Recruiting for Code 7's Lambeth School Patrols

Lambeth struggles with increasing rates of youth violence. Last summer a series of after school fights took place that were serious and could have resulted in serious injury or worse. Possession of a knives by school children is rising as young children try and protect themselves from attack.

In response local charity Code Seven, held three community consultation meetings and as a result of community demand, Lambeth School Patrols was born.

We believe in self help and and are now ready to recruit people to its school patrols. We will offer training and a support package to volunteers. Please help us help ourselves and lets show London that black people are capable of taking action against violence.

Please share and attend. Book now on https://Ispcode7.eventbrite.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE: PARENTS OF TRAYVON MARTIN TO ADDRESS A PUBLIC MEETING & VIGIL IN LONDON ON FRIDAY 11TH OF MAY

Click here for FaceBook event page

Parents of murdered black teenager Trayvon Martin to address public meeting and vigil in London tomorrow

The parents of the murdered US African American boy Trayvon Martin, Tracy Martin & Sybrina Fulton will speak tomorrow, Friday 11th of May at a public meeting and vigil  (details of both events below).

The Trayvon Martin family issued the following statement:

"We are humbled by the support we have received from the people in London and around the world. The struggle of people like Doreen Lawrence in Britain, who invited us here and whom we met yesterday, shows us that as in the USA, there is a problem of racial profiling in society and amongst institutions. We would like to work with people here in London and around the world to help end the scourge of racial injustice across the globe."

Zita Holbourne, National Co-Chair Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK said:

"We are delighted to be able to host this meeting and like many people throughout the world we are both  angered and saddened at the news of Trayvon Martin's murder. This meeting will offer the opportunity for people to hear first hand what happened to the Trayvon Martin family and offer support and solidarity to them and for us to discuss how we can work together in order to tackle racial injustice globally."

Lee Jasper, National Co-Chair Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK said,

"In the run up to the Olympics we intend to work with others to highlight racism here in Britain and throughout the world. The case of Trayvon Martin echoes cases that span decades and continents. Global racism is on the rise and as the economic crisis worsens we must be organise against those who seek to whip up racism and scapegoat black communities. This meeting will be the start of that international campaign to expose racism in Britain and the rest of the world. All over the world the 99% are saying without justice there can be no peace" 

Sabby Dhalu, Unite Against Fascism Joint Secretary and One Society Many Cultures Secretary said:

"We are delighted to welcome the Martin family and show solidarity with both the family and the anti-racist movement in the USA. The struggle against racism is an international one. There are many similarities with the Trayvon Martin case, the injustice experienced by Stephen Lawrence's family and many other victims of racist attacks and murders here in Britain. We welcome the opportunity to work with the family and partners in the USA, in building an international movement against racism." 

Event details

Friday 11 May

1. 3-5pm: Public meeting at the University of London Union, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London 

Chair: Zita Holbourne PCS executive member and Co Chair of Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts (BARAC)

Speakers: Trayvon Martin family representatives and  activists Lee Jasper, Stafford Scott, Carole Duggan  (Duggan Family Campaign) Simon Woolley (Operation Black Vote) Michael Abatan (Justice for Jay Campaign), Michael Kennedy (Campaign for Justice) Kanja Sesay National Union of Students (NUS) Black Students Officer, Aaron Kiely (NUS Black Students Campaign) , Weyman Bennett and Sabby Dhalu (Unite Against Fascism), Denis Fernando (One Society Many Cultures) and  more British based activists tbc

Organised by BARAC and supported by Unite Against Fascism, One Society Many Cultures in conjunction with Million Hoodies Movement in the USA.  

For more information for this event contact

Zita Holbourne 07711 861660

Lee Jasper    07984 181797

2. 6pm: Vigil, Downing Street, London

Chair: Denis Fernando, One Society Many Cultures

Speakers will include: those listed above and many more special guests tbc

Organised by: Unite Against Fascism and One Society Many Cultures, supported by BARAC, in conjunction with Million Hoodies Movement USA. 

For more information about this event contact

Sabby Dhalu 07794 633 097

Denis Fernando 07790022472

Weyman Bennett 07734 032 314

For Kingsley Burrell, Smiley Culture and Demetre Fraser

Left to right: Kingsley Burrell, Demetre Fraser, Smiley Culture. R.I.P.

The Black community’s history as a people both in here the UK and the wider world can be viewed as a series of on going struggles for equality and freedom. That history is punctuated with critical moments that represent significant and important milestones in our fight for justice and equality.
The ending of slavery, the right to vote, the campaigns for the independence of former British colonies, the civil rights struggle, the ending of the colour bar, the murder of Stephen Lawrence all represent such key moments.

Of late over the last decade marching lost its meaning and with the Public inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence many Black activists simply laid down their banners and placards assuming that racism was defeated they went back to their home and families.

In 2011 the tragedy surrounding the deaths of three Black men in close succession, Smiley Culture, Kingsley Burrell and Demetre Fraser has reignited the black community’s passion for justice . Battered by the cuts and thousands of black men and women being made redundant, savage cuts to the black voluntary sector has left us dazed but determined to fight back.

Whilst the twin headed hydra of crime and poverty has unleashed a bloody war among our young people.
Despite this there is something moving within the black community, and I have never seen such anger and outrage. Packed public meetings and passionate demands for justice are the canary’s in the coal mine. Largely unnoticed by the mainstream politicians and the press the black community is returning to its campaigning roots. There is a feeling in the air that compels us to march for justice.

Tired of the constant attack on our culture ,exhausted by the state mis-education of our children, desperate to secure our children’s future, against a backdrop of our communities slipping silently into a social abyss as a result of consecutive Governments neglect, we are now awaking from our slumber to take to the streets.
Saturday 2nd July 2011 the city of Birmingham saw unprecedented scenes as the city that is now the black deaths in custody capital of the UK came to a standstill. Over 1000 people gathered from around the country to march in support of the Kingsley Burrell Campaign for Justice. Kingsley died after being forcibly arrested by the West Midlands Police earlier this year.

The march was vibrant and dynamic. We were led by a sound system pumping out revolutionary reggae anthems. There were families with children and a broad range of campaigns representing a number of Asian and white communities who joined the march in solidarity. It was a fatalistic sight made more glorious by the wonderful sunshine and the myriad of red, green and gold banners and flags.

We made our way from Hockley, Kingsley’s family home to the HQ of the West Midlands Police in the centre of town. Half way through the march the Sikh Gudwara on Soho Road in a touching gesture of solidarity provided refreshment to the marchers as we passed their temple.
When the police started to try and kettle our march we immediately sat down and occupied the road determined to stay there until the police backed off. They did so and we continued with our march.
We brought Birmingham came to a complete standstill as we marched and chanted for justice. There were speeches at the HQ of the West Midland Police from all the family campaigns who spoke eloquently and with a searing pain that left and indelible mark on all who heard their testimony.

We committed ourselves to the long hard road to justice recognizing the challenge and the difficulty we were no less inspired. We have had virtually no real press coverage of this hugely successful march the media black out was almost total. But go and look on Facebbok to witness what happened for yourself and what you will see will amaze you.

The Black community now sees itself self in a fight for its very survival. Saturday we marched for justice and tomorrow we march for peace aimed at stopping the madness of youth violence. We march today in order to secure our future.
As the mother of Demetre Fraser told the marchers at the rally,
“I looked at the papers when Kingsley died and I felt for his mother. I put the paper down and decided to do nothing about it. Yesterday its was Kingsley, before that Smiley today it's Demetre and I am that mother. Tomorrow it could be you”

Why are we marching again? Because justice demands it, our history dictates we must, it’s in our political DNA and our future that we do so. The mainstream press and politicians don’t get it but they never do. The marching season is back in fashion and poor black and white communities are taking to the streets demanding justice.

Protestors marching for justice in Birmingham on the 2nd July 2011.

Lee Jasper

(First published at OBV: the home of black politics http://www.obv.org.uk/ )

A Day Of Action Against Violence: Because All Life is Sacred

SACRYD:
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITIES REJECTING YOUTH DESTRUCTION.

 

SACRYD C/O

CAN Mezzanine

49-51 East Road

London

N1 6AH

admin@sacryd.org

www.sacryd.org

                                                                                                                Date: 13/7/11

A Day of Action Against Violence: Because All Life is Sacred

SACYRD is a new campaigning organisation; a social enterprise company with charitable objectives founded in 2010. Our name stands for Strategic Alliance of Communities Rejecting Youth Destruction.

Who we are and what are our aims?

SACRYD is made up of people and organisations from the voluntary, faith and private sectors, including parents, young people, local Government and health organisations, all of whom are committed to tackling violence with a focus on knife, gun and violent crime in our communities.  SACRYD is supported by organisations such as The Black Police Association, The Damilola Taylor Trust, The Peace Alliance, Eastside Academy.

All of those involved in SACRYD recognise the need for a dynamic campaigning advocate self-empowerment organisation that can advocate and champion the need for the urgent adoption of a strategic preventative public health approach to reducing violence.

Put simply a public health approach to violence seeks to treat the problem of violence as a social disease focussing on, prevention, early intervention, public awareness and treatment and rehabilitation.

We are particularly concerned with the escalation of youth violence that we see as stemming from the wider levels of violence prevalent in the UK.

Violent children are often themselves brought up in violent families who tend to live in violent communities. However we believe that you cannot tackle particular aspects of violence, for example youth violence, domestic violence racist violence in isolation from the general incidence of violence in communities.

SACYRD policy position is that we can effectively reduce levels of serious violence through demanding the adoption of a community led, preventative public health policy in poor and disadvantaged communities.

Our primary objectives are to raise the level of awareness, of both politician’s and the wider community of the proven and tangible benefits of adopting a preventive public health approach. In addition to advocating and driving the political empowerment of local disenfranchised communities in taking the lead in owning and responding to the problem of violence.

Black communities feel completely disempowered in the fight against violent crime.

This is a fundamental and critical error of approach. Black communities must take the lead in tackling violence and hold agencies to account.

This requires communities to organise themselves into robust local consortiums that can act as a vehicle and offer a platform for a range of community led interventions. 

Central to the self-empowerment of communities is ethical principled leadership and clarity of objectives. A public health approach recognises the primacy of communities in any sustainable attempt to reduce violence.

A new approach to reducing violence: Public Health

A public health approach to violence prevention seeks to improve the health and safety of all by addressing underlying risk factors that increase the likelihood that poor communities will be more likely to become either victim’s or perpetrator’s of violence.

By definition, public health aims to provide the maximum benefit for the largest number of people. Programmes for the primary prevention of violence based on the public health approach are designed to expose a broad segment of communities to a range of prevention and intervention violence reduction measures. This approach consists of four steps.

• The first step is for communities to take the leadership role with support from statutory agencies in designing and delivering effective intervention programmes.
• The second step is to defining the problem through the systematic collection of publically available information about the magnitude, scope, geography, characteristics and consequences of violence.
• The third step is identifying and prioritising the causes and correlates of violence, the factors that increase or decrease the risk for violence, and the factors that can be modified through a range of interventions.
• The fourth step is identifying what works to prevent violence by implementing widely available, national and international evidence based examples of successful violence reduction strategies.

Statutory failure - community indifference.

For years a broad range of community organisations have sought to convince successive Governments of the need to take urgent preventative action to tackle serious youth violence. The response has been piecemeal, short term and enforcement led.   This is best summarised as the ‘jail, hospital and cemeteries’ approach resulting increased rates of incarceration alongside increased rates of serious youth violence and an increase in the fear of crime.

Black communities themselves have in the past relied too heavily on statutory funding from central and local government. Combined with a general level of ignorance about the true social, psychological, emotional, economic and environmental costs of violence this has led to a dangerous degree of dependency that has created a climate of complacency.

The reality of the situation we face now is one of completely unacceptable levels of violence, increasing fear of crime against a backdrop of statutory indifference characterised by distinct lack of policy creativity and innovation a general failure to eliminate the insidious culture of statutory silo working, alongside poor highly transient poor communities who are deeply disenfranchised disempowered and disinclined to engage.

What we intend to do.

We believe that an enforcement led approach whilst necessary is not of itself a sufficient requirement to sustainably reduce violence in the long term. Prevention, community empowerment, early intervention, rehabilitation and support for vulnerable families are critical components of any effective violence reduction strategies. 

We believe that both local and central government are failing to adequately protect our communities and that black communities have become both alienated and too dependent on a statutory led approach to this issue.

That is why we are calling for a coordinated Day of Action across London.

Our view is that those communities moist affected by violence have to take direct action in the face of such indifference.

We believe that unless we are prepared to take coordinated direct action in the tradition of the non violent civil rights struggle then our calls to help save our children will fall on deaf ears.

Local and central government are closing down many community based early interventions services, crime prevention and diversion programmes, youth clubs and community centres, after school clubs and nurseries, libraries as well as local parks and adventure playgrounds.

Our fear is that as a result things could get much worse as vulnerable young people and the wider community become increasing alienated from society.

Where will the money come from?

Funding will always be a contentious issue but we believe that it is a false economy to be cutting community led interventions services in high crime areas.

Over £120 million pounds is confiscated from criminals each year. In the light of that we believe that Government should now agree that 100% of all locally criminally confiscated assets be returned to local communities enabling them to have the necessary resources to build their capacity to lead on this issue.

This we believe has a number of immediate and obvious benefits.

Ø  This is not taxpayer’s money. Confiscated criminal assets can therefore offer much greater flexibility and innovation in terms of funding criteria and innovation in project delivery. 

Ø  Using these assets for community safety and development projects can begin to attack the false glamorisation of a criminal lifestyle. For example the public auctioning of local dealers prized assets will aid in combating this pernicious culture.

Ø  Opening community centres paid for by these confiscated assets will reinforce public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Ø  Reporting crime will be incentivised if people understand that their local community is likely to benefit in a socially productive way.

Ø  We feel that this is proportionately effective as the more crime an area suffers and the more confiscated asset are seized, the more money they have directly reinvested in community intervention and support projects.

Ø  We believe this will increase trust and confidence in the criminal justice system, develop community capacity to take responsibility for crime in their area, minimise the contribution from the taxpayer and enhance neighbourliness and social cohesion.

That is why we are calling on all communities to participate in a London wide coordinated Day of Action: Because all life is sacred. We are hoping that such a campaign will drive home these issues onto the agenda’s of local, regional and central government and most importantly increase the level of constructive engagement of our own communities.

Our objectives are to demonstrate both our anger and concern at the continued and unacceptable levels of the murder of our young people. To challenge statutory agency failure and community indifference by seeking to facilitate community empowerment and local leadership in delivering a public health approach to reducing violence.

Local communities can take any number of actions designed to highlight the serious of our situation both to the government and the wider public. What will be important is effective coordination and effective media management.

There are four high level objectives for the Day of Action: Because All Life Is Sacred campaign

1. Significantly enhance interest from press and politicians and other key stakeholders in the issue of serious violence.

2. Creatively demonstrate and represent the total volume of deaths suffered by local communities

3. To promote the adoption of a public health community led preventive approach to reducing violence in poor communities.

4. To demand that all confiscated criminal assets are ring fenced and handed over to community organisations to fund community safety projects.

We believe that a Day of Action will attract significant interest from our own community, press and politicians whom to date have paid little more than lip service to this issue. We hope you will join us as we take action to stem the violence.

A planning meeting for this event will take place on Wednesday 20th July 6pm-9pm @ Greater London Authority, 
City Hall, The Queen's Walk, 
London SE1 2AA.

PRESS RELEASE: London communities to take a stand against violence

SACRYD: STRATEGIC ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITIES REJECTING YOUTH DESTRUCTION
	Press Release

LONDON COMMUNITIES TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE

SACRYD, IS PLANNING A COORDINATED DAY OF ACTION AGAINST THE INCREASING VIOLENCE THAT IS IMPACTING UPON COMMUNITIES ACROSS LONDON.

Background

SACYRD is a new campaigning organisation a social enterprise company with charitable objectives founded in 2010. Our name stands for Strategic Alliance of Communities Rejecting Youth Destruction.

SACRYD is made up of people and organisations from the voluntary, faith and private sectors, including parents, young people, local Government and health organisations, all of whom are committed to tackling violence with a focus on knife, gun and violent crime in our communities.  SACRYD is supported by organisations such as The Black Police Association, The Damiola Trust, The Peace Alliance and the famous Eastside Academy.

All of those involved in SACRYD recognise the need for a dynamic campaigning community n organisation that can advocate and champion the need for the urgent adoption of a community led strategic preventative public health approach to reducing violence.  We are campaigning for Government to return the 100% confiscated criminal assets to the community to0 fund anti violence initiatives. Over £120 million is confiscated and that money is sent straight to the Treasury.

Carol Stewart Chairperson of SACRYD said “ Our primary objectives are to raise the level of awareness, of both politician’s and the wider community of the proven and tangible benefits of adopting a preventive public health approach. In addition to advocating and driving the political empowerment of local disenfranchised communities in taking the lead in owning and responding to the problem of violence.

Lee Jasper Secretary of SACRYD stated

“ At a time of increasing austerity confiscated criminal assets should be returned to communities to fund community projects designed to deter and prevent young people becoming seduced into a life of crime. If a crack dealer is running a crack house on an estate we should take his cash and open a community centre. That would inspire confidence  in criminal justice system as well, at a time of cuts to public spending , this cash should fund local initiatives to combat crime.”

He added

“Our objectives are to demonstrate both the level of anger and concern at the continued and unacceptable levels murder and youth violence affecting young people.  We intend to challenge both the failures of statutory agencies and community indifference by seeking to facilitate community empowerment and local leadership in delivering a public health approach to reducing violence. We want a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention not just a focus on enforcement. The balance is not right.

A planning meeting for this event will take place on Wednesday 20th July 6pm-9pm @ Greater London Authority, City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA.

For more information contact Lee Jasper

General Secretary SACRYD 07984 181797

www.sacryd.org

-End-

Deaths in custody: Huge rise in London

The number of people who have died in London after being either detained in police custody or who have had recent contact with the police has increased massively since 2008.

The figures published on the Metropolitan Police Authority web site are staggering. In 2007 the total number of such deaths was 15. But since Boris Johnson became Mayor and Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority Black and Asian deaths in custody has almost doubled to 28.  The figures have remained high each year, and since 1st April this year we have seen five more deaths, indicating that the figures are dramatically increasing.

This huge increase is deeply worrying, given the recent backdrop of police and community tensions in the wake of the suspicious deaths of Smiley Culture aka David Emmanuel and the tragic case of Ian Thompson; it is vital that the problem is tackled as a matter of urgency.

It is surprising that the media has remained entirely silent on this issue despite unprecedented rises. Other than coverage of Ian Tomlinson and David Emmanuel’s cases there has been very little coverage of these issues; this is why we need a public inquiry into all suspicious deaths in custody.

The Metropolitan Police authority and the Mayor should support the call to Government by having a formal debate and voting to support the community demand for an inquiry. 

The Smiley Culture campaign have recently launched a public e-petition  in support of the call for an inquiry that has so far attracted over 1400 signatures including some high profile celebrities.

The huge increase in the number of deaths and the fact that Government is seeking to introduce new changes that will result in further pain and injustice for victim’s families mean the need for reform is now urgent.

The Government has announced that it is to abolish the recently created position of Chief Coroner. This is a disaster for the families of those who find themselves seeking justice after the tragedy of a death in custody.

The Chief Coroner’s office was created as part of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.  This legislation was introduced after significant lobbying by campaign organisations such as Inquest and supported by the families of the bereaved.

The Act established a legal framework for the wholesale reform of the process of judicial inquest.
The post of Chief Coroner was supposed to provide a single senior judicial authority with the power to introduce legal and policy reforms in an area that remains deeply controversial.

As part of the current Public Bodies Bill, a whole range of offices of state are being deleted. During a recent debate in the House of Lords serious concerns were expressed and as a consequence of lobbying 18 posts were saved and were taken out of the bill. Unfortunately the Chief Coroners office was not one of them.

The current Inquest process is not fit for purpose in relation to seeking the truth or delivering justice. The current lengthy legal process is stacked against the victim’s families, it’s both expensive and byzantine in terms of its complex procedural bureaucracy overseen by Coroners - an assortment of individuals with very little training or professional qualifications.

In 2001 an in-depth and fundamental review of the Coroners and deaths certification systems chaired by retired senior civil servant Tom Luce was undertaken as a result of serious issues that emerged in the wake of the Dr Harold Shipman mass murders.

The inquiry concluded that urgent reform was needed to ensure the rights of victims were placed at the centre of the judicial investigative process. The conclusions were damming and the subsequent recommendations led to the introduction of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

The Office of Chief Coroner is central to this legislation providing clear judicial responsibility and accountability for the performance and reform of the Coroners inquest systems.

The inquiry concluded that: “There is a lack of supervisory structures within the coronial service and therefore no leadership, accountability or quality assurance.” Adding:
“There is a lack of clear participation rights for bereaved families, and of standards for their treatment and support. They are largely excluded from the death certification process – they do not have a right, for example, to see the medical certificate of the cause of death. They are not systematically or reliably given information and help concerning autopsy decisions, other processes and inquests. The evidence disclosure arrangements at inquests fall below modern judicial standards of openness, fairness and predictability”.

The need to support efforts to retain this important post is critical and Inquest will be leading efforts to lobby the House of Commons to listen to the concerns expressed by the Lords.

Failing that, Government looks set to abolish the post on the basis of saving money, despite the misery, tragedy and pain caused by the intrinsic injustice that has become institutional.

Against the backdrop of a the huge increases in the number of families who find themselves suffering a death in custody and the growing disproportionate numbers of Black and Asian victims the Mayors Office and the MPA need to take urgent action to support these families and restore public confidence.

Lee  Jasper

https://www.facebook.com/Campaign4Justice4SmileyCulture

(First Published at Operation Black Vote:
The Home of Black Politics http://www.obv.org.uk)

Public Health and Violent Crime: An idea whose time has come

It’s almost three years since I wrote an article on the issue of youth violence for the Guardian newspaper. In July of 2008 I called for the adoption of a public health approach to tackling youth violence and its now five years since I embarked on a campaign to seek to convince Government, stakeholders and anyone else that would listen that this approach would be much more effective method in reducing youth violence.

Since then I have been banging on about this approach meeting after meeting convinced as I am that adopting an multi agency community led interventionist, prevention, education and enforcement public health approach to tackling violent crime was the only effective way forward.

In my original article I cited the injury surveillance projects based at Accident and Emergency units in Wales and Scotland as clear successful examples where a public health approach worked.

So it is with some sadness (given the number of deaths and injuries that have occurred in the last three years) tinged with relief that I read today in the Independent that the example cited by me three years ago is now to be rolled out across the country. The tragedy is that many lives could have been saved if this approach was adopted earlier.

The projected as cited in my original article is information sharing partnership between health services, police, and local government in Cardiff, Wales. Incidence of violence were captured and shared and then informed policing and other strategies to prevent violence based on information collected from patients treated in emergency departments. These were injuries that were not being reported to the police.

At that time I said “Research conducted in three Glasgow hospitals in March 2004 suggests that violent crimes are under-reported by at least 50%, possibly nearer 70%. And 55% of the individuals who came into accident and emergency departments during the period of another recent study stated they would not report their assault to the police. In order to get an accurate assessment of the level of community violence we must start where the action is: at the point of treatment, all violent injuries must be reported to the police. Schools must be champions of the violence-prevention agenda and both must work with community organisations.”

“ Injury surveillance pilot projects started by the government are now being run in Wales and Scotland and early indications are that even at the level of simply capturing and sharing data they are effective in reducing and preventing criminality. The government should build on this success.”

A lots of lives could have been saved had this approach been adopted earlier. Politicians have known about the effectiveness of this approach and yet have been reluctant to implement a public health programmed because of the cost implications. The cost to communities of inaction has left whole communities living with the bitter legacy of serious youth violence.

Thousands of young people are presenting themselves for treatment at hospital A&E departments having been involved in a fight or subject to a violent attack - some of them very serious indeed. The majority, and I choose my words carefully here; do not make complaints to the police.

The official figures on violent crime do not reflect the true extent of level of violence in our communities. The reality as all communities know is that violent crime is much, much worse than the official figures suggest. The data is known but not shared with the public for fear of what might happen if the true extent of violence was to become public knowledge.

This innovative public health approach over a three year period led to a significant reduction in violent injury in Cardiff compared with similar cities in England and Wales.

Information sharing on serious injuries and use were associated with a substantial and significant reduction in hospital admissions related to violence. In Cardiff rates fell from seven to five a month per 100 000 population compared with an increase from five to eight in comparison cities.

Average rate of woundings recorded by the police changed from 54 to 82 a month per 100 000 population in Cardiff compared with an increase from 54 to 114 in comparison cities There was a significant increase in less serious assaults recorded by the police, from 15 to 20 a month per 100 000 population in Cardiff

Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the Cardiff Violence Prevention Programme, said:

“All this work was built on the shock finding 15 years ago that all violent incidents are not known to the police, mainly because they aren’t reported.

“Even serious injuries, which lead to hospital admissions, such as knife wounds and even shootings in the US aren’t picked up on by the police.

“We’re recording, in A&E, where the violence takes place – the name of the nightclub or the street and where in the street; the name of the park or the school – what type of weapon was involved and the day and time it happened. This information, collected by the A&E receptionist once anonymised, can be shared with the police and is key to targeted prevention.”

The scheme in Cardiff has been developed over the past 15 years and is dependent on the partnerships between the lo0cal communities, the police, NHS and local council.

Prof Shepherd speaking to Walesonline said:

“This is very practical, straightforward and doable but it will only translate to other areas if it is well managed and it needs the local A&E consultant to get hold of it and work with the local police.
“It hasn’t always been easy setting this up but we now have these partnerships throughout Wales and several hospitals are doing this. The UK coalition Government is also committed to making hospitals share information for the purpose of violence reduction.”

A recent evaluation by the British Medical Journal found “information sharing and use were associated with a substantial and significant reduction in hospital admissions related to violence”.

The study added: “Our findings suggest that communities can achieve substantial reductions in the public health burden of violence through organised data driven partnerships between health, law enforcement agencies, and local government.

“The intervention was associated with an estimated 42% fewer woundings recorded by the police relative to comparison cities four years after implementation.”

Alexander Butchart, of the World Health Organisation (WHO), leading a global campaign on encouraging nations to adopt the public health approach to tackling violence said:
“In light of its large effect on preventing violence, this model will hopefully be emulated by other cities in developing and developed countries.”

Prof Shepherd added: “It’s particularly encouraging WHO has said it wants this model reproduced around the world.
“Because this is such a low-tech idea it means it can be done in those countries where violence levels are very much higher than here but police resources are limited.

Lets hope there is no further delay in implementing this approach by Government and local authorities. Every day loss comes at the enormous cost and personal tragedy to many communities whose lives are blighted with violence.

Lee Jasper





(First published at OBV: The Home of Black Politics http://www.obv.org.uk)