NEWS
Gangland Tower Hamlets
Tipped to be the new Alexa Chung, this Mancunian tells us why she now calls the “One of the guys had a sword and he sliced him across the face. When his father found him he was holding onto his face in the street so it would stick back on.” Muhammad Rabbani, manager of the Aasha Project
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ust streets away from the heart of the City where bankers and hedge fund managers are comfortably riding the recession, there is another group whose fortunes have also flourished. This group also attracts young men at their peak, jockeying for power and position. It produces high wages that are spent on cars, gadgets and girls. Both groups find respect within their community for what they do, and both see their work as a way of life. But for one of these groups, members risk ending up serving life sentences as a result of their work. Tower Hamlets is facing a crisis in drug-related gang crime that has been growing rapidly since the start of the recession in 2007. According to police statistics, drug trafficking has risen by 75 per cent in the borough since then. Graham Johnson, an undercover journalist who has spent the past
decade living with gangs, says: “When the normal economy breaks down, people start to make money from street crime and gang crime. It’s all down to poverty.”
“These kids have no prospects. They want to be looked up to” Gangs have set up home in Tower Hamlets since the 1900s when the Blind Beggar Gang, Bessarabians and Odessians roamed the East End profiting from pick-pocketing, protection rackets and blackmail. However, the gangs that now inhabit the area make their money from drug trafficking. Muhammad Rabbani, manager of The Aasha Project, which
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helps to turn young people away from gang culture and crime, says: “Gangs have taken a drug turn. People are making money; they’ve seen that this is an easy route.” These gangs have been growing since the 1970s.Their membership is mainly drawn from ethnic minorities, particularly Bengali men, and they are the new groups to fear. According to Johnson, Asian gangs in London have “had a new lease of life since the war on terror and 9/11”. White and black gangs now fear them more because “they think they’ve lined themselves up with terrorists,” he says. Their presence in Tower Hamlets is partly explained by the borough’s high youth population - a third of all people who live there are under the age of 19, and four out of ten of the population are from minority groups. But the ethos of these gang
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Aasha Project painting at the Osmani Centre
members is different to those of their fathers’ generation. In the Seventies and Eighties, Asian gangs formed to protect themselves from racial attacks. As racial tensions eased, the gangs remained and became involved in postcode fights in the 1990s, leading to the present situation where drug trafficking reigns. The trade in Class A drugs like heroin and crack cocaine is rife on the estates, and more and more young people with little education and few job prospects are being drawn in. The Aasha Project, set up 11 years ago by reformed gang leaders, takes its name from aasha, the Bengali word for hope. Based in Whitechapel, they work independently of the council and police to diffuse gang situations and prevent youngsters from joining gangs. Rabbani says that while the people at the centre of these crimes are organised criminals they use naïve youngsters for the more dangerous parts of the operation. There are children as young as 12 out on the streets shifting drugs, says Rabbani. “They’re using young kids, younger brothers of their friends, it doesn’t matter to them. “They’re selfish, greedy people who only think about making a profit even at the cost of somebody else,” he says. In Tower Hamlets the Turin Street, White Flatz (Minerva Estate) and Stepney Olders are the most feared gangs. The area around Whitechapel Road and Mile End Road is their turf
and the scene of frequent violent clashes. Members are usually under 19, and the older ones take charge. The poverty these gang members face is undisputed. Research published in February by Save the Children found that Tower Hamlets and Manchester have the joint highest proportion of poverty-stricken children in the UK. The report states that 27 per cent of children in the borough are living in severe poverty - around double the national average. The charity classifies severe poverty as a single parent with one child
“If you know the game, you can stay out of the way of the police” surviving on £134 or less a week. As such it’s hardly surprising that residents say the purpose of gang crime isn’t about violence or respect, it’s about making money. Veronica*, a local resident from the Lansbury Estate says: “Most areas in Tower Hamlets are packed with drug dealers. The dealing is far more prevalent than assaults and violence. It seems everyone is dealing these days, trying to make money.” The glamour of being a gangster plays a role too as local Minerva Estate resident Dipesh* told EastBound:
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“Youths at school are definitely still infatuated with the whole ‘gangs’ thing. They become easily manipulated by the elders who get them to sell drugs or look after supplies or weapons in their homes. It makes them feel important.” The reality is a lot less glamorous. “These kids have no prospects,” Rabbani says. “They want to be looked up to so of course it seems glamorous. People are making money and they’ve seen that this is an easy route.” But they are kings only on their own turf. Clashes tend to break out either between groups belonging to different area codes or different ethnic minorities, says Sylvester Mittee, who has been involved in youth work for 30 years. “In their own areas a lot of the young people feel invincible. Take them away from their area and they get the perception that they’ll be attacked.” It is these rival groups from other areas that the drug gangs fear, far more so than the police. When Johnson met one Bengali gang it became clear the police weren’t their main concern: “If you’re a drug dealer your primary concern isn’t the police. They’re worried about what are called ‘taxmen’. These are very violent people who try to rob the drug dealer’s money and rob the gear.” The taxmen are usually members of rival gangs from different areas who resent the profit others are making. Rabbani agrees: “Young people aren’t scared of the police. If you know the
NEWS game, you can stay out of the way of the police.” While he commends the police for making more than one drug charges arrest a day last year, he still has doubts that they are arresting the right people “rather than just the little guys they use”. These “little guys” are the people that the Aasha project, managed by Rabbani, tries to help. He says: “We are a youth led community organisation so we have a deeper connection with young people than an authority could. Our youth leaders are crucial for this.” These leaders are former gang members who, thanks to the project, have turned their backs on their criminal ways. It was one of these leaders who was attacked in the face by a sword. Incredibly, after losing an eye he chose to stay with the project and prevent violence like this from being repeated. But sometimes The Aasha Project’s intervention comes too late. An 18 year old involved in the project, who was
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“Of course it seems glamorous. People are making money” caught passing drugs between a dealer and a customer, now faces three years in prison. “He didn’t have any prospects and he wanted to be respected so he worked for a drug dealer,” explains Rabbani. “It’s unfortunate because it’s now going to be hard to change his situation. He’s embroiled and he’s going to have to end up doing his time. He’s got a record now and who knows what will happen when he goes to prison.” Tower Hamlets Council does its best. In a statement to EastBound they said the police were providing a series of educational sessions on knife crime and prisoner experiences, and council staff run a number of initiatives for young people who require additional support. One way they do this is through the council’s Rapid Response team, which helps young people who may be involved in anti-social behaviour, territorial conflict or substance misuse, to engage in more positive activities. Saifur Rahman is the interim crisis intervention manager and senior youth worker of the team. Speaking about the mediation work they do, he says: “We work very closely with
A decade of crime in Tower Hamlets
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Crime in Tower Hamlets January 2011
Drug trafficking offences in Tower Hamlets 2000-2011 *May 2010-Jan 2011
The Aasha Project. We’re not the police, we don’t intervene. “We work with families to resolve issues and before violence takes place, we get in touch with influential individuals. It’s all about the partnership we’ve got with the residents and the communities.” As more and more young Bengali men place their trust in mediation groups such as The Aasha Project and the Rapid Response Team, there is hope for Tower Hamlets’ gangs. One of Rabbani’s proudest achievements was helping a group of teenage boys who rented a sports car from a well known gangster. There was a £4000 ‘tag’ on the car to be
Statistics from www.met.police.uk
paid if it was damaged and the underage drivers crashed it on the first day. “They were told to pay four grand plus damages or lose their legs so they came to us for help,” he said. “We managed to negotiate for them to pay just the £600 worth of repairs and then got them to fundraise for that. Knowing what we managed to stop from happening is what this project is all about.” Gang War by Graham Johnson, is a fictional story based on the problems in London. Available in paperback from www.mainstreampublishing.com *Names changed to protect identity
A brief history of gangs in Tower Hamlets 1970s: Gangs consisting largely
of Asians began forming in Tower Hamlets. The area was rife with racial tension and this meant that the young ethnic minorities joined together for protection.
1990s: Racial tensions eased but the gangs remained, even though their purpose has disappeared. Their affiliation and alliances became attached to a certain area and group. Young men noted the groups the elders were in and followed suit. This is when the gangs became territorial for no reason other than history and this led to postcode fights and street violence.
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Present: As the original gang members have grown up, these groups have moved into commercial activity. This has led to an influx of drugs into the Tower Hamlets community. The current operation is organised and sophisticated with the members at the core being accomplished criminals who have learnt how to stay out of the way of the police. They get younger members out on the street collecting and shifting the drugs ensuring that they stay clean. Young women are often sexually exploited and forced into prostitution. The people at the top are no longer motivated by territoral concerns but by profit making alone.
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