Too young to die, too many every year

Every year a worrying number of young people are killed by other teenagers in the streets of London.

A teenage boy was murdered by a gang outside his school in South London last Friday, July 2.

He was ambushed and stabbed in the chest shortly before starting his morning lessons; by 9 am the 15 year-old boy was dead.

The youngster was the thirteenth teenager to be murdered in London in 2010, against a total number of fourteen youths killed in 2009 and thirty murdered in 2008.

Even though the Mayor of London has moved more and more officers from back-office functions to streets in order to increase stop and search since 2008, it is currently hard to tackle the violent culture that has taken years and years to develop in the city.

Most of these crimes take place in central and North-East London. The victims are generally male, aged 14-18 and come from different areas of the city; also varied is their ethnic origin. Stabbing prevails over gunning down and the culprits generally fall within the same age group of their victims.

The only good news is that there are arrests and convictions in almost every case, but such achievements do not lower the number of deaths, that is already a terrible tragedy every year.

Countless are the thoughts and comments of the Mayor, Met Police, teachers and social workers over the necessity to concentrate on the pre-emptive side of tackling violent youth crime.

Some of these tragedies are purely accidental, aroused by a misunderstanding between or among young strangers in a public place or caused by attempted theft or stealing. News often report planned attacks where victims and culprits belong to rival gangs.

Any scenario is different but equally alarming, as most of these young killers do not seem to be worried about police, conviction and prison.
Violence and revenge prevail on the fear of being punished while teenagers behave as they had nothing to lose and this is the most concerning side of the problem.