The “three Rs” – revenue, respect and revenge – are the main causes of gang-fuelled violence, according to a senior West Midlands Police officer.
Superintendent Peter O’Neill also said a mythology had grown up around notorious street gangs in Birmingham which could resort to violence at the most trivial of slights.
His views were included in a report from an influential panel of experts including Cherie Blair, wife of the former Prime Minister.
Channel Four’s Street Weapons Commission, chaired by Ms Blair, launched its report in a one-hour programme following visits to five UK cities worst affected by gun and knife attacks, including Birmingham.
The body made a number of recommendations including imitating Scotland by creating a Violence Reduction Unit to co-ordinate efforts to reduce street attacks.
It backed proposals to house young offenders in secure “academies”, with access to education and health care, instead of mainstream prisons.
In an executive summary to the report, the panel of experts – who also visited Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Manchester – warned both victims and perpetrators of “weaponised street violence” are getting younger and the number of children carrying knives is increasing.
“Both these trends are deeply troubling and if not addressed now will guarantee ever more tragedy in the future and an escalating social problem. This report represents a call to action. If we don’t act – now – then the implications are serious for our future individual safety, community wellbeing and our society.
“Therefore we believe tackling gun and knife crime should be an urgent national priority for everyone from the Government downwards. It needs co-ordinated and strategic leadership from the centre, effective enforcement to help reduce the attraction of knife and gang culture and effective intervention and youth services on the ground to divert those young people most at risk.”
The report highlights Supt O’Neill’s research into gangs in Northern Ireland and how it had helped West Midlands Police understand what motivates street violence.
“Superintendent Peter O’Neill of the West Midlands police borrowed techniques used in Northern Ireland to tackle violence between gangs,” says the report. “He sums up the main reasons for conflict as the ‘three Rs’: revenue, respect and revenge. Revenue from drugs or other crime; respect – a huge issue, particularly for young black males, where deadly wars can break out over the most trivial slight; and revenge, tit-for-tat attacks stretching so far back it is impossible to establish the original cause.
"The two Birmingham gangs – the Burger Bar Boys and the Johnson Crew – are nowhere near as entrenched or territorial as their US counterparts, but the mythology around them, and kudos of membership is difficult to dispel.”
The Commission examined statistics from the West Midlands that show violent crime rose fairly continuously between 2003 and 2007.
The region is experiencing the most significant increase in firearm offending of all the cities examined and wounding offences have shown a significant increase between 2002 and 2007.
Firearms offences were falling until 2006 but figures for 2007 show they are on the up again.
During its Birmingham visit, the investigating panel, which included former West Midlands Chief Constable Lord Geoffrey Dear, heard from a mother whose son died after being stabbed in the street.
Ann Oakes-Odger blamed video games that glorify gangs and soap operas with violent storylines for leading young people into crime. Ms Oakes-Odger’s 27-year-old son Westley bled to death on a street in Colchester, Essex, after being stabbed in the neck while drawing money from a cashpoint.
She warned: “We have a responsibility as adults to protect our children and the information that is input into them. If we can’t tone down the information they are receiving, we must give them the balance of information. We can’t allow them to live in a twilight world of reality and non-reality.”
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* The Commission found most people who carry a knife said they do so because it makes them feel safer
* It warned “a thousand small victories” are needed to reduce street violence, and called on police and the Home Office to gather comprehensive data on knife crime – including among under-16s
* Casualty departments must provide similar data, said the Commission, and schools must keep the government informed of pupils who have been excluded
* Currently, official figures provide an incomplete picture and conflict with the findings of the annual British Crime Survey, which is based on a poll of the population rather than police statistics
* The report said the public should be able to access full data on gun and knife crime, as well as details of the punishment meted out in each case
