Gangland expert claims Birmingham streets are worse than Manchester, London and Liverpool

Sep 15 2008 By Lorne Jackson

AN EXPERT on gangland violence has claimed that Birmingham faces more severe crime problems than London, Liverpool and Manchester.

He also believes that little can be done to improve the situation – because those in power don’t care.

John Heale has researched organised crime for TV documentaries and several hard-hitting publications.

His new book, One Blood - Inside Britain’s New Street Gangs, lifts the lid on organised crime in the UK.

And he told the Sunday Mercury that working on it led him to conclude that Birmingham has major problems that don’t affect other British cities.

“If you look at the make-up of the city of Birmingham, it differs from Manchester, London and Liverpool,” he said.

“One of the major problems that only affects Birmingham is that the poorest areas of the city are bunched close together and sealed off by the Hockley flyover.

“That’s a large amount of people living in hard circumstances, who also happen to be geographically isolated from the rest of the city.

“When it comes to crime in those areas, you have a situation that’s very, very hard to deal with or make any better.”

While writing the book, Heale researched Birmingham’s most notorious gangs, the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew.

He interviewed police officers, community workers and gang members.

Eventually he concluded that the Lozells riots of 2005 were sparked by black members of those gangs believing they were being treated unfairly by the police.

And they were right, he claimed.

“The police gathered a great deal of intelligence about black gangs after the 2003 New Year shootings of teenage victims Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis,” he said.

“Those killings provoked a huge public outcry, forcing the police to really do their homework. Which meant they became much more adept at tackling black gangs.

“Meanwhile, Asian gangsters were getting away with a lot more. A police officer at the time confirmed to me that the black gangsters were right, and that it really was happening.

“However, that’s changed in the last few years, and the crime-fighting is much more even-handed when it comes to ethnic minorities.”

Heale believes that local authorities in the West Midlands have dealt well with the problem of gangland violence.

However, he still doesn’t hold out much hope for an improvement in the situation.

The London-based crime specialist said: “Birmingham in theory has got an awful lot of things right.

“There’s the way that the city authorities have organised and structured themselves to get everyone who is involved in this stuff talking to each other.

“One thing that Birmingham teaches us is that arresting people is only a small part of the equation.

“But I have a few caveats. In cutting the funding for local and voluntary authorities, the Government is essentially robbing young people of their lives.

“These voluntary organisations are absolutely crucial, but they can only do so much without cash.”

Ultimately, Heale has a bleak view of the future of Birmingham’s inner city, concluding that the criminals are here to stay.

Because those in power do not show a genuine willingness to make the necessary changes.

“It’s not totally irreversible,” he said.

“Unfortunately, there’s this mindset that we can achieve short term rapid improvements in fighting crime.

“That’s just not the case.

“It took 20 to 30 years for the situation to come into being and it would really take many years to put it right.

“And the way to do that is through investment and time and money, but most people in Whitehall don’t care about that.

“To be brutally honest, crime is concentrated in specific areas where the people who suffer don’t usually vote.

“Which means there is no reason for the ruling class to care.

“So it looks like the type of criminal behaviour we have got used to is here to stay.”

l One Blood is published by Simon & Schuster: £12.99.

lorne.jackson@sundaymercury.net