Our friends brought their two year old son round to play with our little boy, yesterday. It was a beautiful summer day: the sun warm and bright. The lawn was newly mown, and the flowers in tubs and pots around our decking were looking lovely.
We played in the garden, and ate lunch together round the table. Then we dads took the boys out in their buggies for a walk in the sunshine, and to get them off to sleep for afternoon naps.
Unusually, as we walked along the road, there was a crowd at the end of our street. Two crowds – girls on one side of the road, boys on the other. And police tape. Police cars. Photographers.
As we approached the scene, a feeling of tension in the air. My friend ventured a guess before we got close enough to see anything more of the scene that lay around the corner. He had seen the the blue and white police tape strung across the road, and flapping in the breeze. “Do you think it’s another stabbing?”.
Forensic officers in white paper suits moved quickly back and forth, behind a cordon of police officers, who were diverting traffic and answering enquiries from concerned pedestrians.
The story unfolded on the television knews later that day. At around 2am on Sunday morning, 16 year old Ben Kinsella became the 17th teenager murdered in London’s streets this year [murder of teenager Ben Kinsella]. He’d been stabbed following a fight at a local bar and nightspot, popular with young people from across the area.
Reports today say that Ben may not even have been involved in the argument in the bar, but that he had been chased by a group of youths after running away from potential trouble.
Last year (2007), 27 teenagers were killed on London’s streets. 18 were stabbed to death, 8 were shot and one was beaten. This unprecedented level of violence prompted calls for new measures to deal with London’s teenage gang, knife and gun crime problem. But the trend has continued into 2008 [London's teenage murder victims 2008].
The victims of this year’s tally have been between 14 and 19 years of age. Despite police and media focus on teenage knife crime, in most cases it appears that their assailants have been older than their victims. At least three involved assailants in their twenties, and one a 45 year old man. This may be more about a rise in cases of fatal violence against teenagers, rather than an increase in teenage violence [questions asked over teen murders].
The issue has been sensationalised by a media eager to exploit public fears [the truth about street weapons].
But that won’t be any comfort to the 17 families who have lost a son or daughter to violence in London in the year so far, or to the others who will inevitably suffer similar loss as the year goes on.
My eldest son is 15. Just a year younger than Ben. How much should I be concerned for him? Or for his sister (now 13) and baby brother (2)? Can we let our hearts go out to the families affected by this violence, yet accept it, assuming that statistically it is unlikely to happen to our own?
