they live in. Members of the black society who live on the outskirts of London or even areas further from London such as Birmingham or Manchester feel confined to visit the capital city of England , London. Now why is this? The answer to this question is simply gang crime.

 Gang crime has existed since the mid 1990s and in many cases as far back as the 1970s and 1980s. One thing to take into consideration is that most gangs currently in existence in London are located in areas that have been home to the gangs. There are particular geographical locales in London that are more susceptible to the formation of gangs. Some of those areas have been the focus of a small number of long lasting gangs. Other areas have had frequent gang formations periodically replacing older gangs. In some cases they have continued with the same gang name, even following the turnover of all original members.

 Since the 1970s, gangs in London have formed for a number of reasons. These include:

 

Racial conflicts

“Ten, fifteen years ago, nobody used to bother defending themselves from racist attacks, they just used to take it,” says Ranu. “It’s not that way anymore. We are prepared to defend ourselves now”

(Thompson, 1995, 118).

Unemployment and poor economic conditions “At eighteen I was made redundant from a garage job. I was going for jobs which white youths were getting with far fewer qualifications…one evening, coming home…my friend took his wallet. We had about £200 off
him, and he (his friend) gave me fifty quid. From there it escalated. I had a choice and I chose to hang with them” (McLagan, 2006, 18)

The desire to acquire material items, money and status “I was sick of wearing black pumps to school, just because they’re gonna last long. No. I wanted the latest Adidas or Air Max trainers. On the street you needed to look good to get any sort of respect. You needed smart clothes and nice jewellery” (Pritchard, 2008, 140).

Transmission of sub cultural norms in established gang neighbourhoods “We learnt about the gang and its values from the olders, I think they enforced them in us” Quote from a younger gang member, 17, north London 2008.

“I believe we are responsible for the youngers, like the stories and our expectations, like what we tell the youngers is [anti-social], get me? We wind them up and thing saying yeah are you a badman, you wanna be in the gang and some of them are like yeah yeah blood I wanna hang with you guys. Most times they don’t know why, they just wanna be seen with us, its like a fad until some madness pops off and someone gets injured then its serious” Quote from an older gang member, 24, north London 2008

These reasons justify the reason why members of the black society, mainly focusing on young male youths, decide to join gangs. Other teenagers including females have said to either join a gang or get pressurized and threathened your whole life to join a gang. This is another reason why young males join gangs which could be called as an act of bullying.

 It has also been said that a lot of the older gang members consistently stand outside school gates to when pupils are either going to school, going home from school or on their break or lunch to approach them and ask if they want to join the " game". Some teenagers feel threathened at this point and are left with no option than to join the gang. Some are also scared but some just simply think becoming part of a gang means money and luxury, and as they want this they'll join the gang. These include primary schools and sometimes black children as young as 11 are part of gang crime.

The following are reports on major gang crime incidents which have occured in the UK over the last past years:

GAS Gang (GG)

Location London Borough of Lambeth, located around the Myatts Field, Angell Town and Loughborough estates of Brixton within the SW9 postal district.   History The first media mention of the GAS Gang seems to have been in 2009 when the Metro reported on a kidnap and stabbing case. The incident involved one gang, GAS, attempting to kidnap a 13-year-old boy and his friend from a rival gang, PYG, in Camberwell before stabbing the 13-year-old five times. In 2010 and 2011 there have been four murder cases which have been linked with the GAS Gang, although only one can be confirmed, that of Zac Olumegbon in 2010. The others include Temideyo Ogunneye in May 2011, a young robbery victim who was stabbed to death when attempting to retrieve his belongings from the suspects near Myatt's Field estate.   Zac Olumegbon, aka Lil Zac In June 2010 members of the TN1 gang stabbed a member of the GAS Gang, rumoured to have been Sneakbo. One of those present at the stabbing was teenager Zac Olumegbon, known also as ‘Lil Zac’. He was a member, or associate, of the TN1 gang from Tulse Hill which, understood to primarily translate as Trust-No-1. The following month in what appears to have been a revenge attack Zac Olumegbon was hounded down and killed on the morning of July 2 outside Park Campus School in Gypsy Road, South Norwood. The killers were all said to be members of the GAS Gang.   It was heard at court how members of the GAS Gang and TN1 had been engaged in an ongoing and violent dispute. The GAS Gang wanted revenge on the TN1 for the stabbing of one of their well known members. Zac Olumegbon was believed to have been the ‘prime target’. An assistant head teacher at the school was aware of the friction between the two gangs. This teacher had previously discussed gang membership with Zac. He had talked about his troubles a month before his death with a teacher after being restrained during a fight outside the school gates of Park Campus School. Zac had told his teacher that he had ‘beef’ with the GAS Gang. Park Campus school is for pupils who were awaiting for places at mainstream schools, including those who had been excluded from mainstream schools. Many had behavioural difficulties and there was a policy of confiscating phones as they entered school. Zac had refused to hand over his phone on the morning of the murder before asking to see a senior teacher. He was waiting in reception when a car drove past the school. Zac was then heard telling a friend ‘That’s them, that’s them’ before going out the door. The killers arrived together outside the school by car at 8:45am. They attacked one pupil at the front gates before Zac came outside. Four of the five then chased Zac down the street, with multiple weapons, whilst the fifth drove the car along with them in readiness to pick them up quickly and escape. He was chased down before being knifed in the heart, neck and buttock and then left dying in the back garden of a house. CCTV cameras caught part of the pursuit. A member of staff pursued the attackers and stood in front of the car as they tried to escape the scene. The car charged at the member of staff who was pulled to safety by a colleague. School staff found Zac in the rear garden of a house on Gipsy Road Gardens. Despite emergency surgery at the scene he could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at 10:05am. The Nissan Almera vehicle used by the suspects had been stolen from Moorland Road, Brixton, on June 29 2010. It was found in Holland Grove the day after the murder on July 3. Zac’s blood was found in the car and on the outside of the passenger door. Fingerprints of five youths were found in the vehicle, all of whom originally denied being at the scene, but subsequently four accepted being present. One of the killers also used Zac’s mobile phone 28 minutes after the stabbing. Five teenagers were later jailed for a combined total of 76 years in 2011. Kyle Kinghorn, 18, and Helder Demorais, Jamal Moore and Ricardo Giddings, all 17, were convicted of murder following a two month trial at the Old Bailey – known also by their nicknames Mad H, Maggy, J-Kid/JJ and Clicka. Giddings, the knifeman who struck the fatal blow, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years. Kinghorn and Demorais were jailed for a minimum of 16 years and Moore was given at least 14 years. Another youth, Shaquille Haughton, 16, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to a 12-year determinate sentence. Moore was a promising grime music artist, known as J-Kid or Younger Sneaky. The prosecutor said that ‘the reality of the events that were to lead to Zac’s death is that it had its origin in the dreadful but certain fact of rivalry between young gangs in south London...thee fate that Zac Olumegbon suffered that day was a tragic and terrible waste of a young life’. Shine my nine Gang (SMN) Location London Borough of Croydon, around the Thornton Heath and Norwood areas of the borough within the CR7, SE19 and SE25 postal districts. Shakilus Townsend Schoolboy Shakilus Townsend died at the hands of a notorious South London street gang after being lured to his death by the girl he loved. Samantha Joseph was just 15 when she led the smitten youngster to a quiet suburban cul-de-sac where he was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed in the chest. She had agreed to act as a ‘honey trap’ after her boyfriend – 17-year-old gangster Danny McLean – found out she had been seeing Shakilus behind his back. The defenceless victim was left to die in the street alone, crying for his mother, after McLean repeatedly stabbed him. Joseph had been seeing Shakilus, 16, behind the back of McLean, known by the nickname 'Tamper', and a member of notorious Croydon youth gang Shine My Nine (SMN). Shakilus, the eldest of four children from Deptford, confided in his mother that he was 'smitten' with the girl. The couple had met on a bus just weeks before the murder as Joseph (pictured right) returned from seeing McLean in Thornton Heath. They exchanged text messages before embarking on an intense month-long relationship. Shakilus’ mother Nicola Dyer later told police the girl was 'all he had been talking about for the four weeks leading up to his murder'. He showed her photographs of Joseph, and said she was beautiful, that he was in love with her and wanted to marry her. On one occasion, Jopseph spoke briefly to Ms Dyer over the phone. But when McLean discovered the affair and broke up with her, Joseph promised she would do anything to get back with him, and agreed to help him take revenge on Shakilus. The court heard McLean had been violent towards Joseph in the past but she appeared to be 'obsessed' with him. She told friends 'Tamper wants to get Shak set.' On July 3, 2008, the unwitting victim met the girl after she told him they would be visiting her cousin. Instead she delivered Shakilus, to McLean and five other members of the SMN gang in Beulah Crescent, Thornton Heath. Knifeman McLean, wearing the gang's trademark colours with an orange bandana across his face, stabbed him in the stomach and twisted the knife tearing open a 'gaping' hole. Andre Thompson, 16, beat the helpless victim with a baseball bat, while brothers Tyrell and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18 and 17, Michael Akinfenwa, 17, and former public schoolboy Andre Johnson-Haynes, 17 kicked and punched him on the floor and acted as look outs. The killers were chased away by neighbours who found the helpless teenager crying out 'mummy, mummy, mummy...I don't want to die'. Witnesses spotted the girl, wearing a distinctive floral-pattern dress, running away. She later confessed to friends she had agreed to 'get Shak set' and was 'never really bothered' by him but liked it went he spent money on her. Shakilus was stabbed five times during the attack, with at least two knives. One of the knife blows 'raked across' his liver causing massive blood loss and he died within a few hours in hospital. Prosecutor Brian Altman, QC, told jurors at the Old Bailey that the murder had been planned meticulously and executed with ‘consummate skill and cunning’. Following a nine week trial at the Old Bailey, all seven defendants were convicted of murder. Joseph was jailed for life with a minimum of ten years, while McLean was given a minimum term of 15 years. Andre Thompson was jailed for at least 14 years, while the Ellis brothers, Akinfenwa and Johnson-Haynes each received minimum 12 year sentences. Judge Richard Hawkins QC said: 'You left him to die a lonely death, crying for his mother. 'You Danny McLean intended to kill Shakilus Townsend. The reason for this act was that in your mind he had shown disrespect to you through his MDP Gang ( Murder Dem Pussies) Location London Boroughs of Ealing (W3, W5, W7, W13), Hammersmith and Fulham (W6, W12) and some representation in Hounslow (W4).   History MDP came about almost 10 years after the Borer Man Crew were a force to be recognised in Shepherd’s Bush and the White City estate in particular. The MDP were a younger generation of sorts to olders called MPR (Make Paper Regardless, Money Power Respect, Make Prayers Reality) from Shepherd’s Bush and those on the South Acton estate. MDP is known to stand for amongst other things Murder Dem Pussies, Money Drugs Powers and Make Death Possible. In adoption of the colour blue and wearing of blue bandanas, to oppose their rivals in Ladbroke Grove and Southall, the gang became known also as ‘Murder Blues’.    Kodjo Yenga Kodjo Yenga, 16, a gifted A-level student nicknamed Kizzle, was the seventh teenager to be killed on the streets of London in 2007. Just days earlier in an MTV News special programme on drugs and crime, Kodjo had said that his biggest concern was youngsters carrying knives on the street and that stabbings were becoming more common.                   Kodjo was hunted down in Hammersmith Grove chased by a mob of youths chanting ‘Catch him, kill him’. At the time he was out with his 15-year-old girlfriend in Hammersmith Broadway shopping centre on March 14 2007. That day he was approached by a 16-year-old boy who said ‘I hear you want to fight me?’ Despite his girlfriends attempts to persuade him not too Kodjo agreed and was led to a residential side street off Hammersmith Grove. At this location there came to be at least nine more MDP members present, waiting and armed with at least one knife and a pitbull terrier on a lead. Kodjo told one of them ‘Do you think you are a big boy because you’ve got a knife to me?’ to which the 16-year-old replied ‘I don’t care. I want you to respect me’. The group who were aged between 14 to 17 subjected Kodjo to a vicious assault in front of his girlfriend before stabbing him with a knife through the heart. The attack was witnessed by numerous residents and passersby who described the group as being excited and looking proud about their assault. Several of the defendants were found soon after in and around Iffley Road. The murder was believed to have been set up as ‘initiation’ for a new MDP member. Kodjo was a pupil at St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College and had gained 10 GCSEs. He was hoping to add A-levels in business studies, computer studies and French to his impressive list of qualifications. Following his death someone purporting to be an MDP member left a message on a tribute website reading ‘I knew the bre’s who did this and I’m just saying sorry init’. Five schoolboy gangsters were jailed for a total of 60 years in May 2008 for the killing of Kodjo. Brandon Richmond, 14, and Tirrell Davis, 17, were jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years for murder. Kurtis Yemoh, 17, Michael Williams, 15, and Jamel Bridgeman, 15, would be locked up for 10 years for manslaughter. The Judge said ‘Kodjo Yenga was lured to a quiet residential street in Hammersmith on the pretext that he was to be challenged to a one on one fight’, Davis and Richmond where accused of being the prime instigators whilst Williams, Yemoh and Bridgeman were part of the group who confronted Kodjo once he was there.     The court heard how one of the defendants, Kurtis Yemoh, was a brilliant student before becoming embroiled with gangs. He was predicted a string of A* grades in his GCSE exams before his arrest on suspicion of murder. Despite his excellence in the classroom he was a proud member of the MDP. He had acquired a previous conviction for being a passenger in a stolen car and was accused of an attempted mugging. Just four months before the attack on Kodjo he was handed a six-month detention and training order for a robbery in west London. Just one of the defendants had no previous convictions whilst the others had been responsible for muggings and car crimes. In an emotional statement read in court, Kodjo’s mum begged young people to put down their weapons. She said her son’s killers would never be able to wash their hands of his blood and warned of the ‘ripples of pain’ that are left behind. To try and create a positive outcome from the tragedy, the family have set up a charity in his name, and pledged to support gifted young people across London. David Lammy MP says absent fathers 'key cause of knife crime' David Lammy suggested most people involved in last year's London riots were from single parent homes A London MP has suggested that absent fathers are a key cause of knife crime. Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy said most young people who have stabbed someone to death come from single parent families. Former gang member Sheldon Thomas, now a government advisor on youth violence, said he agreed with Mr Lammy "100%". He said his and others' warnings had fallen on deaf ears for at least 20 years. Mr Lammy, whose own father walked out, said after regularly visiting Feltham Young Offenders Institute he found that most, if not all, offenders did not have access to their fathers. He also suggested that most of the people involved in last year's London riots were from single parent homes. Responding to his comments, Mr Thomas said: "Successive governments refused to look at the important role that fathers play in any community. "What people will be asking is how come it takes an MP to bring to light something that has been fundamentally affecting deprived communities for at least 20 years?" He said many factors had contributed to the phenomenon, including teenage pregnancy being "at an all-time high". "The moral factors and the values of this country have completely changed significantly," he added. Mr Thomas said fathers should not use the excuse of not getting along with their child's mother as a reason not to look after their child. Ken Sanderson, chief executive of Families Need Fathers, said he thought the the lack of father figures was not the only cause of crime, but was a contributing factor. "The absence of a good influential parent or someone who can teach you the difference between right and wrong and develop you and nurture you is a real problem for a lot of families," he said. I added the above article to my post from the BBC as in my opinion it is very true and relevant to this task. In my opinion, one of the key reasons of knife crime is because of absent fathers. If you look at the history of many of the offenders, many of them suffered a bad childhood with most boys having no father at home to discipline them and put them on the right path. Functionalists would identify absent fathers as lack of moral in the individual's lives who caused the offences. However they will still see the individuals to blame as they are the ones who commited the crime and could've acted differently and therefore would call the individuals pure evil. However marxists would identify the aspect of lack of moral due to absent fathers as the reason why the individuals caused the crime and wouldnt blame the individuals neccesarily and name them evil but instead say the aspect of absent fathers is one of the reasons and the reasons why most people commit to a gang which i have mentioned earlier in this post. And because most of the reasons are related to the poor economy conditions and unemployment , marxists would identify white collar crime to be the case as well.