Even while people from all over the United Kingdom are gathering to mourn their beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96, two police officers were stabbed in central London.
This shocking incident underlines that there are people out there who have their very own agenda – cause bodily harm for no reason except for terrorizing innocent citizens. Old-age pensioners are brutally attacked, and so are teenagers, shopkeepers, police and so on.
Many say already that no one seems safe anymore and above all else, the crime scenes have since long shifted from less affluent areas in the capital’s south-east to anywhere and everywhere in the capital and to a lesser extent, other parts of the country.
The bigger problem is often overlooked – knife and sharp object crimes are no longer only occurring amongst gang members or are being carried out by gangs alone, the lone wolf phenomenon has led to individuals attacking other people without any connection to a (youth) gang at all.
Yet, it is fair to say that when the first wave of violent attacks happened it was mostly due to a small number of gang members who had set out to inflict harm, and in some instances, even knowingly accepting the eventual death of the victim.
One such case from November 2000 is the killing of Damilola Taylor, a young boy who died a few days before his 11th birthday in the Peckham area of the capital London. It took the prosecution a trial and retrial before it was established that the weapon used was a broken glass bottle with which he was stabbed into his left thigh leading to serious injuries and bleeding causing his death. The defendants accused of the murder had argued Taylor simply fell on the bottle. Eventually, two further attackers who were not part of the originally accused four youths were brought to court. It had taken almost six years to come to a verdict; the attackers were 16 and 17 when arrested due to new DNA techniques and blood stains found on shoes and clothes. Hence the offenders – brothers – were 12 and 13 at the time when attacking and ultimately murdering a 10-year-old: shocking!
The truth behind the sad fact that very often a small group of gang members had set out to prove themselves was documented in the movie "Sket – Man’s World. Sister’s Hood." Originally the film’s plot used the murder of the brother of the lead actress named Kayla as a key theme, by the time the film had been finished in 2011 she set out to revenge her sister’s death instead. But the storyline as such remained, it evolves around fights erupting between a boy and a girl gang. Yet, the initial idea was based on the murder of young Taylor a decade earlier. Filming took place in Peckham and other London boroughs.
The Independent Newspaper’s arts correspondent Arifa Akbar was in all likelihood the first broadsheet contributor shedding light on London’s girl gang culture, with her article titled "The gangs of Peckham – as told by the girls who know them," published on Aug. 7, 2010.
The author introduces a group of young, mostly black people discussing the first script of the movie, a fictional girl gang, yet, as it soon transpires based on the alarming violent reality on the ground.
The author continues by introducing Antique (whose real name is being withheld) "as a resident of South London and she has come to the Eternal Life Support Centre (ELSC) in Peckham to reveal the brutal inner workings of the capital's growing number of girl gangs." Then we learn that "advisers at the Damilola Taylor Trust referred filmmakers to this office in Peckham, a stone's throw from the library which Taylor visited shortly before he was murdered 10 years ago, so they could enlist these youths for their workshops. The girl, Kayla, joins a local girl gang for this purpose, undergoing a series of initiation exercises, which include theft and violence to convince the gang leader, Danielle, of her genuine intent, but then finds it difficult to break free." And then it concludes quoting the film's producer Nick Taussig saying, "there is a distinct lack of public knowledge about female gang culture, which results in a high level of fascination."
Just over two decades later the situation has spun completely out of control. In a study titled "Number of knife crime offenses in London 2015-2022" D. Clark wrote on July 27, 2022 that "the number of knife or sharp instruments offenses recorded by the police in London rose to approximately 11,122 in 2021/22 (...) since 2015/16 when there were 9,752 offenses." A wider (violent) trend was to be seen across the entire country citing police funding and the number of officers as key reasons. Thousands of moped and acid attacks complete the sensational picture with the capital London always topping the numbers.
Former U.K. member of Parliament, Nick de Bois, proposed to amend an existing legal framework, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act from the year 2012 to introduce mandatory prison terms for anyone under the age of 18 using a knife threatening an individual’s well-being or even endangering life.
Previously, youth had been excluded from mandatory prison terms. In 2015 the second chapter of his draft was adopted implying that even without actually having caused bodily harm anyone caught carrying a knife in public for the second time will see jail from the inside for six months, if underage being 16 or 17, for four months.
For the purpose of writing this analysis, de Bois was kind enough to explain to our readers the reasoning behind his championing this good and just cause. He said that "I was prompted to take action on knife crime after meeting the mother of a teenage boy who was killed in a senseless knife crime assault in North London. Looking at the matter, it turned out that while the explosion that occurred while carrying a knife had many complex and varied causes, the punishment was decidedly inadequate. At the time there were over 10,000 prosecutions in London alone including multiple re-offenders who were never sent to jail. This is why I felt compelled to change the new law."
Wondering whether it all boils down to politicians, we learned the sheer scale of assaults and killings require a national strategy delivered locally in areas of most need. Local community groups, youth violence units and police know who and where the most vulnerable are at risk, the prospect of gang membership and dysfunctional family units exist. By offering a positive option to remove youngsters from the challenges they face in their environment by engaging with housing and schools for example, we can help reduce the number of youths caught up in this cycle of violence. Robustly tackling the gangs and county lines drug trade must be done hand in hand with the social and educational programs. It takes political leadership first, then local partnership.
The quality of life for individual citizens depends on many factors. A global health situation paired with rising energy prices plus the war in Ukraine resulted in having to cope with many unexpected daily challenges and problems. The last thing anyone should worry about is – whether or not – the 15 minutes stroll to the grocery store is the right thing to do: Not because of receding purchasing powers but because of the fear that someone could brutally assault you with a knife or other dangerous weapon.
If people no longer feel safe in their own streets, we can only imagine what traumas may occur when planning for a late night out with a four-legged friend or a simple walk after dark.
As soon as the problem spirals out of control, residents would lose interest in the general well-being of their district and few people would engage in local politics or run neighborhood associations.
Hence society as a whole – educators, schools, media, parents and peer groups – must confront this problem, yet, as mentioned above, it is impossible without the help of elected officials. The issue must therefore remain of urgency for the new British government.
