I was having a look at the Sunday Mail’s website last weekend in an attempt to keep in touch with what’s going on in Scotland and I was a little shocked to read this story about a murder in Springburn.
Unfortunately, these things happen in Glasgow. It’s especially terrifying when they happen less than a mile from your old front door, and where my mother still currently lives. Apparently it has come as a result of a dispute between the young Springburn Peg (YSP) and a rival gang. I’ve seen the graffiti all over any vacant wall in the area (usually something daft like ‘fuck the Polis, YSP#1) and also the dodgy types huddling around in big groups but suddenly the problem seems a whole lot more real with a boy of just 19 being axed to death in a planned attack.
If you read on you can see that the boy did not have a very nice life. His mother stabbed his abusive, alcoholic father to death when he was just 10 and he was also involved in a bungled police raid whilst on the way back from visiting relatives in prison at age five. Incidentally, it is worth noting that his mother only got three years for the murder of his father but admittedly no further details of the case were published there. I’m picturing a Trevor and Little Mo from Eastenders type scenario in my head.
How do we stop this from happening though? This culture of violence paints a very sad picture of life in the west of Scotland. Is it a matter of poor education that Scotland, particularly Glasgow, has such a high murder and violent crime rate? How much blame can we place on the council for not giving the kids enough to do? The huge imbalance of the city council’s spending between the affluent areas in the west end in comparison to the likes of Springburn, Shettleston and Govan is very unsettling indeed. Why do we seem to have so many young people in poor areas that don’t give two shits about life to the extent that they’re willing to stab and kill other people?
There are those that would argue that gang related deaths are of little concern to the common punter in Glasgow because you’ve essentially got idiots pursuing and killing other idiots. I walked to work in the city centre and university in the west end from Springburn for years and although I never felt threatened I was always questioned by those who thought it wasn’t a risk worth taking. When stories like this come out it’s not hard to see why.
Are we just hoping that the problem will fix itself? Is that the best solution we can come up with?
March 15, 2009 at 11:40 pm |
coupla months in the world’s safest city and you’ve turned into a wee pussy. shame on you.
Just messin’. Nah you’ve touched on a really key issue here but it’s a catch 22 – what DO you do with people who are going to axe each other? I don’t think its a funding thing, it goes deeper. As you noted its the result of an horrendous upbringing where violence and brutality has been normalized. How about a policy whereby if a child’s parent(s) have shown a tendency for violence or unacceptable behaviour then that child is put up for adoption?
March 18, 2009 at 1:33 pm |
Someone got shot in springburn last night aswell pal
March 19, 2009 at 12:38 am |
I just noticed that on the Record website as well. This one is actually even closer than the last one. The whole thing sounds pretty terrifying.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/03/18/car-chase-man-gunned-down-in-glasgow-gang-hit-86908-21206823/
There aren’t many solutions I can come up with that sound in any way appropriate. If there was such a system where children with parents who had violent/criminal backgrounds were put up for adoption you would need to assume that everyone who is born into a family like that turns out to be a scumbag, and that isn’t always the case.
We’re spending more on educating kids on the ills of violence and crime, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
March 24, 2009 at 6:36 pm |
I know a guy who used to be in a gang in Glasgow – he was telling me how they are pretty hi-tech today and even use websites to tant each other. They have a website (I wont use the actual one) that has an amusing subsection……
http://www.gangname-will.com/anyone
(read it all out aloud)