Gangs, Knifes and Amnesia

"19 year old male, stabbed in back"

Working in a city, we see our fair share of knife crime. It happens much more regularly than the media report. In reality you only hear about it on the news if its a teenager who has been stabbed or rich white man was stabbed by a black man. In practice, stabbings occur every single day and 99% of it is young males in gangs. The dispiriting truth about the cities gang culture is that it is not only large, with at least 100 gangs, but it attracts ever younger children. There must be worthwhile alternatives for young people to gang membership, not just limited to sports centers. Education is the most powerful force for change: government-driven improvements in schools in deprived areas will, it is hoped, offer teenagers more fundamental alternatives to the gangs, by providing them with the skills and discipline to aspire to employment and further education rather than an existence as drug-pushers.

The London riots showcased to the world the gang culture that exists and the roots of these appalling events are many and complex but none more so than the way Britain's educational establishment has cringed helplessly in the face of ever increasing gang culture; a culture that rejects every tenet of liberal society. It's violent, it's sexist, it's homophobic and it's racist. Unfortunately,  it is broadly tolerated by many people in the poorer communities, which has lost control of its teenage youths. Those youths scare the wits out of teachers and social workers, the public and police officers. Knife crime is rife and not enough is being done to stop it. There is no parity in sentencing for offenders, not enough police resources available to tackle the issue head on and not enough incentives for these young people to buck the trend. In London alone (I choose London because they are the easiest statistics to find!), there were 7,231 knife crimes in 2010/2011, a 29% increase on 2008. There sits evidence enough that the issue is not being tackled and whilst there are Conservative promises of more cuts to front line police the numbers will simply increase.

We were called to an address in rough part of town. Music was blaring, there were scores of people loitering with intent outside the address, buzz words such as 'retribution' and 'revenge' were being branded about. This was clearly gang related but for us, the problem with gang related stabbing is the clear and concise history! Our guy was stood in the living room, tempers were high, testosterone at critical levels and don't even get me started on their dress sense! He however was topless, bleeding from a rather large stab would in his back. I was concerned about the levels of air entry in his left lung and was keen to treat as I found, however, he didn't want treatment, he wanted to go out, I assume, tooled up looking to hit back at the rival gang. Nether the less, the police assured him he would be going to hospital. Now the history.

"So what exactly happened?"

"I don't know"

"What were you stabbed with?"

"I don't know"

"Who stabbed you? Was there a gang of them?"

"Can't remember"

"Did you get in a confrontation?"

"No"

"Where did this happen?"

"Cant remember"

"So you were just walking alone, realised you had been stabbed, but didn't see anyone, hear anything or feel anything?"

"Nah, I got back to yard yeah and my home boy told me I was bleeding, innit"

Wow! Amnesia is so frustrating. To loose the memory of such a memorable event must be a nightmare. How on earth will the police catch the bad guy? In a word, they won't. They will continue to chase their under-resources tails until they come across another teen. Dead. Stabbed by the guy with amnesia. And why? I can't remember!

This guy didn't die but also didn't appreciate the significance of what had happened. It was just another day. Gang life. It comes with the territory. For too long, the less affluent areas of society have been left to breed this hatred and it is now endemic. The softly softly approach clearly doesn't work, job and financial incentives are futile because more money can be eared in pushing drugs. What is needed is 0 tolerance, long prison sentences, removal of benefits, confiscation of property. What the government needs to do is give the police the powers to stop this mindless violence and criminality in its tracks but instead, they have a different solution. 16000 less officers! Genius! That'll fix the problem!


#AntiWinsorNetwork

Nature Vs Nurture

"25 year, spouting racist abuse and teaching her child to be a bigot"

As a country, I think we see ourselves as tolerant; we embrace and celebrate diversity and generally thrive as a multicultural society. There are however, pockets of people who are still stuck in the dark ages.

A few weeks back there were a 'giggle' of ambulance crews (I've made up 'giggle' as a collective term for crews but like it!) stood talking outside our local A & E. The riots were still a hot topic of conversation and the term 'Broken Britain' was being branded about. Like a family of meerkats all of our heads turned in unison at the voice of a women not 20 feet from us.

She was about 25 years old, donning a hideous pink velour tracksuit, stomach hanging out and obviously pregnant. Her hair was tied back tight into a council facelift, her eyebrow was pierced and she was chewing gum like Sir Alex Ferguson on derby day. She also had a toddler in tow. An asian man exited the A & E and walked passed her.

"Dirty fucking paki" she shouted

He had enough moral fibre to walk away despite the continued onslaught of racial abuse she continued to shout. We then watched in utter bewilderment as the following conversation occurred between her and her little boy:

"Say dirty fucking paki"

The boy, whose voice was filled with all the innocence that a three year old should be, repeated what he was told.

"That's my boy, now say dirty fucking nigger"

And without knowing better he did.

"Well done, mummy's so proud of you, now say filthy fucking Muslim"

This exchange continued for a number of minutes. Eventually the police arrived and removed her. I can only assume she had been at it long before we arrived. The sad thing about it is, ignoring the profound ignorance of the mother, what chance does that kid have? He is growing up with racism and hatred being the norm and sadly, those opinions probably won't change. I have no doubt that unfortunately,  ten years from now, he will be roaming around his estate with a group of friends abusing passers-by, he'll probably be violent and racist to anyone who isn't white British. It's painfully obvious which one of Nature vs Nurture is to blame.

I truly didn't think that this kind of racism was still common place, maybe I've been sheltered from it, maybe I've subconsciously chosen to ignore it but its still there. The riots put the spotlight on a broken Britain but the problem runs much deeper than some broken shop fronts and missing trainers. The estate culture in and around the city is a breeding ground for racial hatred and with communities of one particular ethnic group segregating themselves from the rest this social divide will continue to grow. These are the issues that need addressing. Sure, she can be arrested and charged & will probably be fined, but living on benefits means she'll pay her fine at £5 a week for a few years at no real cost to her. Recently there have been a number of high profile cases of racism in football from the likes of Louis Suarez and John Terry. It highlighted that racism is still in all facets of our society, from the rich to the poor and from various cultural backgrounds. I firmly believe there is no smoke without fire and as much as education education education can help our youngsters understand and embrace multiculturalism, with racist parents and racist role models absolutely nothing with change.