Summary
TODAY the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, has met senior detectives to discuss the most recent south London shooting, of Billy Cox, a mixed-race teenager in Clapham last night. It is the third such killing in the area in a fortnight, and a matter for Operation Trident, which deals with gun crime in the black community.
Sir Ian's response has been the right one - he has ordered a "huge show of force" in south London, with armed officers in vehicles, and extra police on the streets. He has also established a specialist task force to tackle gun culture and petitioned the Home Secretary, John Reid, to tighten the gun laws. As we report today, gangs are, increasingly, grooming boys and girls to act as their gun runners - because the five-year mandatory sentences for adults who carry guns is not applicable to anyone under 21. That loophole increasingly looks anomalous, and Mr Reid has promised to review the matter.See the full content of this document
Extract
Deadly Cost of the Gun Culture
But, of course, policing is only part of the solution.
The social malaise that drives young black and mixed race boys to ta...See the full content of this document
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