Gangs award ‘points’ for stabbing rivals in street
Sick game behind the escalating knife wars
CHILDREN as young as nine are playing a sick game called ‘Scores’ where they win points for stabbing people and committing crime, according to a former gang member.
The competition between rival gangs bidding to outdo each other by boasting of their gruesome handiwork on social media is believed to be a major factor fuelling the recent explosion in urban violence, particularly in London.
‘The bigger the crime the higher the points, the more and more you do something, the more and more rep [reputation] you get, the more you get ranked up,’ said Chris Preddie, a former gang member who has been awarded the OBE for his work with young offenders.
He compared the system of gaining kudos to moving up through ranks in the military, adding: ‘If you’re a kid and you go up the ranks you become a leader. Now he’s controlling 15-20 kids, telling them what to do.’ An informal ‘tariff’ of crimes goes from low-level items such as invading a rival gang’s territory to stabbing someone and ultimately up to murder. In a sadistic twist, more points are awarded if the knife is inserted all the way up to the hilt or if the victim is stabbed in the face or another area where a scar will be visible.
Mr Preddie said gang members send bragging messages on Snapchat or other social media to each other, with videos of the violent acts accompanied by coded emojis signifying the particular crime.
‘It’s for everything you can think of from petty theft to phone-snatching to gang-related incidents,’ he said. ‘You don’t see the scores but you see them posing with the knives and with the big money… that’s part of the points system.’
Mr Preddie, 30, also blamed ‘Drill’ music for glamorising the violence. The variant of gangster rap features masked performers rapping about drugs, shootings and stabbings. He said social media had transformed gang culture beyond recognition since his own youth.
‘If a child in Slough has suddenly found out about Scores, he’s found it through YouTube,’ he said. ‘These Drill rappers have massive platforms to inform the minds of young people.’
He called on the big tech companies to police their output better, saying: ‘We’ve got to say to ourselves we’ve got an epidemic on our hands. We’ve got young people running around stabbing each other but how come Facebook and YouTube and Snapchat are allowing us to watch a young person dying on our streets? How come that video’s not been taken down?’
His comments came as Met Commissioner Cressida Dick sent 300 extra officers on to the streets of London this weekend to combat the violence which has seen murder rates higher than New York in February and March. Some 56 murder investigations have been launched in the city this year already.
Father-of-two Mr Preddie, who founded an organisation called Make Dreams Reality, said gang members had told him they felt they had no option but to join – even ‘year five primary school pupils as young as nine or ten.
‘They say, “I’d rather be in a gang than not in a gang. If I’m not in a gang it doesn’t matter, I’ll get killed anyway. If you’re under the age of 25 you’re automatically involved.”’
He added: ‘You could be from Tottenham and you could be walking down Wood Green and a guy comes
‘More points if the knife is inserted up to the hilt’
up to you – he’s not going to stop you and say, “sorry mate, are you part of the Tottenham gang?” If he doesn’t recognise you, he’s just going to stab you.
‘When I was growing up in North London, if I had a beef with anyone [from South London] I would have to go to South London and physically see that person.
‘Now I can be in my area and cuss South London and put that on social media and within hours thousands of people will have seen it. How do you think that guy’s going to feel? – he’s going to have to respond.’
The Metropolitan Police have put together a database tracking more than 600 suspected gangsters that feature in 1,100 YouTube videos. YouTube has been asked to remove some of this content but has refused more than a third of such requests.
A source within the company has however revealed that any video found to feature knives being ‘brandished’ will be taken down. YouTube said: ‘We share the concern about the recent violence in London and obviously do not want YouTube used to provoke violence.’
Facebook referred the MoS to its ‘community standards’, which state: ‘We prohibit the use of Facebook to facilitate or organise criminal activity… We also prohibit you from celebrating any crime.’
Snapchat declined to comment.