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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published:16 August 2007

Work must continue to beat gang-related violence

• YOUR report on the murder of Mahir Osman, and the 13 finally convicted of his killing in Camden (New Journal, August 9) is extremely disturbing and our thanks must go to Sgt Bob Dear and his officers for their brave actions in bringing those responsible to justice.
Directly after the murder Raj Chada, then Labour leader of the council, and I called together community groups for a private meeting at the Town Hall for an airing of views on what we could all do to reduce Somali gang-related violence and give younger men more positive opportunities.
We also called a meeting at Finsbury Park Mosque with Somali groups, youth workers, the council and the police from Haringey and Camden to see how we could all better work together.
At the mosque both officers and councillors were quite shocked about how poor the co-ordination was between the Haringey authorities and their neighbours, despite the level and intensity of incidents leading up to this – the “tit-for-tat” incidents you report.
Some of these were very alarming and we certainly felt that more information should have been passed to us from across the border given there was a clear link to continuing problems with groups in Camden Town (most of whom seem to come from outside
the area).
I certainly hope there is better information-sharing now.
The results of these meetings informed how Camden would spend some of the extra money coming from the government for our Local Area Agreement with other local public services. One of these was an exciting new project providing mentoring by young professional Somalis to buddy and give guidance to teenagers.
At the time, we certainly felt that the nature and extent of problems revealed to us by council research, community work and these tragic events merit continued investment on many levels.
I do urge the new council administration to further this work and ensure that there is sufficient funding.
CLLR THEO BLACKWELL
Labour Regent’s Park ward

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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