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Desmond Riley
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‘Forcing single mums into jobs will leave children to the streets’
A LEADING community worker this week called for more support for single parents in the fight against gun and knife crime.
Desmond Riley, a volunteer community worker for Islington Link-up, based in Finsbury Park, said government pressure on single parents to find jobs will mean they spend even less time at home with their children.
“It’s hard enough being a lone parent as it is,” Mr Riley added. “But if mum can’t be at home with her children because of work, who is going to stop the boys wanting to go out on the streets where they have to act tough?”
Mr Riley, who campaigns for more jobs for young people, particularly in the black community, spoke out in the wake of the recent Freud report calling for single parents to come off benefits and seek work after their children reach 12 rather than 16, as at present.
Islington Link-up, based in Seven Sisters Road, specialises in employment and community problems.
“People normally don’t choose to run a one-parent family,” Mr Riley said. “It is something forced on them through circumstance. But we shouldn’t penalise them for it.
“If a single mum is going to stop her children going onto the streets where they may be tempted to arm themselves then we must support her. But she can’t handle a full-time job and a wayward child.”
He blamed the weapons culture on the street on a lack of good male role models, the influence of violent computer games and American “gangsta ” music and film.
Mr Riley added: “I recently came across a poster next to a Pentecostal church in Holloway Road with a rap star holding a baby with a gun in the waist of his trousers. It was called ‘Get rich or die trying’. The artist claimed he had been shot 10 times and still lived to tell the tale.
“We’ve got to fight those kinds of assumptions. Young people need to be reminded that guns and knives spell death, either to himself or herself or someone else. Or a very long prison sentence.”
He believes football stars could do more to get the message across. “Young people look up to football players,” he said. “These highly-paid stars should be out in the community emphasising the importance of keeping away from all crime.”
Good job prospects will keep young people away from a life of crime, Mr Riley added. “Young black boys need to see black businesses in their community,” he said. “There’s not enough training and apprenticeships. They need to know they have a future.”
His views on the roots of gun culture are echoed by a 20-year-old sports centre worker, who has the street name K9.
He said: “Kids are too influenced by America. They copy everything including gangsta rap.
“But police stop and search the wrong people. I’ve been stopped for an hour-and-a-half for no reason when other people are walking by laughing. I’m hoping new generations of young people will see the madness and stop using guns and knives.”
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