The 27th of November 2009 was one of the proudest nights I have known. Despite the sadness of the occasion of the 9th anniversary of my son, Damilola’s death, it was also a time of great joy for me to witness the feats and accomplishment of so many wonderful young people at the inaugural Spirit of London Awards event. Meeting these young people and hearing first hand of the work they do to not just better their own lives but also the lives of others in their local communities, well, it was hugely inspiring. Then this week I have been brought back to earth with a huge bump as yet another young life has been lost in London to the evil of the knife.
Since becoming the Prime Minister’s envoy for youth violence and knife crime earlier this Year I have travelled around the Country meeting many people and organisations who are actively seeking solutions to the problems of youth violence. I have met with faith leaders and i have met with many families who have suffered a similar tragedy to my own. I have also met with many young people who come from communities blighted by poverty and hardship. The thread that knits all these people together is an aspiration to see youth violence eradicated and peace to reign on our streets. They do not seek to attach blame or pass the buck to Governments or local authorities for the hardships they face they instead choose to fight to bring change positively through their passion for life and helping each other.
I am so sad today that all of those that are fighting to make their communities better places despite the recession and problems they face are having to read about another act of cowardice and brutality. Let us be clear, this is what we are talking about when some imbecile uses a knife to take the life or injure another human being. I did not know Salum Kombo the young 18 Year old youth from Bow in East London who was murdered by another young man for what we are led to believe was “disrespecting” him on his Facebook page. All I know is that he was only 18 and he had his whole life in front of him. Now he is simply another sad statistic of the cowardice and stupidity that is blighting our local communities especially in London. This small but feral minority of cowards and brutes that associate themselves with gang culture need to be dealt with by not just the authorities and criminal justice system, they need to be made to hang their heads in shame and change their ways or be cast out by the entire community they choose to blight. It is time to act as it has gone on for too long that these idiots should bring shame to us all.
Please take a look at the wonderful young people here on the awards page of this website and you will see that the vast majority of young people in London are fantastic upstanding young ambassadors who we can be proud of. Over 3,000 nominations were received and most of these were from young people voting “peer to peer” for other young people. This is the TRUE MEANING OF RESPECT! The demented imbeciles that follow the culture of the gang cannot be allowed to kidnap the meaning of the word to cover up their own inadequacies.
I am a resident of Greenwich and in my Borough we have a super entertainment complex known as the O2 arena. For some reason the cowards that call themselves gang boys prey on the area around the O2 and attack people who go there to enjoy themselves.
Why should this be?
It cannot be tolerated any-more!
Christmas is upon us and so I am urging that in the true “Spirit” of Xmas the black community faces up to the sad statistics that have blighted us for too long and rise as one to call for an end once and for all to the gang culture and feral activity this minority of cowards forces on us. Let those of us with a pride and passion in our community come to the fore to support the wonderful young people such as those who are now SOLA Ambassadors – Take a look at the work of the young man, Alexander Rose, who is our “Official Youth Ambassador” for SOLA 2010. Take a look at battlefront.co.uk/campaign/stop-gun-and-knife-crime/ and you will see what fine upstanding citizens we can take pride in. For anyone that was not lucky enough to see his closing speech at the inaugural event make sure to set your videos to record the repeat of the show on the community channel at 9pm on 29th December. Truly inspiring and indicative of the way our young people can rise above the rubbish the small minority try and impose on them.
Finally, I have to report that my time as Envoy for the Prime Minister has been largely encouraging and that despite my sadness at this latest futility, the problems caused by the small minority are being tackled through positive actions by all involved. In this respect the statistics also do not lie. I cannot say that I am happy with the judiciary as clearly there is much that needs doing to bring reform in this area so that the TIME FITS THE CRIME as they say. Magistrates and judges still tend to be too lenient on the perpetrators for my liking and with my fellow family members of www.familiesutd.com I will be taking this up with the justice Ministry again shortly. It is all too easy for the media to blame the Government or police authorities for failing to impose tougher sentences but the guidelines are clear and in my view it is the judiciary that needs to be tougher so the Civil servants that administrate in this area need to take more responsibility as it is clear that the Government Ministers especially the Prime Minister wish to see tougher sentencing.
As we enter this time of festive cheer I will also be calling for restraint on the part of all concerned with the forthcoming election. Restraint as in not looking to make knife crime and youth violence a political football. In reality, the problems our inner cites in particular face have been brewing for many years and are largely the result of mistakes that have been made over many years and many different Governments. Let us all put our hands up and declare an interest in seeing the problems resolved as a common interest.
A Merry Christmas to you all
Richard Taylor – Official PM envoy for youth violence and knife crime
