Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
a lot of possible answers spring to mind most of which are likely libellous.
Major incident: Coldharbour Lane/Gresham Road
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glastonbury?what has a festival got to do with a incident in brixton?
People were talking about festivals in London which always end up with stabbings. I pointed out that it doesn't happen at Glastonbury.
Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
haven't you read the thread?glastonbury?
Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
Rollem
two kinds of wonderful
no, not me 
anyway, sad as this is, its not exclusive to brixton. guns are all over london now, incidents happening regulalry and have done for many years. geez and old school friend of mine got shot in the head whilst sat in his car down a side street of shepherds bush near on 12 years ago. mistaken identity / gunman coudln't find who he was looking for so shot him instead
that said, brixton is rough as shit and anyone who says otherwise is a bit blinkered.
anyway, sad as this is, its not exclusive to brixton. guns are all over london now, incidents happening regulalry and have done for many years. geez and old school friend of mine got shot in the head whilst sat in his car down a side street of shepherds bush near on 12 years ago. mistaken identity / gunman coudln't find who he was looking for so shot him instead
that said, brixton is rough as shit and anyone who says otherwise is a bit blinkered.
Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
there was a double shooting on our estate a few years back. 
Sounds terrifying
Did a quick search on the news, but I suspect it's too early for anything to be out just yet?
News? Why would a bit of violence in brixton be on the news?
I don't know. What are you suggesting? Why doesn't it happen at Glastonbury Relahni?
I don't know if things are any worse (here or anywhere else in London) than they were five or ten years ago, but an incident that serious and wild is awful and rare, not unremarkable, which seems to be the implication in some posts on here.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
If someone got shot it would be at least on the local news.
Our local newspaper sometimes reports on street fights, if they are big enough and someone tells them about it (Wandsworth)... Shootings definetely get a mention.
This is depressing
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/...orough_in_London_for_dog_fighting__say_RSPCA/
Mr Retro
Beware hedgehogs
Same here. Seen things but 8 years or so and no bother. I have many friends in Brixton with stories of various "bother" though.
I liked and enjoyed linving in Brixton and never felt unsafe, while never feeling fully safe either.
I'm comparing it to where I'm living now which might be unfair, but somebody said earlier it's the same in any city. It's not.
Missez
Britisher Abroad
Just like I could have been hit by a stray bullet when there was a shooting at the end of my street a few months ago.
Violent crime is not rare here at all. You my be able to avoid it most of the time because of the circles you move it. But for those families that live in fear of it on a daily basis it's not just 'unfortunate'.
Just because you personally don't see it, doesn't mean a thing. The amount of times I've sat in Brixton police station to report a crime and seen/heard some terrible stories from other people there.
Try working in a local school, then you would hear things that break your heart.
onenameshelley
is Major Morgan's bitch
blimey its funny being only 5 mins away but we seem to miss so much of all this. I dunno, i dont think i understand people anymore.
editor
hiraethified
Tell you what: I feel a damn sight safer in Brixton then I do in just about every other major city in the UK and even small town centres at throwing out time.
There was a shooting at Glasto in the 90s. But paid, camping festivals are always going to attract a different vibe to inner city streets.
Possible, but rather doubtful, given the circumstances. He was searching right by where the 'shooting' took place.
I saw what could of been the beginnings of this from my window. I was admiring the view from my new room, looking out over central brix when a gang of kids came screaming past. One of em (a girl) smashed a bottle on a lamp post, ran up behind a lad and slammed him round the head - then a knife came out and the chase continued.
Good to be back in the heart...
Good to be back in the heart...
editor
hiraethified
I know it's unfashionable with some folks around here to say this kind of thing, but the cops did a good job of controlling the situation last night. I wouldn't have fancied arriving to face a pack of near feral kids, pumped up with rage and violence, and trying to restore calm while being baited and jeered at.
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
not-bono-ever
meh
um
speaking to a Dr at Kings last week - there is a huge amount of stabbings and suchlike that dont even register- the previous night, a 15 year old was shot in the leg apparently - smashed the calf bone to bits and ripped the muscle out the back - major major work to save the leg. not uncommone either
obviously no one saw anything / the cycle continues
poor
speaking to a Dr at Kings last week - there is a huge amount of stabbings and suchlike that dont even register- the previous night, a 15 year old was shot in the leg apparently - smashed the calf bone to bits and ripped the muscle out the back - major major work to save the leg. not uncommone either
obviously no one saw anything / the cycle continues
poor
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
The trouble is that as a society we've completely failed our children.
What I mean is that they no longer grow up with any real sense of aspiration. That isn't their fault. At school they are fed into a system that is no longer concerned with children and is now based entirely on meeting statistical targets. Individual teachers may try to deal with them as human beings, but the overall impression they get is that they only exist as test results. Their families have no time for them, and most of what they experience from the wider world is fear and mistrust. Then to cap it all we don't give them any worthwhile aspirations.
They get told work hard and you might get a job. Then they look around and see somebody working for a pittance behind the counter at McDeadthings, or sweeping the streets, and quite rationally and sensibly they say "fuck that, I'd rather deal drugs". When I was a kid I was told work really hard and with a bit of luck you might be an astronaut, or a barrister, or win a Nobel Prize, or write a best selling novel. Mostly our kids are no longer given those ambitions. We ask them to dream small and get pissed off when they look elsewhere for aspirations.
So they join the local gang. It's a rational decision given the alternatives they are offered. Unfortunately it's a rational decision that leads to crime, violence, and like as not a short and ugly life. However it's not a stupid choice if the only other thing they are being offered is a long and ugly life.
First thing I'd do is scrap the national curriculum as of now. Let teachers teach, let kids learn, and fuck being able to judge which school is better than another according to the league table. The aim of the education system is to educate, not to create statistics that politicians and educationalists can argue about.
We have to give working class children back some real dreams. Realistic goals are fine on a day to day basis, but we all fail to achieve most of our dreams. So why the hell don't we demand that our kids dream BIG. Fail to become something bloody amazing and you might still be bloody amazing. Fail to achieve adequacy and you have a problem. We need to feed them some aspirations, not simply try to lock them into a treadmill of test results all the way through childhood.
They also need to be understood and not feared. We are developing a situation where in parts of Brixton there are parallel and entirely separate societies for the over and under 21s. That can't go on. By and large I find teenagers are fine if dealt with as rational human beings on a one to one basis. Mostly groups of them are fine too. The local gang here on Angell Town is notorious, but it's composed mostly of rational and intelligent kids. Many of the supposedly worst ones are actually the brightest. They just don't get encouraged to show that outside of the gang context.
Finally we need to stop doing things for "the youth" by setting up ways to ghettoise them into "young people's activities". The concentration should be on the activity itself and not on it being something to involve young people. They aren't stupid. They know when they are being offered something that's second rate just to keep them out of the way.
In short we need to deal with kids as young human beings and not as a problem to be solved. We have to offer them something better than being in a gang.
What I mean is that they no longer grow up with any real sense of aspiration. That isn't their fault. At school they are fed into a system that is no longer concerned with children and is now based entirely on meeting statistical targets. Individual teachers may try to deal with them as human beings, but the overall impression they get is that they only exist as test results. Their families have no time for them, and most of what they experience from the wider world is fear and mistrust. Then to cap it all we don't give them any worthwhile aspirations.
They get told work hard and you might get a job. Then they look around and see somebody working for a pittance behind the counter at McDeadthings, or sweeping the streets, and quite rationally and sensibly they say "fuck that, I'd rather deal drugs". When I was a kid I was told work really hard and with a bit of luck you might be an astronaut, or a barrister, or win a Nobel Prize, or write a best selling novel. Mostly our kids are no longer given those ambitions. We ask them to dream small and get pissed off when they look elsewhere for aspirations.
So they join the local gang. It's a rational decision given the alternatives they are offered. Unfortunately it's a rational decision that leads to crime, violence, and like as not a short and ugly life. However it's not a stupid choice if the only other thing they are being offered is a long and ugly life.
First thing I'd do is scrap the national curriculum as of now. Let teachers teach, let kids learn, and fuck being able to judge which school is better than another according to the league table. The aim of the education system is to educate, not to create statistics that politicians and educationalists can argue about.
We have to give working class children back some real dreams. Realistic goals are fine on a day to day basis, but we all fail to achieve most of our dreams. So why the hell don't we demand that our kids dream BIG. Fail to become something bloody amazing and you might still be bloody amazing. Fail to achieve adequacy and you have a problem. We need to feed them some aspirations, not simply try to lock them into a treadmill of test results all the way through childhood.
They also need to be understood and not feared. We are developing a situation where in parts of Brixton there are parallel and entirely separate societies for the over and under 21s. That can't go on. By and large I find teenagers are fine if dealt with as rational human beings on a one to one basis. Mostly groups of them are fine too. The local gang here on Angell Town is notorious, but it's composed mostly of rational and intelligent kids. Many of the supposedly worst ones are actually the brightest. They just don't get encouraged to show that outside of the gang context.
Finally we need to stop doing things for "the youth" by setting up ways to ghettoise them into "young people's activities". The concentration should be on the activity itself and not on it being something to involve young people. They aren't stupid. They know when they are being offered something that's second rate just to keep them out of the way.
In short we need to deal with kids as young human beings and not as a problem to be solved. We have to offer them something better than being in a gang.
You are not wrong about closing time. I couldn't believe it when I moved down to London from my home town. Hardly any fights!!!
The first time I went back to visit my home town I saw three fights (different people involved) walking from the train station to the town centre - which is about a 10 minute walk.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
ericjarvis, that's a really good post, but I think that part of the problem is that children do dream BIG, too BIG and expect so much from life and then get pissed off when they don't get it, very pissed off. And disappointed.
I know too many kids who want to be famous when they grow up! And have very unrealistic expectations of life. Many going going for the easy option of making money fast. And the ones who do work hard get ridiculed and aren't seen as cool.
Nobody wants to be an astronaut anymore, or even a teacher, which is an amazing job but has somehow been turned into something not to be aspired to anymore...
I do agree that social activities need to be more mixed, as teenagers are totally segregated in this society, when in fact people of all ages need to mix and socialise together, as they do in most countries.
I know too many kids who want to be famous when they grow up! And have very unrealistic expectations of life. Many going going for the easy option of making money fast. And the ones who do work hard get ridiculed and aren't seen as cool.
Nobody wants to be an astronaut anymore, or even a teacher, which is an amazing job but has somehow been turned into something not to be aspired to anymore...
I do agree that social activities need to be more mixed, as teenagers are totally segregated in this society, when in fact people of all ages need to mix and socialise together, as they do in most countries.
Because its mainly nice people who to Glastonbury.
It's all about the make-up of the crowd, really, isn't it?
Giles..
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
Top jobs have always been closed, that's not news surely? And also a good education... Children from poorer backgrounds, including the academically gifted ones, have always been at a disadvantage. Perhaps more so nowadays, as population increases.
But does that give them the right to go around doing what they are doing??? No it doesn't. Like they say, anger is an energy, but it needs to be used positively.
editor
hiraethified
I think that's also a reflection on our rampant consumerist culture, promoted by corporates who will employ every fucking cunning trick in the book to create to persuade children that they need the latest trainers/phone/console or whatever.
It's one thing to create the need and shove this stuff in their faces all the time, but if there's no likelihood of them being able to afford it, it's hardly surprising that they turn to crime to fund it.
The irony is that I'd say the kids scrapping on the streets last night own far, far more cool stuff, wear better clothes and have more spending cash than your average kid in the eighties, but I doubt very much if they're any happier.
The fact that most adults are now too scared to say anything to out-of-control 14year olds doesn't help either.
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