150 Lives Later: Revisiting the issue of Knife Crime in Sadiq Khan's London
May 2023. For some, a joyous month. Three bank holiday weekends, the beginning of warmer weather and the start of summery activities. With tens of thousands of people travelling into London for the coronation of the new monarch and other related events, the weekend saw our much beloved capital city step into the international spotlight once again. And yet, in the same beloved city, away from patriotic celebrations, street parties and national anthems, violence ripped across East London as a series of shootings and stabbings occurred. On the eve of the coronation alone, three unrelated attacks would take place in the span of just 8 hours. Each one of these attacks would result in the loss of a young life.
A train-station in Dagenham. A doorstep in Hackney. A secondary school in Walthamstow.
These were the locations where Jordan Kukabu, 18, Sebastian Zon, 27, and Renell Charles, 15, would take their final breaths. Renell's death marked the 150th teenager to be murdered as a result of knife crime since Sadiq Khan became the mayor of London on the 9th of May 2016, 150 teenage lives gone in the span of 7 years. Having finished a day of lessons, Renell would exit the gates of Kelmscott School, Walthamstow and last mere minutes before being ambushed and killed. A 16 year old boy has since been charged with his death. Prior to his murder, Renell featured on the Smiling Boys Project: a council-funded project led by Kay Rufai, giving a safe space to young black boys from London. Following a spike in youth violence, the Smiling Boys Project was set up, aiming to address issues around the mental health of black teenage boys whilst also combating the dangerous and negative stereotypes they face. In his interview with Kay, since broadcast across City Hall and the internet, Renell paints a picture of hope. Giving us a glimpse into his own experiences, Renell speaks of a world where young black boys wouldn't have to see the road as their only way out and where they are given 'a chance to show that not all Black boys are just those tough hard gangsters.'
In our community, it should not be the norm to know or know of someone who has lost their life to knife crime/youth violence. Jordan went to the same primary school as me. He wasn't in my year but he wasn't a stranger to me. Jordan is not the first person I know of to have lost their life to knife crime and the odds are, unless something changes, he will not be the last. In discussion with my older brother some months back, the realisation hit us that all of my siblings and me each know at least one victim of knife crime. Friends of friends. Friends of family friends. People we went to school and grew up with. In our community, we shouldn't have to be scared of the possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or of sitting on the top deck of a bus past a certain time. We shouldn't be scared of our young boys leaving home and not coming back. But we also shouldn't have to be scared of our young boys falling into that 'lifestyle' in the first place. With any crime and any action, a question of why? follows. Why pick up a knife? Why get involved? And whilst social media and the British press paints a certain picture, the answers aren't so straightforward...
As an avid music listener, I find comfort in listening to songs that relate to my experiences and to the areas that I am most passionate about. In fact, whilst writing this article, Loyle Carner's 'Blood on My Nikes'. Dave's 'Heart Attack'. Knucks' 'Home' and other tracks were on repeat. Whilst all powerful tracks, Loyle's track in particular is one that I find hard and yet so important to listen to. When interviewed about the song, Carner describes imagining how life will be for his son growing up in the area that they live in, following the death of a young boy, whose life was taken during an argument over shoes. Loyle goes on to describe how he 'was really quite surprised at how numb [he] had become to hearing these stories and seeing this loss in the communities that [he] had grown up in. The song itself finishes with an excerpt from Athian Akec's infamous 2018 speech from his days in Youth Parliament. A speech which he delivered at just 15 years old and to this day rings true:
"The impact of knife crime on individuals is undeniable
And while politicians wish to police themselves out of the knife crime epidemic,
It is simply not possible.
We must focus on the root causes of knife crime:
Poverty, inequality, austerity, and a lack of opportunity.
We must petition the government to put :
reason over rhetoric, compassion over indifference, equality over austerity.
as knife crime claims more lives within our country.
Never has so much been lost by so many because of the indecision of so few.
As aforementioned, the answer to why does knife crime happen is not an issue of race or multiculturalism. The term 'knife crime' is a term that has become more and more associated with a certain demographic of people. My demographic. Akala described this as the phrase becoming a racial buzzword .'Dog - Whistle Politics' is an expression used to describe suggestive language that is targeted at a certain group to gain support without being outright 'offensive'. In the same way in which dog whistles are audible to dogs, not humans, certain phrases/words/policies can be referred to in one way for a group of people to hear but really be code for something else. Knife crime is gradually becoming, if not already, an example of this. Gang violence and knife crime are not race issues, but examples of the severity of the lack of support and much needed policy reform to assist with larger socio-economic issues at play. This includes but isn't limited to homelessness, wealth inequality, poverty and food deprivation. It's caused by the lack of access to opportunities and access to education , both academic and vocational. It's caused by a lack of community and needing to feel that sense of belonging.
And yet, on the same weekend that the tragedies I began this article by talking about occurred, local councils across the UK spent over £3.8 million of their own money on coronation related celebrations. 4/5 of the highest spending councils happened to be in London, (according to the JRF). Barking and Dagenham, the borough in which Jordan was murdered, spent an astonishing £155,000 on coronation celebrations. This is despite them being the most deprived borough in London - sourced below - as well as Dominic Twomey, the deputy leader of the Labour run Barking and Dagenham Council admitting that the borough’s finances were at 'breaking point' in March. Newham, the third most deprived borough in London according to the same study, spent even more with £168,000 going towards celebrations. Where could this money have been better used? When funding for youth services has been cut by 74% (roughly £1.1 billion) over the last 10+ years, it is no shock that young people feel neglected and unloved by a system that claims to care about them.
The current policies in place, undeniably need reform and perhaps some new policies are needed from scratch. Giving more powers to Police Officers, issuing Section 60s (increased stop and search powers) and Section 35s (excluding people from an area for up to 48 hours) are just some short term solutions. Whilst the issue may momentarily seem manageable, these things fail to address the larger problem at hand. By staggering school end times and having police officers on duty after school/after work hours, we are able to add some form of protection, but is this truly the best we can do? How much of a long term solution is this?
Our London does not have to be infamous for its stories of stabbings and youth violence. Our London can be safer. There is an obvious solution to knife crime. An obvious solution to youth violence. And whilst no one is denying how hard it may be carrying out the solution in our current social and economic climate. It's about time we see it through.
As Akala wrote, in ending Chapter 3 of his must-read book, 'Natives':
Let's just be honest.
If we want to fix the racial and economic disparities in the criminal justice system or at least reduce them, combat teenage gang violence, produce better educated children and create a generally better society, then the work starts in the primary school, not the prison.
By dealing with those larger socio-economic issues and reevaluating the British education system, a whole topic in itself which I will come to later, an incredible amount of change could finally come to pass and 'knife crime' doesn't have to be a phrase that we become so desensitized or used to hearing and seeing on the fronts of newspapers or on our screens.
Sources:
https://www.timeout.com/london/news/this-new-map-shows-londons-most-deprived-areas-120522
https://genius.com/Loyle-carner-wesley-joseph-and-athian-akec-blood-on-my-nikes-lyrics
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/08/london-stabbings-violence-gun-crime-shootings-bow/
https://news.sky.com/story/three-stabbing-deaths-across-east-london-on-eve-of-coronation-12875023
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/renell-charles-haunting-knife-crime-092842127.html
Comments
Post a Comment