If you’re looking for the solution to knife crime and gang violence, I don’t have it. But I am 100% sure it won’t be found by sending me angry DM’s, calling me immature, and whining about my account being ‘extremely biased’ on the matter. You’d be right to say I have not shared my opinion of the tragic murder of Elianne Andam in London. I haven’t. Nor have I shared my opinion on the 14 other teenagers tragically killed in London this year, all of who were boys. I wonder, did you hear the name Chima Osuji, Victor Lee, Leonardo Reid, or Max Wheatley? No. Nor did I. But Elianne Andam is global news, as she should be. It reminds me of what I already knew - for as long as knife crime and gang violence only impacts young black boys, knife crime will fall further and further down the political agenda. Whilst it takes the needless loss of a girl’s life, such as last week, to get us to do what we should have done long ago. Stand up and say: “no more”. Sadly Elianne’s death has already been hijacked by the usual ideologues; each of them using the tragedy as a prop for their own political ends. Once again, the true causes of gang violence – family breakdown, childhood abuse, poverty, lacking education, joblessness, fatherlessness, accessible knives, disenfranchised boys, and a lack of belonging – are forgotten. People have made this about themselves, in the only way they know how, and not about those impacted, or those who continue to be at risk, who we can still save. Some of these people message me to whine about how biased I am, without looking in the mirror at those who are the most biased of all. So can we do better, can we finally have a grown up discussion about gang violence and knife crime? ~ 2023 Knife crime fatalities, London Images by Henry Be, and Kiwi Hug. #knifecrime #london

2023-10-02