STOP THE SENSELESS VIOLENCE!
The murder of Paul Erhahon was a death foretold. Shortly before the 14-yearold was stabbed through the heart with a sword near his home in Leytonstone, a police sergeant told a meeting of community workers and residents that the rise of gang culture would lead to tragedy.
Now the killing has given new urgency to efforts to stop an ongoing war between two teenage gangs who have turned a pretty London park into a battlefield. A nascent project aimed at bringing peace to the area is at a crucial stage. Backed by the first detailed research into the teenage population, volunteers want to create a new centre around which young people can come together and abandon factional warfare.	The Cathall Estate Bois come from the E11 side of the park, and have adopted the postcode as an alternative name. The Thatched House Tugs live on the other side, in E15. The postcodes feature in graffiti all over this part of Leytonstone and serve as identity tags for groups who feel anyone outside is the enemy. South Leytonstone is on the fringe of massive redevelopment around the Olympics site. The area has received huge government grants and the Cathall estate has been rebuilt. Tower blocks have been demolished and lowrise flats and family homes put in their place. Streets of terraced homes have been transformed and large Victorian houses sell for more than £400,000. But the scourge of street crime continues
Langthorne Park, close to where Paul was murdered on Good Friday, is claimed as exclusive territory by a group who call themselves the Cathall Estate Bois (boys). They deny access to the park, one of the few open air facilities in south Leytonstone, to a group they see as their rivals, the Thatched House Tugs (thugs). Paul Erhahon lived in the Thatched House area - named after a pub - but his family deny he was part of a gang. The conflict has led to numerous beatings and non-fatal stabbings. It is brutal and apparently meaningless, except to the young people who are forced to take one side or another. That may not be a matter of choice.	After his murder, Paul's friends said rival gangs saw this lyric as a threat. One message, posted among tributes - and swiftly removed - read: "You have reaped what you have sowed, bruvva." But the dead boy's family say he was never involved in violence. His parents moved from Nigeria to "get a better life", as his mother Ivy put it. Many families are in the same position and dread their children being drawn into gang culture. The feeling that it was leading to an explosion of violence - and the warning of the neighbourhood police sergeant - prompted a group of volunteers to act.
In the past three months the neighbourhood police team has made dozens of arrests for violence and robbery. Over a two-month period 225 phone calls to 999 were made from a cluster of streets on the Cathall estate. A 13-year-old was arrested recently for carrying a gun. According to Shatta, most boys and a significant number of girls are in a gang by the age of 12. They gather in McDonald's and cyber cafes where YouTube and MySpace are dominant influences. Paul Erhahon appeared on a three-minute video on both sites, rapping with a group called Funeral Soldiers. Under the name Hell Reiser, his lyrics included the line: "Funeral Soldiers, that's my team. Roll with us or get rolled over. Out of my head before you get merkered E15, bang, bang." Merkered is street slang for murdered.	With a £5,000 grant from Waltham Forest Council, they carried out the first detailed survey of young people in south Leytonstone. More than 100 teenagers were interviewed. But Jane Brueseke, chair of the Cathall Community Safety Group, said: "You have young people from all ethnic backgrounds in the gangs. It's about territory, not race. There is a cycle of violence that has to be broken." Ms Brueseke and her group want to create a youth centre for south Leytonstone's teenagers because, she said, there is nothing for them. The plan is to offer activities that could provide a social focus; a talent competition has been suggested and, almost immediately, there was a flood of applications. Plans are at an early stage, but there is a growing feeling among south Leytonstone's population that doing nothing is not an option. This year, Waltham Forest Council will consider further funding for the youth project. Given the sorrow and anger prompted by Paul Erhahon's death, it is unlikely to say no.
Are gangs wrecking your neighbourhood? Are you intimdated by gangs? What should be done to discourage gang behaviour?	More.... Priest who comforted relatives hits out at lack of police Mother jokes as son, 13, is accused of sword murder Blair calls on black communities to denounce gang violence Have your say on our messageboard

Kano Rapper "I was raised by a single mother. I know that not having a father affects many people in a deep way. All young people, black or otherwise, need role models. And it's true that black people have fewer role models than most. That's why I want to be one: I know I'm a positive person with a lot to offer.

But politicians who blame everything on family breakdown miss the real point: broken homes will generally only breed criminals if they're poor. This is about young people and poverty, not about colour. Except for a few, black people raised in the UK are not raised by rich families.The children themselves have to raise cash, and from an early age. Of course some of them will be forced into crime.Talking about it in terms of race only entrenches the feeling of difference and opposition amongst communities. If we talk about black people as being particularly predisposed to crime, suddenly everyone becomes afraid of black people. As a result, black people feel victimised. It all gives rise to a kind of 'they don't care about us' feeling within society."

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the London Assembly Tories’ disgraceful attempt to thwart the Mayor of London’s budget was unsuccessful on Wednesday. Mayor Ken Livingstone, (pictured above centre) was joined by Jennette Arnold, Waltham Forest’s London Assembly Member (pictured directly to Ken’s left), members of the South Eastern TUC, students and young people from all over the capital, to protest at the London Assembly Tories’ threat to the Mayor’s free travel for Under-18s scheme.

Save Leyton Kids’ Free Travel! Fight the Tory Cuts!

I just couldn’t resist posting this photo Last time I checked, George Bush wasn’t running the Waltham Forest PCT but hey…. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, a demo just wouldn’t be a demo without Socialist Worker

From Whipps Cross to Westminster!

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