Corbyn allies attack Harman for laying blame on violent rap
THE FIVE VICTIMS OF KNIFE KILLERS IN JUST SIX DAYS
HARRIET Harman has been attacked by allies of Jeremy Corbyn for claiming so-called drill music and violent YouTube videos are behind London’s knife crime surge. The hard- Left Momentum group, which is trying to oust the former deputy Labour leader as an MP, claims she is suggesting that the wave of stabbings were a ‘black-on-black’ problem caused by aggressive rap music.
The political assault on Miss Harman took place at a Labour knife crime summit in her constituency in south-east London on Saturday.
She had made a passionate plea to heed warnings from victims’ families, who she said believed drill music, YouTube and social media were fuelling gang warfare.
Miss Harman said: ‘They believe the internet is being used to plan and to incite violence and believe drill music and videos are used for criminal purposes.’
In just six days from October 31 to November 5 there were five fatal stabbings in south London.
The victims were Rocky Djelal, 38, Jai Sewell, 15, Malcolm Mide-Madariola, 17, Ayodeji Habeeb Azeez, 22, and a 16-year-old named locally as John O, who died on Monday.
John O was knifed to death in Tulse Hill, a mile from Miss Harman’s Camberwell and Peckham constituency, becoming the 119th person to be killed in the capital this year – most of them in stabbings.
Last night, a gang openly taunted the teenage victim and bragged about the ferocity of the attack.
A sickening message was posted on YouTube by those thought to be responsible for his death.
The victim was set upon by a group of knife-wielding attackers as he waited for his mother to pick him up from the Tulse Hill estate.
She arrived to find him bleeding on the pavement and screamed for help. The murder is thought to be linked to rival drill music gangs – Lower Tulse Hill and the Harlem Spartans from nearby Kennington.
A user called Spartan H posted a taunt on YouTube yesterday, in which it was claimed that John O, who is said to have performed rap music under the pseudonym JaySav, had his stomach ‘cut open like a bear’ before his mother was seen ‘screaming it ain’t fair’.
Using rap-style lyrics, he mocked the dead boy’s family and apparently claimed credit for the murder, ending the written message with a laughing emoticon.
A performer using the name JaySav has appeared on at least one violent rap track with the Lower Tulse Hill gang, which is thought to be an offshoot of TN1, or the Trust No One gang.
Yesterday, family members denied he was linked to the gang, stating: ‘He was retaking his GCSEs and was planning to go into engineering.’
Miss Harman made a direct link between drill and knife crime.
In a statement to the meeting on Saturday, she said that before he died, a stabbing victim had blamed drill music for knife crime. Siddique Kamara, 23, a drill rapper known as Incognito, was killed in Southwark, south London, in August.
Miss Harman said that before his
death, he said: ‘You see with the crime that’s happening now, music does influence it. You’ve got to put your hands up and say drill music does influence it.’
She added: ‘The lyrics glorify gang warfare and include threats against rival gangs or individuals.’ She said urgent action was needed to ‘prevent other families going through this heartbreak’.
But pro-Corbyn activists disputed her claims and attacked her at the meeting.
Left-winger Anita Patel was cheered when she accused Miss Harman of trying to ‘censor’ drill music and social media, and said it was wrong to suggest knife crime only involved black people. ‘Censoring music or the internet cannot be the answer,’ she said.
She added: ‘This is not a black-on-black crime. This is about austerity, zero-hour contracts and cuts. It’s killing everybody including young people. This is the root cause. Not drill music.’
Miss Harman did not attend the meeting, so her comments were read by an official. At least three others have been stabbed in London since John O’s death.
A man in Hackney, west London, was airlifted to hospital at 2pm yesterday, a teenage boy was left with life-threatening injuries earlier in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, and a boy of 17 boy was fighting for his life last night after an attack in West Hampstead, north London, on Tuesday.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged police to ‘step up’ action against knife crime last night. He told Met chief Cressida Dick that officers should make ‘full use’ of powers such as stop and search.