MAIMING, MAYHEM AND MURDER OF YOUNG BRITISH-GHANAIANS ON THE STREETS OF LONDON, U.K.

Over the past 5 years, several British-Ghanaians have fallen victim to knife and gun crime on the streets of London, United Kingdom. Many more have been maimed. What are the causes of murder and mayhem? The problems are often linked to gang culture, drugs, women or just random killing – a case of being in the wrong place and the wrong time. Black men are being killed at a rate of at least one a week. Some of the cases do not even come to the limelight as the mainstream media are getting desensitised due to the sheer volume of cases. The Central Criminal Courts at the Old Bailey is full of black people – both victims' families and perpetrators. Has society gone wrong? Is it a case of bad parenting, neglect or children getting out of control? Why are our children carrying weapons day and night on the streets of London?

In 2007 at least 52 young people lost their lives to guns and knives. In 2008 this was 49, nothing has changed. No matter how many media attention, tighter gun and knife laws and awareness of this growing phenomenon the number of casualties are increasing.

The most recent victims include Mr. Randy Osei-Boateng, 27, who was shot dead as he sat in a parked car in broad daylight on Monday, May 9, 2011. Detectives believe he was targeted by a lone gunman at around 4.10pm in Lakeside Road, Shepherds Bush, West London. They are keeping an open mind about the motive.

Mr Osei-Boateng, from Leigham Avenue, Streatham Hill, southwest London, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene. It has been reported he was sat in the driver's seat next to his girlfriend at the time of the attack.

The murder is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Trident Unit. Two teenagers aged 17 and 19 were arrested on May 19 and bailed until June in connection with the inquiry.

Detective Inspector Mark Gower said: "This incident happened at a busy time of the day just off the Shepherds Bush Road and there would have been lots of people in the area at the time.”There will be people who witnessed what has happened and we urge you to come forward if you have any information. Trident understands and supports the community and will work closely with witnesses who may have concerns about coming forward."

Mr Osei-Boateng's death came just five days after Adeniyi Lateef Shode, 21, was stabbed to death in Northolt, also in west London, and two days after 15-year-old Temidayo Ogunneye was stabbed to death in south London in an alleged clash between two groups of youths.

On Tuesday, May 10, the family of 15-year-old Negus McLean, of Edmonton, buried the teenager a month after he was stabbed to death in north London.

In the Voice Newspaper of 6 June 2011, the London weekly newspaper, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association (BPA) said, “The London gun and knife crime should be treated like a public health issue.

The paper said nearly one black male loses his life each week.

It went further to say that we see gun crime and other serious violent crimes as a societal problem, jot one just for the black community. It is also dangerous to start pinning it to particular ethnicities or culture.

At one point it was Afro-Caribbean male, now it appears the Africans are the victims.

Suddenly we find ourselves in living in a country where our children are murdering each other. Murder for a cheap mobile phone. Murder to show how hard they are, how deserving of respect. Murder for drug money, for wounded pride. Murder for nothing at all.

The economy may be booming but lives - especially young lives - have never been so pitifully cheap. Suddenly we find ourselves in a land that most of us struggle to recognise. Knife and gun crime brutalises us all. A teenage boy doing no one any harm is fatally stabbed in the stomach on a park bench as he listens to music with friends. It is becoming commonplace. It is becoming old news, God help us.

It is becoming only what we expect our children to do to each other. Murder for a mobile phone - it is part of the British way of doing things. It doesn't matter what the politicians say or how they spin the crime statistics - something in our culture has broken.

If you get mugged or if you get into an argument with some passing stranger or if you ask a group of lads to keep their language down, you run the very real risk of facing someone with a weapon that can kill you.

That fear permeates everything. It coarsens all our lives, it cheapens everything, it makes us afraid to open our mouths. Because we are afraid of being killed for nothing.

This is what has changed - ugly little spats that would once have ended in Accident and Emergency now end in the graveyard. What would once have been a right-hander or a head butt is now a death sentence.

Teenager gunned down on South London Estate

Nana Darko-Frimpong, aged 18 from Kumawu was killed after being gunned down outside a block of flats in South London on 6th June 2011. He was found injured outside flats in Tulse Hill estate, Tulse Hill and died at the scene.

Eye witnesses called police after hearing up to four shots being fired outside Purser House at around 11pm then the sound of a car speeding off. Metropolitan Police Officers are looking into whether the killing was gang-related. He is the third man to be killed in south London in the space of 14 days. The Metropolitan Police's Operation Trident unit, which investigates gun crime in London's black communities, are investigating.

Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Allison said: "We would urge anyone who may have seen or heard anything between the hours of 2130 and 2300, or seen a suspicious vehicle in the area at the time of this murder, to contact us and assist us in this investigation."

Chukka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham, said: "My condolences go out to his family and friends. "This will have rocked them and the wider community on the estate to the core."

The victims of Ghanaian origin include the following:

STEPHEN BOACHIE -17 – stabbed to death on New Year's Day 2007. Stephen was a teenager who had come to Britain 5 years earlier for a better life from Ghana. He was hoping to study at Birmingham University. Killed on New Year's Day

NASS OSAWE, 16 – stabbed to death at Angel Station, Islington on 27 December 2007 http://nass-osawe.gonetoosoon.org/

FREDERICK MOODY-BOATENG, 18, stabbed to death outside his front door in Stockwell on 17 July 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7523317.stm

http://freddy-moody.gonetoosoon.org/

Mary Moody said Frederick was a much-loved son

SYLVESTER SENYAH, 33, stabbed to death on 29 November 2010. His murderer was recently given a life sentence at the Old Bailey. He will serve 14 years.

SOLOMON SARFO, A 34 year old Ghanaian man was stabbed to death in Brixton in February 2011. It was a sad event when his beloved and distraught mother flew from Ghana to bury him at Canvey Island.

On 27th May, 2011 a 14 year old boy was chased at Wood Green by a group of several boys. He was clubbed down and died instantly.

On the same date, 27th May, near Tottenham Police Station in a car part, a 23 year old Ghanaian was stabbed by a Somalian boy and left to bleed to death. Bishop Frimpong-Manson and his family laid the wreath at the site of the incident.

On May 27th another young man of 20 years was trapped in his own home. When his mother returned from a cemetery at the burial of another victim, she found her own son stabbed 17 times in the house. He remains in a coma.

Related videos:

OTHER VICTIMS:

RHYS JONES, 11
Shot dead by hoodie on bike as he walked home from football in Croxteth, Liverpool.

ANDREW HOLLAND, 16
Stabbed to death outside a chip shop in Bolton. A man, 21, was charged.

MICHAEL MORGAN
Schoolboy, 15, stabbed to death in a caravan at Lancing, West Sussex.

ODWAYNE BARNES, 16
Sixteen-year-old was stabbed to death by rival gang member in Birmingham in March.

MICHAEL DOSUNMU, 15
Shot by two men who burst into bedroom in Peckham, London - it was mistaken identity

LEWIS SINGLETON
18-year-old died of stab wounds after attack by gang in Southampton.

SHANE OWOO, 16
Drowned when louts threw him in a pond and threw stones in Bilston, West Mids.

ATIQ REHMAN, 18
Battered to death by a gang at a convenience store in Milton Keynes.

JASON SPENCER, 17
The 17-year-old from Nottingham was found dying from knife wounds in March.

BILLY COX, 15
Shot in his bedroom in Clapham, South London, by gang of rival crack dealers

ZAK DAVIS, 17
Murdered after row with men at flats in Hayling Island, Hants. One man charged

MATTHEW COWELL
The 17-year-old was shot with dad Keith and a friend in Bishops Stortford, Herts.

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTON
The 19-year-old was stabbed to death in Newcastle. A man, 21, has been charged.

Ryan McPHEE, 17
Beaten to death in Morecambe, Lancs, in July. Two men charged with murder.

KODJO YENGA, 16
Stabbed by gang in school uniforms in Hammersmith. Four boys of 13-16 charged

DALE LITTLE, 15
Stabbed to death in car park in Totton, Hants, after row with skateboarders.

ZUZANNA ZOMMER, 14
Stabbed to death at a house in Leeds. A man, 39, has been charged with her murder.

SAMANTHA MADGIN
The 18-year-old was stabbed in Newcastle. Four people have been charged.

JOHN PREECE, 18
Died from head injuries after being clubbed during a pub brawl in Warminster, Wiltshire.

PAUL ERHAHON, 14
Gang stuck sword in chest in Leytonstone, London. During the trial of Paul Erhahon's killers it became clear the attack on him was partly linked to something as seemingly trivial as postcodes - in this case E11 and E15. The Old Bailey jury heard a rivalry existed in estates close to Leytonstone town centre.

Paul Benfield, 16, and Kevin Adu-Marcet, 15 (of Ghanaian origin) were given life detention sentences with a minimum term of 13 years for murder.

Jordan Conn, 15, was also convicted of murder, and was given life with a minimum term of 11 years. Nathan Desnoes, 16, was found guilty of manslaughter and given a detention sentence of 12 years. Theo Diah, 19, was also found guilty of manslaughter and given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of seven years. Sentencing, Mr Justice Keith said: "There is self-evidently a culture among boys of your age to do with the carrying of knives which needs to be changed."

MARK SMITH, 16
Stabbed in neck in Newcastle. Had Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) but was steering clear of trouble when killed

MICHAEL METCALFE
The 19-year-old was stabbed in the heart by gatecrashers at a party in Liverpool.

SAM BROWN, 16
Stabbed to death in Blackpool just before his GCSE's. Two men have been charged.

JEVON HENRY, 18
Stabbed in St John's Wood, London, in June. Asian men were seen fleeing the scene.

DWAYNE DOUGLAS, 18
Stabbed in Tesco car park, Thornton Heath, London. Man of 23 charged with murder

SHANE JACKSON, 15
Knifed just yards from his home in Newcastle. Fell dying at the feet of his mother.

KRISTIE JOHNSON
The 19-year-old, of Rugeley, Staffs, died from multiple stab wounds in an attack.

KAMILAH PENISTON
The 12-year-old was shot by her brother, 17, as he played with a gun in Manchester.

JAMES SMARTT-FORD
15-year-old shot at disco held at ice rink in Streatham, South London, in February.

ADAM REGIS, 16
Stabbed with sword in suspected gang initiation in Plaistow, London. No charges

MARTIN DINNEGAN, 14
Died from knife wounds in Islington as two groups fought. Boy, 15, charged with murder

BEN HITCHCOCK, 16
Stabbed in fight with gatecrashers who invaded a house party in Beckenham

ANNAKA PINTO, 17
Shot in Tottenham pub after GCSE's during row between groups. Man, 21, charged with murder

SIAN SIMPSON, 18
Walked into ambush by 15-strong 'girl gang' in Croydon. Girl, 18, charged with murder

MOHAMMED AHMED, 17
Died in street in east London after being stabbed. Three teenagers seen running away

EDVIN JOHNSON, 19
Stabbed in south east London. Died in hospital from leg wound after being found in stairwell

NATHAN FOSTER, 18
Youth worker shot in Brixton following row about a gold chain. Boy, 17, on murder charge

DEAN LAHLOU, 18
Stabbed on estate in Tottenham on his way home. Boy, 17, facing murder charge

RIZWAN DARBAR, 17
Killed in row over stolen mobile phone. Seen here with his niece

DANIELLE JOHNSON,17
Died from stab wounds after attack in north London. Boy, 17, on attempted murder charge

ABU SHAHIN, 18
Stabbed in July at Ilford, east London. He was attacked for no reason by two men in street

Related articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7232344.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6383933.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7047649.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7859490.stm

“We remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make,
We remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs,

We remember them.
As long as we live, they too shall live,
for they are a part of us, as we remember them.” Anon

By Georgette Dede Djaba, LL.M, Solicitor

The author is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the Founder of Family Resolution Ltd, an organisation providing support and advice for victims of violent crime in the Pan-London area and worldwide. Email: [email protected]