Islington Tribune - News: vandals on camera

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 8 June 2007

Stephan Schulte with one of the vandalised trees

Vandals on camera, but still go free

Claim that police refused to view film of clubbers damaging trees

COMMUNITY police in King’s Cross seem unable to stop drunken clubbers from snapping recently-planted saplings “like matchsticks” – even though they probably have CCTV footage of the vandals.
Residents contributed £4,000 towards the cost of planting up to 90 young trees to brighten up York Way and surrounding streets.
They say much of the damage caused by vandals has been captured on CCTV, but claim they were told by police it was not a priority and that they did not have the time to analyse the film.
Environmental activist Stephan Schulte said: “If the police won’t review the CCTV film, we residents offered to do it for them. But we’ve been told we are not allowed. What is the point of having CCTV if it isn’t being used by the community.”
So far, 13 trees have been vandalised within months of being planted. This is despite the fact they are surrounded by anti-vandal iron grilles.
Mr Schulte added: “We raised money for these trees from individuals and businesses. What is frustrating is that we don’t know how to stop the vandalism.
“It is no surprise that the majority of these vandalised trees were on the route to the nightclubs in and around Goods Way.”
He added that vandals have been able to squeeze their hands through the iron grilles around the trees, and snap the trunks in half.
“We know the community police do a great job on the street,” Mr Schulte added. “But they are not always available after hours. The fact is, there is not enough of them to deal with anti-social crime in King’s Cross.
“Every weekend we get thousands of young people streaming into the neighbourhood to go to these clubs. We have asked for some kind of police presence in the early hours when they start to leave the clubs.
“But we’ve been told there isn’t the manpower. But every major city up north, for example, where there are a lot of bars has a big police presence. Why not King’s Cross?”

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