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A SLAG -EQS -MENTEL HEALTH ISSUES


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Tottenham & Wood Green Haringey is home to one of the most infamous gangs of modern London, “Tottenham Man Dem”. T.M.D, whose olders now assume another name to distance them from the name T.M.D, which still gains much attention because of the reputation it acquired, were born out of the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985.For anyone familiar with London gangs the name Mark Lambie will be very familiar, and those who aren’t will most likely have heard of PC Keith Blakelock. Mark Lambie was one of those cleared of the murder of PC Blakelock at the age of 14. At the time he was just a younger of the Tottenham Boys who were predominantly a group of ‘shottas’ The history of Lambie’s rise to the top can be traced in Graeme McLagan’s (2006) ‘Guns and Gangs’, also known as the ‘Snitch Book’ owing to the fact that much of the material is written in a biased manner from the view of Operation Trident. Lambie was involved in a number of cases throughout the years including the murders of Jerome Maddix in Jamaica, Kenneth Rowe and Stephen Grant. Whilst Lambie was the top man it was the younger generation, which sparked one of the most famous gang rivalries across London.T.M.D were behind the murder that began a bloody feud with Hackney Man Dem (H.M.D) in January 1997 following the shooting dead of 16 year old Guydance Dacres at a private party at Chimes nightclub and then a gang fight a few days later between Hackney and Tottenham where a youth was stabbed in the leg. In those times gangs were much more cohesive over a large area, for instance an entire borough in the case of H.M.D, unlike today where the gangs rarely stretch beyond the limits of their estate or postcode. In February 1997, an act of revenge resulted in the death of Kingsley Iyasara, 16, a Tottenham younger who was beaten and shot dead in a block of flats on the Carlton Lodge estate. Two of those convicted for the murder of Iysara, a.k.a ‘Popcorn’, were shot dead soon after release in separate incidents. Meneliek Robinson, 20, was shot dead in his BMW in June 1999 and Corey Wright, 20, was also shot dead in his car along with his friend Wayne Henry, 19, in April 2001. Adrian Crawford, 22, a prominent T.M.D member, was gunned down in 2002 by a leading figure of the H.M.D, and his death was avenged by the murder of Jason Fearon, 26, at Turnmills Nightclub in 2003. Many of these incidents involved younger teenaged members yet the attention they received was often minimal particularly in comparison to the events of 2007.Around the time the conflict between Hackney and Tottenham started two other newer gangs began to emerge in Haringey, one in Wood Green and one in Hornsey. Hornsey Mafia began in 1997 but soon changed their name to Hornsey Man Dem because of T.M.Ds influence, they were spread out across various estates in Hornsey. Another group, Wood Green M.O.B (Money over Bitches), formed around Gladstone Avenue as a small group of emcees (MC’s) in 1996-97. As membership grew to cover a number of areas of Wood Green cliques developed. There was the Commerce Road Boys, The Avenues (Noel Park), Shell Town (Sandlings) and the Junior Mafia Woods (Woodside Park). Collectively they made up W.G.M.Wood Green cliques are rivals to any clique from N15 or N17 (Tottenham) and have an alliance with some Edmonton cliques against Tottenham (most notably Ida and Tiverton estates in N15). One of the infamous criminals to work in alliance with Mark Lambie was Anthony Bourne (suspect in shooting at Chimes) who himself headed his own gang in Edmonton. However, after Lambie’s imprisonment, along with other influential leaders, including Bourne, who were mostly aged in their early twenties this changed and the stabbing of two Edmonton boys at Angel Road in 2003 become the start of a long rivalry that still exists today between Edmonton and Tottenham. There are a number of Turkish and Kurdish groups also present in north London and there is a perception that most of the Turkish youths who run in street groups are in some way connected to older Turkish criminals who are too high up the criminal ladder to have an obvious street presence, although they are known as some kind of Turkish Mafia. It is believed that a number of local businesses like those ran by Turks along Tottenham High Road are ran or controlled by the ‘Mr Bigs’ who also run the heroin in London. The Haringey Turkish groups are located primarily around White Hart Lane football stadium and Green Lanes. Many of the Kurdish groups are were aligned with the “Rowdy Kurds” street gang although the older criminals are fronted by ‘political’ gangs such as the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party, a youth group has named itself Perfect Kurdish Killers). Green Lanes (Palmers Green through to Harringay) and Stoke Newington are the location for much of the Kurdish and Turkish (or Turkish Cypriot and Greek) groups operating outside of Tottenham. The younger groups are predominantly different to black and white groups who identify with housing estates and their local area in that they spend more time milling in commercial areas. A community project at the Halkevi Community Centre in Hackney, and in partnership with other community centres in Haringey, Islington and Enfield, has an engagement project in place to investigate the underlying reasons of why people of Kurdish, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot origin get involved in gangs, drugs and gun crime and anti-social behaviour and to determine the nature and extent of the problem. There certainly is an identified problem of gangs in these communities in north London, however, much of the gangs issue is blamed predominantly on young African-Caribbean males. Research has been conducted on Turkish/Kurdish gangs in north London, which focuses on the reasons why the issue does not stir up as much attention, entitled ‘Invisibility, disadvantage and identity’. Problems in the Turkish and Kurdish community focusing on gangs, drugs and crime became particularly well known after the ‘Battle of Green Lanes’ in November 2002.More recently there have been major changes in the gang demographics of Haringey which have involved internal splits within the Wood Green Mob and Tottenham Mandem, the fallout of Wood Green and Hornsey, and changes in Edmonton that have changed relationships between Edmonton and Tottenham. For various reasons there are more smaller gangs, or more gangs covering a smaller area depending on how you view it. Generally much of N15 and N17 are aligned with one another although there have been exceptions. Wood Green MOB are allies with Shankstarz of Lower Edmonton, Hornsey have built links together and with other gangs in Edmonton, the Red Brick Crew from Edmonton have links to Tottenham - basically there is a very disjointed and complex web of affiliations. Edmonton N9/N18 Edmonton, situated in the London Borough of Enfield, has had a presence of street gangs for over a decade. As already mentioned one of the most infamous gang generals to come from the area was Anthony Bourne (who headed the Edmonton Firm) who was sentenced to 12 years with Mark Lambie back in 01-02.Edmonton Man Dem have been around since the mid 1990s and the N9/N18 areas were fairly unified (with the exception of the Red Brick Crew located on the Klinger Estate off Silver Street). Today things are more disjointed with N9 (known as Shanktown / Green City - from Edmonton Green) and N18 areas no longer part of a single EMD alliance.Shanktown has a number of smaller sets, most notably the Shankstarz and then some smaller groups around Montagu Road, Church Street, Galahad Road Estate, Bounces Road, Hertford Road and Parr Close. N9 and Shanktown (a.k.a Green City) have an alliance with Wood Green MOB from N22 in Haringey and are rivals to Tottenham gangs. One of the most prominent gangs in the borough are the Red Brick Crew although in terms of violence and media attention it is the younger African generation from around this same area that have made the most noise - M.R.P or Money Respect Power a younger gang from N18 and D.A (Dem African) whose membership was largely made up of Congolese youth. The D.A gang became widely known in January 2008 when two of its members were murdered in disputes with another Tottenham gang and Edmonton Red Brick Thugs (younger Red Brick generation)Other smaller gangs around the area can be found on the Shires Estate (Leicester/Shropshire Houses), Joyce Avenue estate and up and down Fore Street. The southern part of Enfield is also home to some Turkish / Kurdish gangs in areas such as Brettenham Road Estate. Much media attention has been given to the Edmonton area regarding gangs following a number of high profile incidents although it is though that only 4 of the recent murders involved gang murders, those of Fatz, Black H, Usher and Iyke. N9/N18Edmonton Mandem - certain estates/cliquesN9 - Green City / Shanktown41ST EstateShankstarz - Bounces Road/Lower EN18 Craig Park / Every Man Hustles - CP/Cameron CloseDA/Dem Africans - Fore StreetMoney Respect Power - Fore Street (Grey City)Red Brick Crew - Klinger EstateN17/N18Bloodline - Meridian Walk North London Somalians In 2006 Mahir Osman was murdered after an alleged feud between two Somali gangs which began after an argument at club Eros in Enfield. The two gangs were the Centric Crew from Camden and North London Somalians, predominantly from Duccets Common area but with members from all over Haringey and Enfield boroughs. Mahir was stabbed to death during an attack by 40 youths. CCTV showed the main suspect then aged 16 on the outside of a group who had surrounded Mahir kicking him whilst he lay on the ground. The gang responsible for the murder which occurred in Camden were the North London Somalians.The attack was a revenge attack although Mahir himself was unknown to be gang involved and the killer claimed he was not a member of any gang and appealed submitting an inter alia. The whole incident was recorded on CCTV and the actual stabbing took only a few seconds. There was a total of some 40 young men who, on the prosecution's case, were part of the attacking gang or group.Since the incident there has been a volatile relationship between Camden and Haringey Somali’s ever since.

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