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Who鈥檚 afraid of the hood?

By Patricia Hoskins

What's really happening on our streets? Has violent youth culture become an epidemic? Is gun and knife crime spiralling out of control? The Drum brought together key players from Birmingham to thrash it out. Hear what they had to say.

Who's Afraid of the hood? - Drum summit

Britain鈥檚 gun and knife culture听 is still dominating the headlines.听 Politicians and their advisers are desperately looking for answers - but they still seem no closer to solving the central question:听 what can be done to end gun and knife crime?听听

Who's afraid of the hood? - The Drum Summit

On Saturday 12th July 2008 The Drum in Aston played host to a major debate around this issue.

The Drum Summit Panel

Hosted by Dr Derek Campbell (a 91热爆 Office advisor on guns and gangs), the diverse representative panel included:听 Suzette Davonport (Assistant Chief Constable, West Midlands Police), Kirk Dawes (Managing Director, West Midlands Mediation and Transformation Service), Marc Edwards (Managing Director, Young Disciples), Mike Royal (Coordinator, Birmingham Street Pastors) and Gleen Reid (Mothers Against Guns)

The panel and audience openly discussed their opinions on the cause and effects of violent gun and knife crime, the impact on families and communities and ideas on the way forward.

Read and listen to highlights from the summit below and have your say on the issues raised.

Cause and effects

Suzette Davonport - West Midlands Police

Question: 鈥淲hat is the cause of gun and knife crime in our inner cities?鈥�

Suzette Davonport (Assistant Chief Constable, West Midlands Police): "The global nature of society has completely changed. We now live in a get rich society 鈥� this has developed a whole range of people who are not able to buy into that in a legitimate way.

"For those people who don鈥檛 feel they can get rich quick they will look at alternative ways to do that. The violence, knife crime and gun related issues fill that gap for some of those people.

Mike Royal (Coordinator, Birmingham Street Pastors): 鈥淚f I was to sum it up in one word, I would say there is a real sense of hopelessness. We have a generation of young people who perhaps have tried the education system but are now excluded. These guys have got nothing they can focus on.

Mike Royal - Birmingham Street Pastors

鈥淚 think society has failed them - the education system, family breakdown issues are all contributors. I think we owe it to them to turn things around.鈥�

"We now live in a get rich quick society鈥�

Kirk Dawes (Managing Director, West Midlands Mediation and Transformation Service): 鈥淜ids have always been in gangs; it鈥檚 whether of not their behaviour is against the law.
What we should concentrate on is the bad behaviour of individuals. There is a basic lack of knowledge amongst our young people on how they should deal with conflict. It should be taught in school as part of the curriculum."

Marc Edwards (Managing Director, Young Disciples): "One of the core reasons is extreme social exclusion. Because of the social exclusion frame they are in, they have created their own environment and framework of how to live 鈥� their own rules, regulations and ordinances that they follow."

Is knife crime on the rise?

"Because they are outside of institutions, schools and education, there鈥檚 no governance there that can direct them in the right constructive way."

"We now have young people who think it鈥檚 OK to kill."

Listen to the panel discussion on the cause and effect of gun and knife crime>>>

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Impact on our communities

Question: "What impact is gun and knife crime having on families and the community?鈥�

Mike Royal: I think the biggest impact is fear 鈥� often the fear of crime is bigger than the reality. I long to see a community that doesn鈥檛 live in fear. I also think the economic impact of crime in the community is huge."

Marc Edwards - Managing Director, Young Disciples

Marc Edwards - Young Disciples

"Fear and lack of economic investment are the biggest impacts"

Marc Edwards: "Presently we do have a territorial problem. The impact of that is young people feeling unsafe travelling from one area of the city to another; those young people are arming themselves to just feel protected i.e. children going to school from one area of the city to another on the bus carrying weapons."

Listen to the panel discussion on the impact on our communities.>>>

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A mother鈥檚 cry

Gleen Reid鈥檚 son Corey was 28 when he became a victim of Birmingham's gang warfare.

Gleen Reid - Mothers Against Guns

Two years after her son was shot dead, she is still trying to cope with the daily reminders of her loss. He was shot dead outside a night club, for reasons she still does not understand.

Following the loss of her son, Gleen has become a leading member of a group called Mothers Against Guns. The campaign has spread beyond Birmingham, with members in London, Manchester and Nottingham.

She talked openly at the summit about the impact of violent crime on families and loved ones: 鈥淭he families are living through a life sentence. Most of them have not had closure because no-one has been arrested or charged with the murder of their children.

Listen to the full moving response from Gleen Reid explaining the impact of gun and knife crime on families.

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Role of the media, education and the availability of weapons in the UK

Question from the audience:听鈥淗ow come guns are so easily available in this country along with hard drugs?

Kirk Dawes - West Midlands mediation service

Response from the panel:

Kirk Dawes: 鈥淭he gun will only go off in the hands of a human being who pulls the trigger; we have to work with the behaviour of individuals.鈥�

Marc Edwards: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the availability of the weapons it鈥檚 the mindsets of the young people. You could remove weapons, but the mentality of violence and murder will still happen, they will just use stones, bricks and bottles.

鈥淲e need to go back to the source, if we educate our young people in the right way there could be a market stall in the Bullring selling guns and they would walk straight past it."

鈥淚t鈥檚 also down to the parents to manage and police their own children, and we have to be vigilant as an entire community too.鈥�

Suzette Davonport: "There is an international availability of fire arms and they get brought into the country. They aren鈥檛 brought in and just used by one individual - guns will be used and shared around gang members across the country. There is a black market for it."

Violent deaths in public spaces

Mike Royal: 鈥淲e really have to get a grip on exclusion. Young people are misunderstood in the classroom and being excluded.

鈥淥ften there is a gap between them going into another provision and those young people are out on the streets in the afternoon getting up to no good. We really need to harness their energy. They need long term relational support.鈥�

Listen to the responses from the panel on the role of the media, education system and the availability of weapons >>>

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The way forward

Question: 鈥淲hat are your opinions on how we can now take things forward?鈥�

Suzette Davonport: "I think it鈥檚 about investing in communities, investing in the young people and also developing the capacity for communities to help us help them and create a safer environment for everyone to live in."

The panel discuss the issues

Gleen Reid: "We need more resources put into the grassroot organisations, they鈥檙e the one鈥檚 who are reaching the young people."

Mike Royal: 鈥淭here鈥檚 an African proverb that says: 鈥業t takes a whole village to raise a child鈥� 鈥� I really think it鈥檚 about partnerships. No one agency has got the solution but together we can make a difference.

"We鈥檝e all been part of the problem 鈥� we can all now be part of the solution.鈥�

Listen to the opinions from the panel on how things can be taken forward>>>

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Have your say鈥�

What is your response to some of the comments made by the panel? Will the governments proposals of young people visiting victims in hospitals work? What are your views on the solutions and the way forward? Have your say using the form below.

last updated: 25/08/2008 at 11:37
created: 18/07/2008

Have Your Say

Add your comments here...

Anonymous, Birmingham
Firstly, we need to stop blaming the government. They can not control the thought process of people who decide to kill.Humans know right from wrong.As a black person, I feel I'm the only person who can say it. The downfall is the government can't blame it on the cause of the problem - black community. Black people advocate, condone and promote bad behaviour. Until this stops, the violence will not stop.Although I do feel the media unnecessarily employ scare mongering tactics. The world is not all bad, the violence is not spiralling out of control.There are a minority of bad apples stemming from one specific culture.The world has been making plenty of positive steps in respect of healthy eating and promoting the right messages. Crime is reducing. Eccentuate the positives and move forward.Birmingham is an excellent city which I am proud to be part of.

Tyrone Lozells, Birmingham.
It's getting worse and worse. There's been 3 shootings now in 2 weeks on one stretch of road here in Lozells and it's just yards away from a primary school in broad daylight. It's sickening if a young child gets caught up in these gang drive by shootings in broad daylight. And even worse if they see this as normal and soon mix with wrong people and grow up in the gang gun culture in Birmingham.

Terrell
It's a shame that in these cites, their is so many guns and the goverment does not do one thing about this growing situation!!

SHK
Stop promoting gun knife, the more you talk about it the more you promote it. The only way to deal with it, is to act harder on gangs so they actually start fearing the law, not if they think they can get away with it. Besides, we need to talk more about the good actions the youth of Birmingham are doing rather than this gutter low life of society.

S Adness
It's a sad state of affairs. There isn't one right answer, as there isn't one problem or reason for the youth being in the state that they are in! As Mike Royal said it takes a village to raise a child - in my mind that tells me that we all have a part to play. Yes the boys need to see positive role models - there are a lot out there and instead of the media promoting and glorifying gang related tv programmes/music/footballer bling lifestyle. Maybe they should show other black people who are in good jobs in a popular way! Why don't we see more of Tim Campbell for example? or Black lawyers and Doctors? There are a lot out there and what tends to happen is that they become far removed from where they originated from. As a newly qualified lawyer I would like to have seen more role models when I was growing up in Handsworth. lets all play our part! It's not just the government who are to blame, its us Black people as a community and how we raise our children. Teach them that they can be whatever they 'legally' want to be! My mum did that with me and after a long hard struggle I've succeeded.

pnlr
the whole country is messed up! why you think so many people are reloacting outside of uk? the government is to blame.. when they fix up, maybe this beloved country of ours will follow suit.

ex-Ladywood
I grew up in Lincoln Towers Ladywood in the '70s and used to play outside regularly.We never had any problems with knives or guns in those days even though it was a deprived area - I feel that the cause of the growth in knife and gun crime is not down to the area itself as we had a good community spirit.The get rich quick point is well made - I too wanted to get rich and used to knock on peoples doors with my bucket and sponge at the age of 11 and wash cars during the 6 weeks holiday. My parent instilled this ethic in me which I have instilled in my own children. "Hanging around" in parks or outside MacDonalds will be a magnet for parasites who will prey on impressionable kids. Anything that can be done to change this will be a good thing.China many years ago set up table tennis in every town/village - I think this kind of thing is an excellent idea.

University academic
Giving people "sport and music" is utterly stupid. Why? Simple. I would guess that most people who are into "gangs" also listen to "gang" music, such as 50 cent, usher, and what have you, just like most goths listen to gothic music. As for sport, well, I think most people see that as a get rich quick scheme anyway. Say someone wants to be a famous footballer, but they don't meet the grade, after years of trying they give up, and go into another get rich quick scheme. Why does it happen like this? The market is saturated, and there aren't enough official, worth while places to keep youths interested in such things.

0121
I have long come to the conclusion that elected politicians are so out of touch with Brum youth they are totally incapable of replacing destitution with more opportunity. But there is hope. It is the churches that are, I believe, helping these people by actually getting in there with these kids and giving practical help instead of pouring negative scorn on the situation, which will drive the whole thing further underground. I think also Aston Villa and Birmingham City have their part to play in community initiatives turning kids from the hood into footballers (would be great to see that World Cup winning goal scored by a Brummie!) and also community music projects, such as the choir Dreemz featured on Last Choir Standing, and the Jamaican steel band from B19 that my wife and I seen playing in shopping centres all over the Midlands! Sport and music are in my opinion the biggest weapons we as a community have against the bullet and the knife, and my thoughts are with the pastors and imams working on the streets of my city.

Daniel R....
STOP TALKING ABOUT KNIFE CRIME MAN!!! IS THE GOVERMENT DUMB? START PROMOTING GOOD THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING AND PEOPLE WILL NATURALLY WANT TO DO SOMETHING GOOD, IF YOU PROMOTE BAD THINGS PEOPLE ARE GOING TO NATURALLY DO SOMETHING BAD. EVERYONE WANTS THE SPOT LIGHT SO IF THE PEOPLE DOING BAD THINGS ARE GETTING IT OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING TO FOLLOW!!!! IF PEOPLE DOING GOOD THINGS ARENT GETTING NOTICED NOBODYS GOING TO FOLLOW!!!! FIX THE HELL UP!

Annonymous
Im a 33 year old African Caribbean man who's been brought up in the gutter and streets of Aston Birmingham. I have 1 son he's 19. I never knew my father when I was growing up as he was in prison for a string of armed robberies in Birmingham. I used to hang around the local park which was disused and pretty much run down and rotting away like urban decay and there was drug dealing/taking and prostition going on in the 3 tower blocks opposite it. I hit my teens then I got into the wrong crowd and I too started to try and make a get rich quick scheme. I used to sell drugs and when I did I used to dabble in it and before I knew it I was hooked on crack cocaine and heroin. This ruined my life for many years. I used to nick anything to everything to feed my habit and I am now clean.I have experienced gun crime many many times when I was confronted by the drug dealers when I never paid up and by the cities gangs. Im trying to help my son and his mates out of a gang lifestyle but he has been in street fights and scraps and have had to go to hospital and court because of it but now im fearing since he's reached the age of where he can lead his own life and I belive he will slip into hanging around with his 'so called mates' and getting into trouble and maybe even getting into what I used to do.

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Who鈥檚 afraid of the hood?