London Tackles Gang Culture The Glasgow Way

 
London’s battle against teenage gang violence began yesterday, using techniques already mastered by Scottish cops. A group of 10 kids who were members of Enfield’s Get Money Gang voluntarily turned up at a police-organised “call-in” intended to divert them away from violence.

The young men, who often describe themselves as “soldiers”, are shown graphic footage of the after effects of knife violence before hearing the testimony of former gang members who ended up in prison or seriously injured, as well as stories from mothers who lost their sons in street battles.

They are then asked to make a pledge to renounce violence. Following this softly, softly approach, the police warn gang kids that any further crime will not be tolerated. Chief Inspector Kibblewhite, using almost exactly the same kind of police language I heard during my time as a reporter in Glasgow, warned them: “We know who you are. You might have 100 people in your gang – we have 32,000 people in our gang. It's called the Metropolitan Police."

The technique was originally dreamt up in Boston, who sent cops over to Glasgow in 2008 to teach the newly formed Gangs Taskforce how to implement it. When they arrived, the American cops were shocked. Back home in the States, gang wars tended to be fought over financially-motivated crime – perhaps drugs or prostitution – and the violence was long-range. Combatants tended to either gun down their enemies from far away or blast them in drive-by shootings, rather than coming face to face.

In Glasgow, the gangs were mostly made up of young teens, most of them aged between 12 and 16, whose violence had no financial imperative. They simply fought for patches of territory, which were often no more than a few streets. When they encountered a rival gang, often in large scale, pre-planned and regular brawls, they would attack each other up close with knives or whatever weapons came to hand. A Strathclyde Police officer once told me the horrified Boston cops described the gangs as “medieval”.

The London gangs fit somewhere in between these two extremes. The Londoners use both knives and guns, although the younger gang members tend to use bladed weapons as they are easier to get. The gangs in London are cosmopolitan in their make-up, whereas the Glasgow gangs are, traditionally, exclusively white.

Although there is undoubtedly postcode violence in the capital, fought over sometimes minor “beefs”, or arguments, there is often a financial component to London gangs. Some members may be making money from selling drugs, others from mugging people. Compare the name of the first gang to go into the court yesterday, Enfield’s Get Money Gang, to Glasgow’s gangs, with names like the Mad Sqwad (sic) and the Tollcross Wee Men, for a sense of the differing motivations.

But since the new gangs approach started in Glasgow, there have been palpable changes. In some areas of the city, it can seem like every other man, regardless of age, has a glaring slash wound along his face – the legacy of a youth spent running with gangs. Yet now the police say that young men are heeding the message.

Since 2008, Strathclyde Police have made 100 gangs arrests a month, detaining a total of 4,500 kids. Last year saw serious assaults drop by 9% and since 2006, there has been a 42% reduction. After the riots last year, David Cameron praised the success of the scheme and asked for help implementing it in London, but the results remain to be seen.
There are only two more call-ins planned, using a £10,000 Home Office grant. Will any kids really volunteer to go along? Are the motivations behind gang membership even comparable? Only when London sees actual results will we discover how successful the tale of two cities’ battle to put an end to gang violence has been.