What it was, really, was that they just looked totally mad. 50 of them at a time would be hanging out on their estates dressed in state of the art all-weather wear; in brands like North Face and Lowe Alpine, always in black. All of them are aged between 14 and 17, and while I was with them I saw them armed with SA80s – you know the British army assault rifles – and bipod mounted machine guns like from Rambo. And they had IEDs.
[...]
Me or you growing up, we’d chat up a girl in a club, or you’d take her to the movies. These lads aren’t interested in that. They come from crime families, some of their parents are smackheads, so they just want to take and they’re aggressive about it. They’ve got no idea how to chat up a girl, so they’ll just pay for a prostitute – which they’re all into at 15, 16 – or “smash” these poor girls.
Another change has been within the police. They’ve got militarised anti-gang units. The Matrix in Liverpool, Excalibur in Manchester, Territorial Support Groups in London. They’re all ex-squaddies from Iraq and Afghanistan, armed to the teeth.
[...]
I’ve heard it blamed on video games, rap music, rock music, schools, absent dads, benefits, TVs. But the main reason is the extreme form of capitalism in this country. In all the places this is happening – parts of London, Liverpool, Manchester – a ‘black’ criminal economy has grown in tandem with the ‘white’ legal economy. What we’re seeing is the product of 30 years of black economy evolution. Liverpool has one of the biggest drug-dealing cartels in Europe now, if not the world.
Kev Kharas, Vice UK. Interview with Graham Johnson.
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