Bleak truth about why youths join gangs and carry knives
LONDON is riddled with knife crime, but it’s not a remote thing that will never come near you. on May 13, an 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Enfield, north london. it happened just at the end of my street, leading onto Hertford Road. i was driving down Hertford Road when we were stopped by the police and told to turn around and find another route. out of curiosity, i asked what had happened. ‘a stabbing,’ the policeman said, in a nonchalant tone. My son was terrified; out of fear, he started crying. i had to reassure him that everything was OK. a scene of crime is an unnerving and daunting site for anyone, but especially when it was the place of a murder. i was in a gang myself once. i saw a lot of bad things and we used to fight, but we didn’t stab each other. no one died. The Government doesn’t have a clue. i understand it has to balance the books, reduce costs, and make cuts to every council in the country. But how do politicians prioritise who needs money the most? They close down most of the youth centres in deprived areas. Then you get lots of bored youths on the streets, wondering how to exert their energy. There’s not much to do when you have nothing, so you form a gang — and you stick together to survive. The police can’t do anything because there aren’t enough of them. Recruiting more officers means spending more. ‘it’s priorities,’ the powers-that-be cry. Roads need fixing, fat-cat bosses need a pay rise. and schools? Schools can look after themselves. What the Government needs to understand is that these youths have nothing to lose. You can only lose something if you have something, or you might have it someday. imagine seeing nothing but struggle all your life, your parents juggling two jobs each, questioning what’s more important, food or rent? imagine every day of your difficult life you get hit with the reality hammer. Poor, working-class families don’t get any privileges: you know your place. imagine years of hate building up inside you. Then add a cocktail of drugs into the equation. You become omnipotent. Then stick a knife in the hands of this angry young man who has nothing to lose. Jail is a luxury pass: you get food, you don’t have to work, you get to go to the gym twice a day. no rent. no bills. Drugs on tap like water. There’s no light at the end of the trouble tunnel — it’s dark and just getting darker. That’s what we have done to dear England. That’s how impossibly hard it would be to fix. is any political party even trying?
CHRIS WILD, enfield, north london.