‘By the age of 16, I had been shot at, cut in the face and stabbed in the chest’

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/17/karl-lokko-gang-leader-shot-cut-face-stabbed-chest-south-london

Version 3 of 5.

Until I was about 12 years old my only offence was playing ball games where it said “No ball games allowed”. But that all changed after the first time I witnessed someone being shot on the Myatts Field estate in Brixton, south London where I lived with my family. After firing his gun, the shooter ran towards me and my friends, took off his jumper, put it by one of our makeshift goalposts and told us to keep playing. Processing these sort of events at such a young age was traumatic. Four years on, I was heavily involved in gangs. By the age of 16 I had been shot at, cut on the face and stabbed in the chest, and one of my best friends had been killed, just a couple days before our GCSE exams.

Could faith groups play a crucial role in tackling knife crime?

I had strayed completely off the path my parents had intended for me. Criminal activity was an everyday thing: I would be armed on my way to the local chicken shop with friends. The radical change in my personal identity was alarming even to me. I would sometimes reflect on how far removed I had become from my previous morals. I was extremely fortunate that Pastor Mimi Asher’s son was a close friend of mine; we were part of the same gang. She was desperate for her son to escape the clutches of the gangs. To do so she realised in order for her efforts to be effective she would have to reach his friends too. She opened her home, allowing it to become a sort of informal therapeutic community rehabilitation hub. During this time I was shot at outside her house and the bullet went through her front door. Yet she continued her offensive against what she called our true enemy, the ideology of “gangsterism”. Her counselling and Bible-based intervention work led me to denounce my gang involvement and turn my life around. Through her holistic approach and spiritual teachings I was able to claim back my true identity and strive towards excellence.

Feeling displaced and hopeless causes young men and women to squander their potential on street ambitions

A little more than a decade later, I volunteer at the youth charity, Youth in Action, which runs alongside Pastor Mimi’s church. I offer young people the mentoring and support that she once offered me.

But gang culture isn’t confined to a few bad estates any more. It’s epidemic in and around London, weighing heaviest on those living on council estates. The government has acknowledged that we have a problem. But it needs to mature in its response to surges in youth violence. The textbook approach of increased stop and search and harsher penalties will only address the symptoms of knife crime; it will not solve it. The reduction in youth services budgets by £22m across the capital since 2011 has most definitely been a huge blow to efforts to tackle the problem. Gang culture is a byproduct of the fractures in society; it’s not created by Instagram uploads and UK grime rappers.

More support needs to be given to interventions that have had some success, helping them to have an even greater impact. If Youth in Action had a permanent base that was fit for purpose, its the robust rehabilitation work I received in Pastor Mimi’s council estate house some years ago could be extended to more young men and women in the community.

Being in a gang is an addiction like any other

The mentors have the understanding and insights to make a real impact, but we are caught in a frustrating limbo of being acknowledged as a key player yet not being given a space that will allow us to do what we do best. There are many derelict buildings in the area, but the council tends to sell them to private developers to build residences that most of the community can’t afford to live in. We are told that the planning permission we need to save lives may not be possible. We could potentially help thousands rather than a couple of hundred young people a week.

I am proof that, with the right support, lives can be turned around. We should understand that if anyone is exposed to constant threats and traumas there is the potential for them to go in the wrong direction. Fear is what fuels such lifestyles; feeling displaced and hopeless causes young men and women to squander their potential on street ambitions. Let’s help them help themselves rather than brand them feral and unreachable. The hard to reach are still within our reach.

Gangs

Young people

Knife crime

Communities

Social exclusion

Gun crime

Crime

features

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