Part three of our ongoing interview with Lisa aka DJ Sweet Li from anti youth violence campaign Let The Youth Live.
Here she gives her personal perspectives on the accuracy of media and government reporting and also her thoughts on some of the causes and issues fuelling UK knife crime.
(My comments are in brackets. Jeth)
(Jeth You've said that you and many others , myself included, perceive from local viewpoints that knife culture and knife crime are far worse than depicted in the "MSM" - what, from your vantage point, do you think are the factors specifically driving it to these levels?)
Lisa) I had a conversation recently on our Let The Youth Live Podcast with a guy I know “GD” regarding media narrative control. I asked him why don't we see the whole picture on the mainstream news and also his opinion on the the reliability of statistics .
He broke this down very clearly for me how this is possible and this was something I wasn't aware of previously.
He explained that the government control the media narrative , they do this by placing D-Notices, recommendations to editors regarding various cases i.e.: gang related crimes.
This forms part of a narrative control process which stops editorial teams from reporting on particular cases which also means they can't be published.
This is particularly helpful if the government want to for example : make things look like there’s has been an increase/decrease in crime/ knife crime in certain areas. .
To do this the cases which have existing D-Notices on them would be lifted to appear that the crime rate has increased and the opposite being done for crime rates to look like things are improving eg: less knife crime.
I’m sure that most of us know about incidences within our own communities or elsewhere that have happened but are not mentioned on the main stream news or even local papers .
(Jeth: As a member of the public, I can understand the need for a press black out in the case of an ongoing investigation if there were a belief that publicising information of the investigation might hinder it in some way. Interestingly, this scenario is commonly seen in films where drama ensues as an unscrupulous reporter publishes details to the frustration of the protagonist police characters…
I believe that D-notices were rebranded quite a few years ago and are now called “DSMA - Notice”: https://wikispooks.com/wiki/DSMA-Notice
You'll see that they're associated with national security issues, so if this specific method were used for high volume localised crime reports - I'm not sure that would work, as these notices "appear" to have to be recorded too.
It is possible however, that "relationships" in exchange for favourable access are very much in place with editorial teams and would imagine that it's as easy and mundane as that.
In our town, I’ve heard a belief that the editor of a local media source is alleged to own properties in the area and suppresses local crime stories to boost the value of their own property portfolio! Politics, targets and local money agendas etc might be a good place to start. )
Lisa : While speaking to GD on my podcast he said the public have a desire/need to know , do you think what the government are doing here serves the interest of the public ?
This is why for a more accurate picture of what's actually going on across the UK a person would need to look to freelance journalist reporting not editorial teams/ main stream news.
With regards to the actual increased levels of knife crime & crime I believe that poverty , street culture glamorisation , the war on drugs, the way the system has been set up, social media are some of the reasons for the increasing levels of knife crime and crime.
(Jeth: Understanding our environment and it’s potential risks to us is a key component of personal safety, you mention several reasons for the increasing levels of knife crime and crime. Please could you expand on this?)
Poverty
Lisa: Poverty is a social problem which is affecting us across the UK we could do with a nationwide initiative to tackle the injustices & inequality that come with it. Government austerity & neglect of our poorest communities will always lead to an increase in crime. There is 80% more violent crime in these areas along with a lower life expectancy, People there, are more exposed to violence , drugs & weapons, grooming, gangs, county lines, domestic & sexual crime, a higher rate of school exclusions, imprisonment , alcoholism, inadequate housing, homelessness, no jobs or training opportunities & hunger.
Respect and money
It seems the bigger the poverty gap between rich & poor the higher crime rate. Violence has become normalised & used to gain respect & money.
People here are more likely to be forced into some type of criminal activity to survive. Their perception seeing no other way to solve financial problems other than using force & violent crime to get large quantities of cash or goods.
Promoted by media companies
The glamorisation of street culture in our society is adding to our issues not helping deal with them .
This narrative is being promoted in the music, social media, the main stream radio stations , TV, record labels , big online platforms all pushing the same agenda encouraging, enabling crime and the violence and harm that comes with it.
Normalising and pushing a social acceptance of it.
We as a society need to play a greater role in calling out the entertainment & music industry. There needs to be some kind of quality control.
(Jeth: It's been good to see communities starting to confront local music producers ,Drill etc, for encouraging and making money from street violence while passing themselves off as altruistic like this from Blockcast Podcast)
Lisa: The UK government are attempting to address some of these issues related to online crime and have pushed through legislation aimed to protect society from the harm caused by these platforms . This will regulate them via Ofcom and will be forced to pay 10% of their global income. Unfortunately, there is as yet nothing within this legislation that deals directly with protecting our children from violence .This was confirmed recently by Nadine Dorries MP.
This is highly concerning as throughout our society there is widespread serious violence & psychological trauma coming from being exposed to so much violence. There is so much pain anger hurt and death because of this all, we have to prioritise protecting our youth today.
War on drugs
With regards to the war on drugs ,that has been in effect for the last 50 years, is causing the abuse, exploitation and death of our children.
Its primary focus is on arresting , criminalising & imprisoning people who use &/or supply drugs in order to keep drugs off the street & the youth safe. It claims to protect young people from the threat of drugs but it's doing the opposite and exposing them to more harm & putting our children in danger. Drugs are a health and safety issue and can be managed and the harm reduced but it is not seen as that in this war by the government. It hasn't stopped people taking drugs, young people are being injured or killed as a result of the illegal drug market. It is criminal entrepreneurs that control the drug trade so the supply and production is unregulated and no oversight as to what they're doing instead of it being a government doctor/ licensed seller. This causes drugs of unknown potency cut with dangerous stuff and also, they would be given no health advice/ health warnings so young people would be affected the most here. The fact of drugs being sold to anyone no matter their age as long as they have money.
Unless we look into legalising or decriminalise drugs instead of the war on drugs plight our children will always be on the end of the drugs line in some way shape or form. Continuing to be groomed trafficked exploited and killed.
System design
Our System and the way it has been set up has been designed to get the results it gets .
All the good intentions in the world will not overcome a bad system. We need to rethink every part of our system ,address the root causes not just taking care of a problem but ending it. The aim of every social area should be to push upstream measures (where problems are prevented )rather than reacted to (downstream) once they've occurred which would reduce the probability that problems will happen in the future. We have to fix the systems that cause the problems e.g. Education -school to prisons pipeline, Police- structural & systemic racism, the social care system. This must aim for system change to eliminate injustices as well as assisting those who have suffered them forcing a change within the system. This change starts with a group of people uniting around a common cause...check out a book called Upstream by Dan Heath for a more detailed breakdown on this.
Social media
What we have been seeing over the past few years is an increase in murders over social media. A quarter of violent crimes are started by disputes on line . It is amplifying the perceived humiliations , retaliations, Initially when social media was first introduced no-one had to prove that it was safe for children to use and if it would protect them from violence.
Social media promotes and fuels violence and crime. Parents/carers do know the risks but think it won't happen to their children. Our youth are being exposed to violence on social media especially young men. There's a 10-100% increased risk due to the algorithm of being exposed to excessive violent content on these platforms and nothing in place to protect them . The facts are that these social media companies could be doing more without being asked/forced they can find and remove abuse quickly and stop serious harm from occurring in the first place and sort things right now but they're not .
The youth are using their product , which they've created and they're not taking responsibility for the outcome.
Olly Stephens
Olly Stephens’ murder is a tragic case which highlights how social media can enable murder.
Olly was a 13-year-old boy set up by a girl he knew for two boys she had never even met in person. This was over an online argument on group chat.
After his death the police discovered 69,550 pieces of online evidence 2,000 voice notes of the murderer saying "your gonna die tomorrow" the girl who was setting him up saying how excited she was about it all , videos & photos of knives and what they were going to do to Olly.
His death could have been prevented had there been any kind of intervention. These same companies access accounts when there's a copyright issue in a matter of minutes.
They can stop serious harm just by an adjustment in the algorithms to eradicate or diminish the harms as they're being used to manipulate people's thoughts. why aren't these social media platforms voluntarily protecting our youth when they have the means to do so ?
(Jeth: Someone I know well reported an incident of a man contacting their young daughter via Instagram and asking for photos of her and so on... The parents are on the ball and monitor their kid's phone usage, the incident was reported to the police who took it very seriously.
The man was tracked to another country by the serious crimes squad but couldn't get any further.
The father told me that the officer in charge of the case who'd done an amazing job, had been literally incredulous that when he contacted IG, the company refused to recognise any wrong doing by the user and wouldn't take any action.
The old saying, “you judge a tree by it's fruit” - this is a company that bans someone for speaking against the WEF etc but is, seemingly, perfectly OK with child grooming, the idea that their algorithm is actually an active ingredient in youth violence and pushes further content on them is very interesting).
End of part three
In part four, Lisa will be discussing stop and search, school exclusions and also how you can get actively involved in potentially saving someone’s life through Let The Youth Live’s national campaign.
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That’s all really interesting and illuminating - I feel like I’m understanding a little better what the scale of the problem is and what factors contribute to it getting better or worse.
I have always thought poverty must play a huge role in societal discord, especially where the gap between “rich” and “poor” is evident and significant. Not just because it obviously fuels crime, but also the bigger issue of people’s lives being so shit, and so many needs being unmet. It’s horrifying, really, as the trend is moving towards a whole new tranche of people being unable to afford basics, and any slack in the system being used up.
I feel our thinking is still very much dominated by a Victorian viewpoint of the deserving or undeserving poor, and by a Skinnerian behaviourist view that sees everything through the lens of reward and punishment. Even if it can be clearly demonstrated that such an approach does not produce the “behaviour modification” desired.