17th September 2010
A man in his early twenties was stabbed yesterday outside Bethnal Green station. His bloody footprints led to the Approach Tavern near Victoria Park. He had been stabbed in the calf and sought sanctuary at the pub accompanied by a friend.
Sharon, one of the bar staff, said he had sat in the beer garden until the police and ambulance services arrived at the scene. His blood-soaked trainers were left for forensics who arrived around 11pm to aid the investigation.
Sharon, one of the bar staff, said he had sat in the beer garden until the police and ambulance services arrived at the scene. His blood-soaked trainers were left for forensics who arrived around 11pm to aid the investigation.
Bethnal Green police constabulary refuse to comment on the events and insist no arrests have been made.
Locals at the pub were not shocked or surprised at the turn of events. Richard Walker, 26, who has lived in the area all his life, said: "Gang crime is still rife in the East End. It doesn't affect us and I feel pretty safe walking around here".
Speaking to youths on local estates, they agreed that it is easy to identify gang members. Shoaib Ahmed said: "My parents are really strict and we'd get into lots of trouble if we got involved with them". Another, who did not wish to be named, said his parents enforce curfews and encourage them to get involved in local activities at youth centres and mosques in the area. The youth centres and mosques have after school activities to engage the younger population of Tower Hamlets in an effort to keep kids off the streets, learning skills to help them gain valuable experience for job hunting or to help them into higher education.
Google has created a map to show the distribution of gangs in London:
https://sites.google.com/site/londonstreetgangs/borough-pages/tower-hamlets
In Tower Hamlets there are presently around 25 gangs, with over 20 of these almost entirely, Bengali. The Bengali population makes up 29.4 per cent of the overall population (around 65,553 people) from which an estimated 2,500 Bengali youths in Tower Hamlets are associated to street gangs. Some of the more prominent currently in existence are the Brick Lane Massive, Turin Massive (Turin Street) and White Flatz (Minerva Estate).
