Knife crime was rarely out of the headlines in 2018. As incidents in England and Wales have risen to their highest level in eight years, victims, families, young people and politicians, have been calling for solutions to the problem.
For Duwayne Brooks, every new story about another young victim of knife crime is a reminder of his own experience 25 years ago.
Duwayne was 18 when he and his friend Stephen Lawrence were attacked by a group of white youths. Stephen’s murder sent shockwaves through British society, causing seismic changes in policing and the criminal justice system.These shockwaves still resonate today for Duwayne, who has spent the last 25 years coming to terms with the trauma of witnessing Stephen’s fatal stabbing. He has seen the devastating impact that a single stabbing can have on families and communities.
In Stabbed: Britain’s Knife Crime Crisis, Duwayne looks into the rise in knife crime – What is causing young people to pick up knives in greater numbers? Do we understand the impact the violence has? And what can be done to address it?
Beyond the statistics
Roseann Taylor’s only child, Azaan, was attacked in Luton in broad daylight on 22nd March 2018 aged 18. The same age as Stephen and Duwayne. Two days later after the attack, Roseann was told that Azaan was brain dead as a result of hypoxy from blood loss.
She remembers feeling a total lack of control, owing to the fact that her son was a victim of crime.
“Even switching off his machine was witnessed by the police. People could hear outside the curtains. There was no dignity.” she says.
Six months on from Azaan’s death, Roseann is preparing herself for a four to six week trial where five suspects accused of her son’s murder, will appear at the Old Bailey.
Impact on a generation of young people
Azaan’s friends, meanwhile, are coming to terms with their loss. For Azaan’s friends and in other cases that we encountered, the motivating factors cited as triggers to this level of violence often appeared trivial.
Azaan’s friend Jack told us, “it’s never even over anything serious either, it’s like ‘I wanted his push bike’, or ‘I wanted the phone’, or ‘he looked at me funny.’ It’s never worth it.”
Shehan Hettiaratchy, NHS Trust Trauma Lead at St Mary’s Hospital says that young men do not consider the consequences of their actions.
“it hasn’t been an active life choice. They haven’t thought about the risks or the danger. And it comes as a real shock to them.”
Treating young men with life-changing injuries has become part of his daily workload at the Paddington-based hospital. Across the country the number of knife wounds treated by the NHS has gone up by 34% in the last two years.
‘A young boy does not know how to cry out’
Luke, otherwise known as Still Shadey, a 25-year-old rapper and accountant from Croydon, became involved in gangs after he was excluded from school aged 12 because of behavioural issues.
He felt neglected, isolated and misunderstood by his parents and teachers. Luke believes this environment led to him becoming both victim and perpetrator of serious violence. He says that carrying a knife was normalised in the circles in which he mixed.
Luke was 17 when he was stabbed for the first time. On the second occasion he was stabbed three times. He didn’t tell his parents, fearing their response.
“A young boy does not know how to cry out. ‘Mummy?’ ‘Daddy?’ What’s that going to do?”
It took the death of a close friend and another being handed a long prison sentence to shift Luke’s perspective on the toxic lifestyle he had grown accustomed to.
“I was traumatised deeper than I could speak out.”
Luke feels that the glamourised lifestyles of rappers mask deeper insecurities and fear in young people. He has now stopped making trap music that spoke about drugs and violence and started making music that he believes carries a more positive message.
Treating the causes not the symptoms
The Public Health approach adopted by the Scotland’s VRU (Violence Reduction Unit) looks at the underlying causes that lead people to become victims and perpetrators of violence.
As Duwayne discovers in the film, the line between victim and perpetrator is hard to define.
The mentors running the VRU programmes all recognise that traumatic events in their childhoods may have factored in their own violent behaviour.
Callum, who was involved in territorial gangs from an early age admits that everyday he would leave his house not knowing whether he was going to live or die. The tipping point was when he was stabbed nine times outside his front door in front of his young son.
He was admitted to A&E for the seventeenth time that year. It was there that he met the Navigators like Eddie.
Having similar lived experience meant they understood his situation. They gave him the support to leave his chaotic life behind. Crucially, the VRU also provided ongoing employment opportunities.
As project mentor Police Inspector Iain Murray says: “Hurt people, hurt people and you’ve got to create opportunities for them to transform their pain or else they’ll always transmit it.”
Since the VRU was launched a decade ago, Glasgow has shed its notoriety as ‘murder capital of Europe’, halving the rate of murders.
Having fought for victims’ rights for the last 25 years, the idea of rehabilitating perpetrators is conflicting for Duwayne. Especially when meeting families like Pett Roach’s who are still trying to get justice for their loved ones.
A wall of silence
In September 2017, Pett’s son Jude Gayle was ambushed and fatally stabbed on the estate where he was born and raised.Four suspects were tried for his murder and acquitted in March 2018.
Pett, her family and Jude’s partner Rachel feel they have been abandoned since the end of the trial.
They must now wait for the police to find new and compelling evidence in order to launch an appeal.
Pett believes that people may be too afraid to speak. She has been campaigning in her local area in the hope that witnesses might break their silence.
Tony and Doris Poku are also waiting for answers of what happened to their 20 year-old son, Elyon.
Despite arrests, noone has been charged for his murder at a party in North London in September 2018.
Why are witnesses not coming forward?
22-year-old Temi Mwale, a campaigner working with young people on a North London estate believes that part of the problem lies in the erosion of trust between the community and the police.
Increased Stop and Search, she says, is ineffective in deterring young people from carrying knives when their lives are under threat.
She feels that the experience of being repeatedly stopped and searched also traumatises young people and makes them think twice about calling the police with information.
A national issue
As the film reveals, knife violence is an issue whose tentacles has spread into every corner of the country.
There are now more stabbings per capita in the West Midlands than there are in London.
In 2017, 25-year-old James Brindley had been walking home from a drink with friends in Aldridge, when 17-year-old Ammar Kahrod attacked James.
Following a three week trial in January 2018, his parents Mark, Beverley and sister Charlotte, are coming to terms with the shock of losing James.
Mark believes we are all accountable.
“There is no one solution. This is a problem across the whole of society that happens in any community, any town, any village, any city, at anytime and anywhere, to anybody. So everybody needs to take responsibility for what’s under their noses.”
Beverley and Mark have launched a foundation in James’s memory which seeks to provide long-term solutions treat the root causes of youth violence.
For many of those like Temi, who work young people caught up in violence as both perpetrators and victims, treating the symptoms of knife crime with tougher sentences is not the answer.
What is clear from the process of making the documentary is that knife crime – and serious youth violence as a whole – is a highly complex issue to which a holistic approach and long-term commitment is essential. Duwayne discovers that many people, especially some of our young, are living in fear.
Can we make our young people feel safe enough to put down the knives?
Watch Stabbed: Britain’s Knife Crime Crisis on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday 21st March 2019.
