The capital city of the United Kingdom has been documented as the world’s largest gang capital, and I am going to be talking about the causes of that today, more specifically about a part of it, East London.
A number of street gangs were present in London during the 20th century, many of them being in the East End. Often referred to as mobs, most of the popular gangs went by the names; The Yiddishers, Watney Streeters, Aldgate Mob, Whitechapel Mob, The Italian Mob, Bethnal Green Mob and more .These gangs were known for being the most brutal gangs of that century who from threatening, eventually escalated to committing acts of cold blooded murder.
Before, when people used to hear the word “gang” they would imagine heaps of terrifying men, mafias, drugs, ruthless bosses, however, things have changed since then. Gangs these days mostly consist of rebellious teenagers that mostly partake in gang activities such as knife crime, stealing or selling drugs. Of course, a lot more goes in to being in an actual gang, although this information is based on statistics which shows that the percentages of anti-social behaviour are up to 22.4%, violent crimes are up to 21.9%, theft is up to 10.1%.
Having those statistics in mind, in an earlier life at East London, murder, torture and extortion all featured before the 20th century has even begun. Children as young as 10 could face capital punishment for crimes as petty as thievery. The east side of London really tried to cut down the amount of crime it had, resulting to a lot serving jail time for crimes that wouldn’t even come close to being as bad as murder.
Nonetheless, that did not stop notorious gangs. In the East End alone it was estimated that 1/3 of the population lived below the poverty line and 50% of children born there, died before the age of 5. To survive these horrible conditions, the public had to turn to selling drugs, stabbings, teen killings, rivalries and alliances and many more.
The past has still left some impact on East London gangs, with many of the affected areas still suffering from mobs today (some of them still having the same names throughout all this time).
Currently, knife and gun violence are increasing by huge amounts in East London, with more than 50 deaths already this year making London's murder rate go above New York City’s. As researched by a former gang member, Sheldon Thomas, East London gang members and drug dealers can be as young as 10 years old.
Drugs and gang activity have become a normal and an everyday thing to certain people that live in East London. Additionally, there are a lot of young people that are interested in gang violence because they see it to get quick money and they have the advantage of getting searched less by the police, however, even that has changed nowadays as the rates of stop and search have highly increased.
There are also a lot of rivals between gangs in the East, which is never good for London's rising death rates. The gangs have arguments with fights, stabbings, shootings and death threats to often prove a point or to show everyone who is the strongest from the area that they are based in.
Although some might say that gangs in the olden times were ruthless and committed acts of violence because they simply had nothing to lose, citizens of East London still have to understand that gangs are still very dangerous till this day and that at all costs; you have to be careful.
