Gangland

[Dog duck]

Did anyone catch the powerful and moving documentary regarding our neighbours last night? or was everyone thinking up some crap regarding M&S...

[*Bob*]

Hard to believe .. that Channel Five has made something worth watching, I mean.

Can it be true?

[Otta]

Dog duck Wrote:

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> or was everyone thinking up some crap regarding

> M&S...

Way to engage people.

[Iloveeastdulwich]

yes I did, very touching and so sad. What a waste of a young persons life....

[ratty]

Happens far too often in Lewisham sadly and too many times the perpetrators get acquitted.

[tasha1]

I watched this with great sadness. My daughter knew all three of the boys who were murdered. They weren't close friends but boys she's would talk to regularly at a local youth group. She has been devastated and at the age of 16, she has found this deeply upsetting and cannot make any sense of it. My job entails working with high risk offendeders albeit adults. The trickiest service users to work with are 18-20 year old gang members who often find it very difficult to comprehend the value of life. Too often have a view of 'it was either them or me' and show no remorse. The other difficulty is when someone has served a custodial sentence for murder in the context of gang violence, they are put straight back into the area where their known associates still live. Even if they want to move away and remove themselves from this culture, there aren't the resources to relocate to a different area. The boys in the documentary were not gang members themselves from what I understand. So many families devastated by acts of senseless violence

[Pugwash]

I dealt with a young partially disabled young man some years ago who was targeted by gang in the Peckham area. He spent most of his time indoors with his pets, computer and music system. He was attacked in him home by a group of young men who thought he was an easy touch due to his disability. He was very badly injured and spent many months in hospital. One of the gang was caught and charged with attempted murder but the other gang members were not caught. The police officer assigned to his case was very helpful and attended most of the meetings held in the hospital to plan this young man's future. Because of the risk that other gang members had not been caught, and their ring leader had a attempted murder charge against him, going back to his council flat was not in his best interests. The Police, myself, hospital tried to rehouse him out of Southwark and there is apparently a scheme where local councils can rehouse victims of crime outside their area for safety. Lambeth council were approached and dragged their feet for months and them changed their minds. After several months in hospital, the young man discharged himself and went back to his old flat and hoped that the gang members would not realise he was there.

I did not see the programme but vulnerable young people who are either victims or caught up in gangs (mainly as they feared there own life otherwise) need to have the opportunity to rebuild their lives and should not be returned to their former locations.

[ratty]

There is a pan london agreement for rehousing people in danger. Sadly it rarely actually works because boroughs rarely adhere to its agreed guidelines. Nowadays I don't even bother trying to invoke it. Southwark are actually one of the worst for this.

[Pugwash]

Southwark Housing were quite supportive filing in the necessary forms but it was Lambeth who were pulling out

[ratty]

I meant Southwark are the worst when you ask them to take somebody.

[Otta]

Nothing could surprise me when you put the words "Southwark" and "Housing" next to each other.