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Youth crime summit a ‘step forward’
Pledge to work together after police and Town Hall chiefs meet Somali community organisers
A FRANK “new era” of dialogue between the authorities and the parents of youths at risk of becoming involved in crime has been hailed as a “great step forward” by Somali community organisers.
Officials met a group of mainly mothers at Camden Town’s Irish Centre to discuss relations with the authorities and the consequences of gang crime.
The summit was directly linked to the street murders of teenagers Mahir Osman in 2006 and Sharma’arke Hassan last May and a series of high-profile court cases which revealed the involvement of youths, including Somali groups, in Camden Town’s drugs market.
Khadija Shireh, who is the director of the women’s voluntary group the British Somali Community, based in Kentish Town, which helped organise the meeting, said: “We are really ready to work with the police and the council. There was a perception of mistrust and misunderstanding. Now we have the feeling there is a step forward (towards) understanding the community.
“We cannot eradicate the whole of this issue and there is still a lack of resources to work with on this. Many parents said, ‘why haven’t we been given this at an earlier stage?’.
“But for us as a community organisation, the first time the police showed cooperation was when Sharma’arke was murdered (in May 2008) and we invited the police to see the scale of the problem.
“We proposed that parents and the whole community were confused about how the police is working. Since then the parents are standing up and trying to improve the situation for their children, and proposing a working partnership with the police.”
The borough’s top policeman, Chief Superintendent Dominic Clout, was repeatedly challenged over a perception that the criminal justice system had treated Somali youths unfairly.
“It won’t help us just to listen to our concerns and do nothing,” said one mother. “People here are the parents of children who have already been detained, and they want to know, what is going to happen to our children, and how can they be safe?”
But Ch Supt Clout stressed that the purpose of the gathering was to increase awareness among parents that minor offences or anti-social behaviour, including cannabis offences, were leading to more serious crime.
He said: “The young people who commit crime also have to understand the consequences of their behaviour. The reason we are here today is to talk frankly about the consequences of criminal behaviour. It starts with small crime and escalates, and then it is too late.”
The authorities have acknowledged that the still unsolved murder of Sharmaarke Hassan had prompted what the council’s crime chief, Tony Brooks, called “a change in direction”.
Mr Brooks added: “[After the Sharma’arke murder] we met very quickly and identified very quickly 25 young people who were vulnerable – not necessarily vulnerable to attack, but vulnerable to involvement in crime, and we met the families of those young people.
“That was all about doing what was best for those young people.”
Further similar meetings are being planned. |
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