Thursday 29 March 6252
(2012)
While it is clear that
we must all feel sympathy for the “innocent” victims of criminal
activity, it is also necessary for us to examine the conditions that
produce criminals. Some may and do say that young people that become
involved with criminal activity have only themselves to blame and on
the face of it this seems to be a reasonable evaluation of the
situation. However for those of us that grew up on these streets, it
is all too clear to us that, “there, but for the grace of Jah, go
I”.
Our life experiences
shape us. We carry baggage, some our own and far too much which is
generational. Those who seem to have escaped their families past,
will have little sympathy for these words of mine. They will instead
continue to point fingers at the young lost souls in our communities
and brand them thugs and call for them to be locked away. Yet, it
seems to many of us that this same gusto is lacking when the
criminals are rich, powerful and/or famous. There is also a very
clear racial element still present in the general evaluation. This
week we have seen three young Afrikans rightly punished for an armed
robbery which left a young girl, Thusha Kamaleswaran aged 5,
paralysed. The young men, Nathaniel Grant, 21, resident in
Camberwell, Kazeem Kolawole, 19, from Kennington and Anthony McCalla,
20, from Streatham, apparently linked to a gang known as OS/GAS (Guns
and Shanks) were allegedly looking for members of a rival gang ABM
(All 'Bout Money) in a shop last March when they began firing their
guns resulting in the young girl being shot in the chest. This is and
must be seen as a callous act. However, the questions that have
reverberated in our communities since the early eighties still remain
unanswered. How, are these guns getting into, the hands of children
in, our communities? How come the police that seem to have such
wonderful intelligence regarding the activities of foolish children
on our housing estates, though not wonderful enough to stop them from
killing each other, can not stop the guns and drugs from arriving on
these same estates?
Crossing the pond for a
moment. This week we have seen the outrage brought about by the fact
that a young Afrikan male Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed by a
“neighbourhood watchman” (vigilante), who felt that the young man
was acting suspiciously (sound familiar), whilst wearing a “hoodie”.
For this reason he shot and killed this young man. He has escaped
incarceration, because Miami laws uphold his right to fire his weapon
in self defence. It has been widely reported that Trayvon had gone to
the shop and was returning home, when confronted. Whatever happened
next, the ultimate outcome was another Afrikan male dead and no one
culpable.
One year on from the
deaths of David Emanuel (Smiley Culture), Kingsley Burrell, Mark
Duggan the various Afrikans communities which reside in Britain are
again left awaiting answers.
In my opinion, we now
need to change our MO (modus operand um). The victimised do not need
to continue to be victims.
The powers that be know
exactly how we are going to react to any given situation, let's face
it they have been studying us for over five hundred years. As a
matter of fact they instigated the training programme which has
culminated in the type of people that most of us are. They know that
we are not proactive, they have conditioned us to be reactive. Induce
us with the correct stimuli and we will hop up and down, making all
the right revolutionary noises, “No Justice, No Peace!”
Nevertheless, once we have shouted, sung, cursed, accused etc. they
also know that we will return to doing what we do best, singing,
dancing, drinking, cursing and treating each other, as badly, if not
worse than the people we have accused of disrespecting us.
This is a very sad
state of affairs, which is in urgent need of repair. Do we have what
it takes to carry out the intricate surgery that will make us well
again?
Ras Kwadwo
SOST
