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London LifeYou are in: London > Features > My London > London Life > Teenagers investigate gun & knife crime  Teenagers investigate gun & knife crimeGun and knife crime amongst young people has been constantly in the news throughout 2007, especially in London. A group of young reporters from Headliners - a journalism programme for young people - looks at the problem in the capital by speaking to a teenager, a police officer and two music artists.Interview with Hackney teenager Nyasha, aged 1414-year-old Nyasha lives in Hackney and was recently affected by the death of local teenager Etem Celebi. So how does Nyasha feel about the shooting of someone she went to school with? Despite recent events Nyasha still feels safe in her area; "but it's obviously not safe for other people because, like, he wasn't really supposed to die. But I personally feel safe because I'm a girl." Nyasha says Etem wasn't involved in gangs; and doesn't believe he was targeted by his killers. "Before you'd hear about boys being in a gang and getting shot. But now you hear about anybody being shot, it doesn't really matter." We understand this sentiment as we ourselves could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and be that "anybody" who gets hurt.  Hackney teenager Nyasha According to Nyasha, Etem's death had a major effect on her local community. "The other day they had his memorial service and over 1000 people were there. Even though all the different gangs came, nobody came to fight." We think this shows a great respect for Etem and this is the way forward if young people are to put down their weapons. Research carried out by the Times newspaper has shown that you can buy a regular shotgun from £50 – £200. When we put this to Nyasha she highlighted how affordable firearms can be for some young people; "if you can get a shotgun for £50 you can get that instead of a pair of trainers!" Nyasha thinks it is unfair how gun crime is often seen as a problem amongst young black people "because the way the media are portraying young black people, some black people are going out and thinking well the media is saying were doing that so we might as well do it." These cycles need to be broken so more young people can feel safe. As Nyasha points out "whoever's not involved in gangs at the moment needs to stay uninvolved or it's never gonna stop". As a final message for her peers, Nyasha said "put yourself in that position, whoever you gonna go and stab, imagine them stabbing you." Interview with Steve Tyler, Operation TridentInspector Steve Tyler works for Trident which was set up in the 1990s and is a unit within the Metropolitan Police that deals specifically with gun crime in the black community. Steve explains that there is a special unit for this because "for three out of every four shootings that take place in London, the victim and the perpetrator are from the black community." Advertisements made by Trident have a strong message, such as "A Phone Beats a Gun." The aim of messages like these is to help witnesses come forward with information and prompt people to do something. Steve Tyler also said that the adverts help to reassure people that gun crime is under control. We asked him if he had the power to do anything to get witnesses, what would it be. Steve said he would, "guarantee their safety and make sure they feel safe. That's one of the biggest hindrances of witnesses coming forward; they feel vulnerable by giving evidence. People are too scared to come forward and talk about the things they know, for obvious reasons."  Steve Tyler of Operation Trident Trident seizes money from drug dealers, "this money is then spent on projects based on tackling gun crime and the rest goes back to central government and they decide how the money is spent". Trident doesn't always have control of where this money goes, but we feel more of it should be invested in youth projects that are geared towards steering young people away from gangs and violent crime. Trident has also done work with the east London grime group, Roll Deep. They made a song called Badman on behalf of Trident. It had a huge number of downloads and loads of young people listened to it. But even with this success it doesn't mean young people actually took on the anti-gun crime message of the song. Despite this, we think music is still a good way to get through to gun users. Steve explained that it's important for Trident to use rappers who promote a positive message and help change the culture of being bad to being cool. "Doing this is a big cultural shift but maybe the ball could slowly start rolling. As the message by 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Trying isn't the best message for young people so maybe the recording companies could take responsibility so these people don't get contracts." One of Trident's aims is to target young people before they get to an age where they're getting involved in violent crime by helping them to understand the consequences of gun crime. Steve points out that "the reality of gun crime is nothing like the films or computer games, as one bullet can kill you and you can't decide where that bullet is going to go. But the debate for these schemes is how young do you go to help young people avoid gun crime, and you want young people to be aware but not frightened." We believe it is important to intervene at an early age so young people don't see gangs and violence as a glamorous aspiration. This is what often leads to young people taking each other's lives. Interview with grime artists, Tinnie Tempah and BruzaGrime music is often seen as negative and glamorising gun and knife crime. But not all grime artists are the same. Tinnie Tempah chose to take a stand by releasing the single 'Put the Guns and Knives Down'. So we thought he would be a good person to interview. As young people from similar environments we can relate to him. We caught up with Tinnie Tempah backstage at a youth music event at the Ministry of Sound in London. He was joined by East London grime artist Bruza. What do you think about gun crime in the UK?Tinnie Tempah: It's a fast, fast rising problem. At the end of the day we're products of our environment, so obviously it's what we see and it's what we're around daily. But it's got to a position where it's just ridiculous and something needs to be done. I don't think in terms of law and police enforcement and stuff, the problem lies in the homes. It's more of a social problem.  Bruza, right, with reporter Antonio Bruza: Gun crime seems like the new fashion nowadays, you can't really blame the kids for it. You have to blame a lot of other things like media, what they're seeing, what they're hearing, their friends influencing them. Kids ain't got no heroes that ain't talking about guns and carrying guns. People that are doing law, people that are being doctors, they ain't classed as heroes. They're classed as someone that's being boring but they should be looked up to. People that are doing positive music need to be the heroes. There ain't enough of them right now and gun crime's gonna keep going unless that starts changing. Do you think certain music plays a part, like people from the ends [inner-city] talking about "I'm gonna draw for the nine and catch you?"Bruza: I reckon it does, in a slight way, because people just think it's cool. It shouldn't. People should be stronger and able to make up their own mind but as Tinnie said earlier, you're a product of your environment. It's a shame and it shouldn't be that way but unfortunately it is. Tinnie Tempah: At the end of the day music is a form of entertainment so it's down to the artist what they wanna say. As long as you've been given that platform you really don't have to say anything specific or be a positive role model. Little kids are being deluded by what they're seeing and they're thinking it's all real. To an extent it's contributing to the violence but we have to acknowledge other avenues such as films and stuff which kids have been seeing since they were three. So music isn't the biggest problem, but yeah, definitely it is a problem. What do you think when people say Garage and Grime music promote gun crime?Bruza: Well as I said before gun crime isn't a problem that the kids have caused. How are kids getting guns? Where do they come from? So the problem's a lot deeper than what people actually think. It's not the kids, its bigger things than that. It's a bigger war. There are people giving us guns to kill each other. We've got to stand up and say why are we using these guns to kill our own people?  Tinnie Tempah, right, with reporter Antonio Tinnie Tempah: I don't think Grime music is portraying gun crime. It really all depends on the context and who's saying it as well. Our opinion is that Grime and Garage are somehow contributing to gun crime but it isn't the only factor. Other issues like home life, violent films and peer pressure also contribute to it. What about young people who carry weapons because their scared? Though as young people, who also rap, we do need to take some responsibility. This story was produced by Andrew Dixon, 13, Arran Sinclair, 17, Odaka Olugu, 14, Antonio Akue, 14, Ghizlan Akerbousse, 15, Cherish Shonowo, 15, Jordan Daley, 13, Jamie Criag, 13 and Zainab Asad, 14, from Headliners, a journalism programme for young people aged eight to 19. www.headliners.orgThe ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is not responsible for the content of external websites Help playing audio/video last updated: 07/05/2008 at 12:15 Have Your Say
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