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Walking with Ben Kinsella's bereaved sisters on Tuesday's poignant march were black men and women. Criminologists confirm that though violent crime is down 41 per cent since 1995, its demographics have changed. More murderers are younger and of colour - like their victims, though as in the case of Ben, white youngsters are not spared, either. London feels like a dark place when, every week, young men are slain or wounded with knives and guns.
I have been meeting black and bi-racial families in high-risk London boroughs to try to understand their feelings as brutality poisons their neighbourhoods. And the environment is very different now from when I went to Peckham nine years ago, on a similar mission after schoolboy Damilola Taylor was mortally wounded. Then, they shut doors in my face, and I was ticked off - even by equalities chief Trevor Phillips - for writing that a vicious, thuggish, adversarial culture was growing in some black enclaves. Now they talk compulsively about it and will do anything to stop the evil.
The last time I met Sadie (not her real name) her young lad was a sweet 10-year-old, tall for his age. She was worried he would be picked on by the police. Today he is in prison, an unrepentant gang member sent down for a stabbing. Sadie is bravely forthright: "Many black kids have turned out mad, bad and dangerous. Stop blaming others, we are responsible. Our hearts are bursting with that knowledge and so we speak out."
And they do - the mothers in particular. Pat Regan, who started Mothers Against Violence in 2002, was one of the first; tragically, she herself was murdered last month. Vanessa Hyman Elliot said it loud after her boy, Anton, 17, was killed and thrown into a river. Even Diane Abbott wrote recently that: "There are many hard-working and decent black men but... something very brutalised and malignant is going on."
This negative exposure is never easy for minorities. At Hampstead Town Hall this week, the Jewish Council for Racial Equality debated the issue and the danger that racists will use such admissions to affirm their prejudices. Everyone agreed that conspiracies of silence were a travesty. Yet Jewish Britons are nervous of self-criticism; Asians and Arabs hide behind tradition and will not condemn their oppression of women. Only black Britons have so far found the voice of collective outrage. Bravo, I say. It is an example to us all.
Reader views (5)
I highly appreciate your contribution to help the Londoner
but the problems are rising day by day. Your truthful and fearless article gives us hope for the betterment in future. The communities should come forward to fight such crimes.
- M Amjad, London, 08/07/2008 06:39
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It is a burning question nowaday especially in London. Crime rates are rising day by day. Most of the young and teenagers are involved. Criminals should be severely punished rather than we involve in black or white. It we fail to stop or close our eyes or silence against such crimes in the modern and welfare state, the coming generation will consider us more responsible. One side we consider ourself most modern civilised or well cultural society on the other hand we are protection the criminal peoples and just writing and crying for the time being. We must take some concrete sept to stop it.
- M Amjad, London, 04/07/2008 05:53
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Over 90% of the teenage stabbings are committed by black males.
Look at the BBC reports on these particular crimes; they NEVER mention the suspects race unless it's a white person. When you look at the figures the real victims are the indigenous and this problem will never be solved thanks to the PC environment sculptured by columnists like yourself. You've made a career out of masquerading yourself as a victim so don't act as if you actually care.
- Laughable, london, 03/07/2008 22:15
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This is a brave article of you to write.
The population at large keep reading newspaper reports that inform that of brutal murders, a disproportionate number of which are perpetrated by young black males. It is a shame that the media do not do more to report on the efforts that are being made by Afro-Caribbean community workers, churches and parents - all of which deserve recognition and praise.
I am worried that this current spate of violence is feeding material for the far right who will wish to make it a race issue. These are worrying times. Ultimately, the violence has to be brought to an end, and if soft measures don't work, people will demand the government take more hard line action.
- Danny, London, 03/07/2008 15:21
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I agree that its time for minority groups to face problems, however its also important that working class whites face up to the lack of achievement of white working class boys. They also need help before they turn to crime.
- Paul Ricky Rowlatt, sao paulo Brazil, 03/07/2008 14:02
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