The Dispossessed Fund: A waste of young lives … the faces of just a few of the 124 teens killed in London since 2007

 
26 November 2013

These are the faces of just some of the 124 teenagers killed in London since 2007. It is a poignant gallery of young lives cut tragically short — tragic not just for their family and friends, but a loss of potential for all of the capital.

Analysis of the police database shows that two thirds of the youngsters were killed by stabbing, one fifth by shooting, and that the youngest fatalities were only 14 years old.

Yet seven years after the Metropolitan police first started keeping records on teenage homicides because of burgeoning gang violence, one overarching statistic has never been made public: the total number of deaths that were gang-related. A police spokesman admitted they were reluctant to confirm individual cases as being linked to gangs because of sensitivity to the families of victims. But under a Freedom of Information request from the Evening Standard, they have revealed that almost 40 per cent of teenage homicides since 2007 have been officially flagged as gang-related. And this year alone, more than 90 per cent of teenage killings were linked to gangs.

Officially, the “gang-flag” is used for internal police intelligence purposes, to indicate that either the victim or suspect, or both, have a gang connection. In reality, though, these links emerge in the media on a case by case basis, and this tends to be interpreted by Londoners, often incorrectly, to signify that the victim was a gang member and somehow to blame for their own death. We tend to look for the “gang-related” label if only to reassure ourselves that this “does not concern me”.

But our investigation has revealed this to be a dangerously misguided approach. As the shocking study by University College London, published in the Standard, made clear, 50 per cent of young Londoners interviewed had seen a stabbing or shooting in the last year, and one in five had themselves been stabbed or shot.

Killings are part of the extreme violence these young people are exposed to, and every time a teenager in their community is killed, it leads to the hardening and brutalisation of their peer group and provokes further tit-for-tat violence.

That is why the response of civil society minister Nick Hurd and the Government — which has today made £3.8 million available to support charities tackling gangs and young Londoners at risk of criminal behaviour — is such a breakthrough.

After listening to the anger and aspirations of former gang members, Mr Hurd has pledged £800,000 of this new £3.8 million pot to the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund. When added to £200,000 from our endowment, this adds up to a

£1 million windfall for charities doing transformational work on minuscule budgets to help the most vulnerable children in the capital.

Read More

Groups such as Gangs Unite, founded by former criminal gang member Colin James and backed by patron Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which does such acclaimed work in Waltham Forest.

Groups such as Gangsline in Newham, headed up by Sheldon Thomas, another reformed gang member, that helps young people avoid criminal culture. These groups and many others across the capital stand to potentially benefit from grants of up to £50,000 over two years.

City Hall’s new gangs czar Ray Lewis believes the Standard’s Frontline London campaign is “a game changer” and today welcomed the £1 million fund for London as “brilliant news”.

Last week, the headteacher of an award-winning primary school in Harlesden told the Standard that the colour of their blazer had to be “chosen to avoid gang colours in the area”, and that their nine-year-olds had to be driven home after extracurricular activities so as to avoid local street gangs.

The police database shows that with the exception of parts of west London, the gangs problem is widespread, with 24 of London’s 32 boroughs having suffered teenage killings in the last seven years, including 14 in Southwark, 13 in Newham, 11 in Lambeth and 10 in Hackney. Commander Steve Rodhouse says that despite a reduction in violent crime linked to street gangs in the last year, the problem can only be suppressed and never solved through enforcement.

Sometimes it takes the parents of victims to cut through the chaff. Barry Mizen is father of 16-year-old Jimmy, whose innocent face stares out from the gallery opposite, and who was murdered by gang member Jake Fahri in 2008 despite himself never being in a gang. Mr Mizen said: “My wife and I do prison visits and when we went into Feltham the first time and spoke to 60 inmates, we were asked, ‘Did you see 60 versions of the person who killed your son?’ I said, ‘No, we saw 60 versions of what could have been our son’s fate under different circumstances.’

“The biggest fortune in life is to be loved. A child that experiences neg-lect, anger, violence — don’t be surprised if they grow up to be violent.

“That is why I welcome the Standard’s campaign to get the conversation going, because we urgently need to change the perspective of those in power.

The natural reaction tends to be, ‘Lock ‘em away for longer, that will solve the problem.’ But if that worked, I’d be at the front of the queue. Only people with blinkers on think it can be solved by harsh punishment or that we can leave it to the police to sort out. Early intervention is part of the answer, but it’s a whole society issue and we need to draw in as many Londoners as possible.”

With today’s £1 million for the Dispossessed Fund, our Frontline London campaign can offer practical support to the experts on the ground who are primed to make a difference. The hard work to turn the tide on gangs starts here.

Teenage killing Victims in London

Year Total ‘Gang-Related’

2007 26 10

2008 30 12

2009 15 3

2010 19 9

2011 15 3

2012 8 1

2013 11 10

Total 124 48

Five Key Facts

- The youngest stab victims were 14, the youngest shooting victims were 15

- Over 70 per cent of victims were black

- 90 per cent of victims were male, 10 per cent female

- 24 of 32 boroughs suffered teenage murders, the worst three being Southwark, Newham and Lambeth

- 64 per cent of victims were stabbed, 20 per cent were shot, 16 per cent were beaten, strangled, or died from arson or other causes

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in