Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
List of London Gangs - do we figure?
Tags for Forum Posts: gangs
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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What is the purpose of this site? Who put it together? A line from it suggests that the participants see being in gangs as a positive thing,
"gangs on the whole are not a bad thing" and later, "Gangs offer a host of positive aspects..." although they do not elaborate on what they might be. My experience of the Somers Town and other NW3 gangs through my work suggest; low school achievement, fighting and violence often with weapons and quite high levels of criminality. Those children who lived on the estates with them lived in fear of them and later often joined because of that fear.
I note the Turnpike lane gang are mentioned on this site as a recognised gang ,so not just a group hanging round then.
Some will suggest that gangs have always been with us, be it when London was divided by gangs in the 18th/19th century and later groups like Teddy boys etc and that they are just ways for lads (mainly) to hang out together, but with the spate of childrens deaths (and 16 is a child for all their bravado), society must look very hard at the messages they send to boys, through media and advertising, about what it is to masculine and grown up and older men must seek to behave as positive role models and mentors. As Steve Biddulph said in 'Raising boys', the worst thing you can do for a 16 year boy is leave him alone', he is looking for models and ways to be and will find them in the essentially negative worlds of gangs if the generation above choose to ignore his needs.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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16 is old enough to join the army if you want to kill someone (most likely yourself though). I've always thought that Stephen Biddulph was a bit of a pansy. Sorry.
Should we get someone to make us nice green "H" gang patches?
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I prefer the thought of my son being a 'pansy' to parading around with his trousers round his knees and trying to be a little 'tough guy'. In the army you are not sent to the front line at 16, even if you join at that age, so it is not likely you will be killed by an enemy. The 16 year olds I knew were still children even if they towered above me.
In the past it was going to work, mixing with older men in a work environment that taught working class boys how to grow up, maybe it was not perfect but at least, there was the dignity of paid work and often learning a skill and the older men looked out for them. Now working class boys who don't want to carry on studying have nowhere to go to learn to 'grow up' except from older boys who may have got some pretty mixed messages from the men that they look up to; 'gangsters' and 'tough guys'.
The society we have today is peddling overly masculine/feminine stereotypes to our children and demanding they fit into one of them. We have the unhappiest children in Europe, we lock 'em up in prisons or market nonsense and junk to them. We rarely, as a society show that we value them. Maybe we only have ourselves to blame.
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You might not be on the front line but you still have a gun and you put your job down as "soldier" on your census form. I was waving an M16 around aged 14 and loved it. Difference is, I was supervised (and they were not loaded).
I just finished reading Annette's update on her problem neighbours and am quite depressed. I thought I had it tough as a kid but at least my parents cared about what the neighbours thought of me.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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What have these Gangmappers got against Harringay South-West? WRN4RA/NW are the long established outfit in these parts. Our area of influence stops just south of Warham but any more trouble on our borders we may call out our posse in hot pursuit.
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