The Sun’s new knife crime task force calls for diverse tactics to end killings

TODAY The Sun on Sunday reveals a dynamic new task force to tackle Britain’s knife crime epidemic.

For too long, politicians and the authorities have ignored Britain’s poorest young people growing up on estates in the grip of the drugs trade.

And for too long academics have been commissioned to write endless papers about the problem of youth violence for a succession of committees to debate.

Meanwhile, children are dying in increasingly violent turf wars.

London now has a higher murder rate than New York, with more than 60 killings so far this year. More than 40 have been as a result of stabbings.

But knife crime has also recently led to the deaths of a 17-year-old boy in Ipswich and of 15-year-olds in Sheffield and Wolverhampton.

Northampton has also been affected, with the death of a 17-year-old boy last month.

Experts believe a booming drugs market is fuelling much of the violence and have highlighted the middle-class appetite for cocaine as a factor.

The Government’s strategies are no more than frayed sticking plasters, unable to heal increasingly horrendous wounds.

So as part of our Beat The Blades campaign, we sought out a respected panel of youth workers, psychologists, MPs, community leaders and school safeguarding officers.

All work on the front line in Britain’s most deprived areas.

We asked the panel to debate a simple question: What will stop the killing?

Their insight into the lives of some of our most disadvantaged young people offers solutions that cannot be ignored.

Opening the first of a series of meetings at The Sun on Sunday’s offices in London, panel chairman Ray Lewis, of London’s Eastside Young Leaders Academy, said: “The children we are here to talk about today are all of our children, society’s children.

"We have to bear in mind that growing up in hell does not lead to angelic behaviour.”

East Ham Labour MP Stephen Timms remained loyal to his London constituency after being stabbed by an Islamic fundamentalist in 2010.

He said: “We have to persuade young people there is a future for them.

"Job-centres are currently more associated with taking away benefits than helping people find jobs and we are seeing deep impacts from austerity.

“Four million children are living below the poverty line and that is set to rise to five million in the early 2020s.”

Social researcher Dr Ian Joseph said government policies to combat gang crime have repeatedly failed, despite a summit in Downing Street following the murders of Letisha Shakespeare, 17, and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis in Birmingham in 2003.

Dr Joseph said: “They have not got to the root of the issue, they are just snipping at the branches.

"I shy away from young people’s funerals now because I can’t take the tears any more.

“We need a counter-narrative which shifts the focus from knocking youngsters as the instigators of violence.

“They are victims of social issues.

"We need to get away from the top-down approach and start looking at a bottom-up approach.

“Some of the best interventions I have seen have been by micro enterprises from community groups in local areas.”

Former gang member turned mediator Colin James, of Gangs Unite, runs one such enterprise.

He said: “It’s not gang culture, it’s youth culture. They use the knife, it’s how they fight.

"You need a change of mindset, to see life from their perspective.

"They feel isolated from the community. It’s like they are living in a virtual reality game.

“Opening youth centres would be a waste of money. Where I live the young people are going to run that youth centre and not allow other people in.

“Youth centres are not the answer, more police is not the answer. Engaging with young people is. So many kids get expelled at 14.

"If you kick a child out of school at that age then arrest them before they turn 16, you’ve ruined any future before they’ve had a chance.

“Everything has been taken from them so you only give them one option. When you have nothing, the only thing you can grasp is your reputation, because that gives you some self-worth.”

Safeguarding officer Carol Murraine has worked in tough inner-city schools for decades.

She said: “Schools expel quite quickly those that don’t fit into a box.

"They readily send kids to pupil referral units but this is where you can find gangs.

"If you’ve already been condemned at the age of 13, then a gang might be the only place where you can find opportunity, where you can feel safe.”

Iraq war hero Dr Johnson Beharry VC escaped gangs by joining the Army. Through his JBVC Foundation, he is helping young offenders stay off the streets.

He said: “The right approach is getting to know the person, what drives them to that path and trying to get them away from it towards something positive.

"The turning point for me was when I spoke to my grandmother in Grenada and she said, ‘I’m hungry’.

“I wanted to help but I couldn’t send her money because I knew where that money came from.

"I just decided to follow a different path. The home can be so broken you have to work on fixing it before you can take on the individual.

"I would like to ask the new Home Secretary to come down and talk to the kids.”

Youth worker Fitzroy Andrew said: “It’s about investing in enterprises and giving young people an option that can work.”

Solicitor Deepti Patel agreed that police tactics are failing and added: “We hear stop and search is the solution but we never get to this word that is so important: Poverty.

“Why are children arming up and why is this social violence spreading?

"To get to the nub of it is to talk about the criminalisation of poverty.”

Youth culture author Chloe Combi addressed the role of social media.

She said: “It is not the cause of violence, but it is the cause of trigger points for people not getting on well and leads to violence.”

Web developer Marcus Kerr grew up on the fringes of gang culture in East London before getting a scholarship to Rugby School.

He said: “When young people don’t have money or opportunities and the easiest way to get them is through crime, that is the path they will take.

“In these environments there is talent but no opportunity.

"We need to offer young people apprenticeships, not prison sentences.”

Clinical psychologist Dr Jennifer Hudson agreed, pointing out that the teenage brain is wired for risk and would not register the threat of a prison sentence as a deterrent.

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