After the riots: tough tactics to uproot London’s gangs

In the wake of the riots David Cameron declared ‘all-out war’ on gangs. Now zero-tolerance policing is starting to reap rewards “Police! Stand still! Police!” Shortly after 6.30am on Friday, the dawn quiet of a cul-de-sac in Walthamstow was shattered by the arrival of Operation Connect officers at a nondescript terraced house with net curtains at the windows. With the might of a hardened steel enforcer ram, they broke open the door and piled into the house. The muffled tones of an angry man’s voice could be heard through the open door, and a neighbour looked on with world-weary indifference. “It’s not the first time,” said Dave, a 58-year-old who did not want to give his surname. “They’ve been here before.” Officers eventually emerged from the house with a 25-year-old man in handcuffs and a sweatshirt with the words “Smoke Homegrown” emblazoned beneath a large cannabis plant. In a storm of expletives, he gave the finger to the press as he was escorted to the van. Detective sergeant Andy Chandler, who was leading the raid, said the man had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of drugs and in money-laundering offences. The suspect, whose name was not released, had been targeted as part of Operation Connect, an initiative led by the Metropolitan police aimed at tackling a rise in gang violence in the capital. The project, which draws on successful anti-gang approaches taken by police in cities such as Boston, Massachusetts and Glasgow, has been running since the spring, with Waltham Forest to be used as a blueprint for other boroughs. But, after a summer in which gangs have returned to the headlines in a big way, interest in Connect is greater than ever. Speaking in the aftermath of the riots in English cities this month, David Cameron declared an “all-out war” on criminal gangs. They had been, he told MPs on another occasion, “at the heart of the protests and have been behind the co-ordinated attacks”. Out of the glare of the media and Westminster spotlight, however, Operation Connect has been progressing steadily in Waltham Forest, where a spasm of gang-related violence last summer, among other factors, encouraged the police to single out the borough for particular attention. Using information from a variety of sources – including previous convictions and community intelligence – police have built up a database, or “matrix”, of around 100 people they believe to be the most dangerous gang members in the borough. Ranging from their mid-teens to their early-30s, the individuals are given a rating indicating how dangerous they are thought to be. The next stage in the Connect process is for direct contact to be made with those people, either in person or in writing, and offer them the chance to “disengage” from gang life. This is a modified version of the “call ins” organised by the Boston Gun Project of the mid-1990s and, more recently, by Strathclyde police in Glasgow. But, while those cities held mass events for many gang members at a time, Scotland Yard believes a different approach is more suitable for London, where gangs are structured less hierarchically and such forums, it is felt, would be of limited use. For those who do agree to a “diversion” plan – and around 50 people have done so thus far in Waltham Forest – an array of support services is on offer, ranging from help with employment and substance abuse, to rehoming for members and their families who feel they need to move as a part of the rupture. In parallel with police efforts, Waltham Forest council runs its own gang prevention programme which, in the months since it was launched this year, has claimed many successes including getting one former gang member off the matrix and into work, and another into university outside London. However, sources say its future is uncertain: despite vocal support from Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary who will be joint head of the government’s so-called “gangs committee” and whose constituency includes Waltham Forest, there are concerns that cuts to government grants will make the council unable to follow through on all its targets in the long term. A council source said the situation was “very difficult”. For those gang members who reject the offer of engagement, however, the soft approach is ditched, and no-holds-barred enforcement kicks in. “It’s an Al Capone sort of approach,” said Chandler. “We will target them for their criminality.” That could be dealing in class A drugs or the non-payment of a TV licence. Detective Chief Inspector Tim Champion, from Operation Connect, said officers were justified in their pursuit of those gang members for the smallest of offences. “We would not be targeting them for no insurance if they weren’t a violent gang member,” he said. “We are there to reduce gang-related violence. We will do that by any lawful means. If that individual has been offered … a way out … and they’ve chosen not to do that, they’ve been given a very clear steer that we will target them.” For many in communities blighted by gang violence, the tough approach will be welcome. And there are already signs that Connect is having an impact in Waltham Forest: the latest figures show that, over the first three months of the project, knife crime fell by 5%, robbery by 13%, and gun crime by 25% compared with last year. But Scotland Yard is under no illusions that a big reduction in London gang violence will be anything other than long and fraught with difficulty. In areas such as Waltham Forest and Haringey, the next stage in Connect’s development, gang-related problems remain rife. Yesterday, another raid carried out in a semi-detached house in Leyton led to the arrest of one person, a 39-year-old Vietnamese man, on suspicion of cultivating cannabis in a factory spread over four rooms in the property. In one room, around 250 cannabis plants lay growing under heat lamps, while extractor fans and mothballs were used to lessen the pungent smell. In another, soil lay in a heap next to a pink dust-pan and brush. According to one estimate, the factory had the capacity to bring its owners an income of over £500,000 per year. Although the raid was not part of Connect, it was gang-related: a local officer said they suspected the Vietnamese man was being paid “peanuts” to work for a local street gang. In the area, several gangs have influence, most prominently the Beaumont Crew, which is understood to have several members on the Connect matrix, but also the Boundary Boys and the Drive & Marlow (DM). The officer said that certain features of the factory led him to believe it was being run by “a big gang with a lot of money”. Waltham Forest superintendent Adrian Hutchinson said tackling drug-related criminality was crucial to curbing gang-related violence. “Gangs need money for crime to survive and to grow, and one of the areas they [do that in] is drugs.” Despite the sustained intelligence gathering, some anti-gang work can still be hit and miss: local officers had originally raided the Leyton address expecting to find evidence tying local gang members to the riots. No such items were found. And, while the government is pointing the finger of blame at gangs, officers in the field would prefer to wait and see the evidence before concluding that such a link was justified. “Were there gang members involved [in the riots]? Without a doubt,” said Champion, saying it was “natural” that the riots had refocused attention on gang-busting efforts. “But you have to be very careful because until the actual statistics come out about how much of it was gang-related and how much of it was pure violence, we’re only speculating.” Crime UK riots Gangs Drugs Drugs trade Metropolitan police Communities Police London Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 26, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.