42 FEATURE
L
BY SHELDON THOMAS
U O Y E R A “ S I D T U O AB ” ? M A F , TING
Where do you start, when there are over 80 murders in the capital alone, and just under half of those are young teenagers being killed by other teenagers? This number doesn’t even include the rest of the UK, which, I’m sure, would be nearer to 200. And what do you think the Media and the politicians are doing about it?
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et’s have a look at the Media. Back in May of this year, the Daily Mail ran a two-page spread on how the Albanian drug barons are behind Britain’s youth murder epidemic. What can one say, but how ridiculous and typical of a media newspaper to try and blame immigrants for what is happening in the capital and in other parts of the UK? Allow me to educate the Media: crime families - or, as some describe them today, ‘organised criminal networks’ - have been operating in the UK for over 50 years and, believe me when I tell you, the ones who have been entrenched into British society don’t come from Europe, and they don’t look like me, Black Caribbean. For decades, these White British criminals have gone almost untouched. They have the business sense, the organisation, the power and systems in place to bring drugs and weapons in large supply into the UK, forging links with the cartels in Columbia, with Jamaican Yardies back in the 80s and 90s, and even the Mexican cartels. They also forged other connections to many other crime cartels throughout the world, and this didn’t happen overnight. With politicians, judges and some high-ranking police officers in their pockets, these crime networks have gone unchallenged for many years. It has only been in the last decade that we have seen that landscape change, where a small percentage of European and Asian criminals have begun to stake a claim. Whilst this may be true, to try and blame the Albanians is laughable, as the problems of London and gangs were already entrenched way before European criminals entered our borders. Again, like the politicians, the Media are just grasping at thin air and playing on the Brexit vote to stump the ill feeling in various communities, to blame the immigrants, when in fact Britain and only Britain - and our societal issues are totally to blame for where we are today with gangs and serious youth violence. I could say, “I told you so.” Unlike many organisations that have recently started, I have been knocking at the door of 10 Downing Street since 2000. This led me to my first meeting at the Home Office, bringing with me my documentary, ‘The Violence Must Cease’ that I made nine years earlier (1991). It prophesied the rise of youth violence in the coming years, if we didn’t address the problems of the 90s. To my surprise, I was quickly ushered out of the Home Office and told that gangs don’t exist and there was no gangs problem. Well, we all know how that ended up. Who is to blame for the current crisis? Well, I for one will not blame the police. The police were to blame for what happened in the 70s and 80s, which made many young men - especially Black boys - turn to gangs. (Back then, we used the word ‘posse’.) Some say this is the legacy we are now reaping.
