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LA gang member on a mission to cut violence in London
Rob Singh, Evening Standard21.08.08
A former member of a notorious Los Angeles gang has been enlisted to help reduce teenage violence in London.
Nakuja Guyan has been recruited by Camden council to work with young people in the borough.
In the late Eighties and early Nineties he was a member of the Bloods and saw many friends killed or jailed.
The 40-year-old, who was shot at and stabbed, speaks to teenagers on the street who have been identified by police as potential troublemakers.
Mr Guyan, who moved to Britain six years ago, works alongside youth worker Scott Fry in the council's Youth Disorder Engagement Team encouraging gang members to consider education, courses and legal employment as an alternative.
He said: "We are trying to get these young people involved in something constructive rather than what they are doing. That is the primary task - giving these young people a signpost to stop them from doing what they are doing."
"What I say to these young people varies," he said. "Some you can talk to very abruptly and directly. Whereas others you have to take a different approach. But you have to reinforce to them what they already know - the path they are taking is the wrong one. It's common sense and we as parents and adults have to reinforce that."
Camden has seen a string of gangrelated incidents in the last year despite overall crime falling by 20 per cent. Sharmaarke Hassan, 17, was shot and killed in Camden Town in May.
Groups known to be operating in the area include the Somali TMS (The Money Squad), the ANC (African Nation Crew), SM (silent movers - a rival Somali gang); and the NW1.
Mr Guyan, who lives in south London, left LA after he became a father. He believed his life was in danger because of his gang's feud with their rivals, the Crips. He said: "Everybody I played baseball with or track and field were not there anymore by their mid-twenties. They were either dead or in jail and I thought I could be next."
He said the response he gets from young people is positive, and he rarely has to speak about his past - although he has the scars and tattoos to show.
"Those kids know if you have not been on the street, they are not dumb," he explained. "If you can talk to them and they understand you are from the streets they will listen to you."
In one incident he and Mr Fry intervened in a feud between two teenagers which had been reported to police and threatened to spill over into violence. The pair met each of the boys at their homes and convinced them to settle their differences.
Mr Guyan believes the solution to London's epidemic of teenage killings - Nilanthan Murddi, 17, became the 23rd to die in an apparent race attack at the weekend - is for families and the authorities to work together. "There needs to be a collective response from everyone," he said.
Steven Braithwaite, 30, a labourer of no fixed abode, has been charged with Nilanthan's murder, Scotland Yard said. He will appear in custody at Sutton Magistrates' Court today.
