From: "John Hurst.", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Evening Standard London 31/1/01
Yard summit as gun gang crime reaches peak in London new
by JUSTIN DAVENPORT
THE SCALE of gun violence between feuding black drug gangs in London
has reached crisis levels with one shooting reported every other day.
Scotland Yard is now calling a summit of community leaders across
London in an effort to combat gun crime.
This month alone, there have been at least 13 attempted murders and two
killings between rival groups and individuals. In one 12-hour period
earlier this week, there were five shootings, including one death.
Commander Mike Fuller, head of Operation Trident, the specialist squad
set up to combat black gun crime, said: "There is no obvious reason
for this increase.
"The sheer scale has shocked us. I think there would be uproar if the
number of shootings that take place in black areas were to occur in
certain other parts of London." He said he had called a crisis meeting
of all prominent black community leaders in London to discuss possible
new ways of tackling the problem.
"We are getting a lot of community support and a lot of information but
we are looking for any constructive new ideas that we may have
missed," he said.
In recent weeks officers from his 160-strong squad have seized three
sub-machine guns and eight hand-guns in London, compared with four
sub-machine guns in the whole of last year. Police are increasingly
called to reports of shootings only to find bullet holes in cars or
houses, spent cartridges and sometimes even blood.
The increase in shooting comes as Brent council launched a poster
campaign featuring a young black man shot through the face with a
handgun by his side. The pesters, which read "Young, gifted and dead"
will appear in north London in an attempt to shock communities into
action.
The Home Office-funded campaign is In stark contrast to the more
"softly softly" Trident police approach to win respect in the black
community.
Mr Fuller said: "We believe in raising awareness and encouraging young
people to pass on information but there are risks in using shock
tactics.
"We discussed using tactics like this at our lay advisory group but we
didn't go for it; The Met are keen not to heighten the fear of crime."
Brent was chosen because it has more shootings than any other area of
London. A Brent council spokesman said the poster was chosen by focus
groups. He said: "Yes, it is horrible for children to see this but it
ids a lot more horrible that they could walk out of school and see
this for real."
Mr Fuller said police 'were particularly concerned at the rise in the'
number of "assassination style" weapons in London. รบ
"However, London is not flooded with guns. You can't just hire one on
any street corner. In fact, it sometimes takes a couple of days, even
if you know the right person to approach."
Supt Stuart Low of Brent Police said: "The poster is very graphic and
it is a source of concern to us. We do not want to create alarm but
the sad reality is that this sort of violence has been with us for
some while. Our biggest problem is trying to unlock community
intelligence. We have to find new ways of getting the community on
board." Keith Johnson, whose brother Richard Parkinson was shot dead
while working as a security guard at a black music venue in April 1999,
said: "The poster is worth a try. It might get the message across but
whether it will get the information across is another matter."
Two black men have died in shootings so far this year. Carlton Speid,
67, was found with gunshot wounds in a house fire in Brixton earlier
this month. A man has been charged with his murder. Andrew Williams,
30, of Clapham, was shot outside Chicago's nightclub in Peckham at the
weekend.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less.
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose.
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
