At sharp end in anti-gang war in Glasgow

Police have arrested more than 2,400 people over two years in the latest anti-gang drive. And, through the Gangs Task Force, they claim to have taken significant steps towards ridding Glasgow of territorial violence.

This year alone, Strathclyde Police has stopped and searched around 300,000 people as they crack down on aggressive young men carrying weapons.

Officers say this has led to a reduction in “youth disorder” of up to 30%.

Police commanders in the East End now see gang battles as an exception, rather than the common problem they were.

However, there are still some worrying statistics. Some 43% of violent incidents go unreported because the person is involved in violence themselves, fears reprisals or distrusts the police.

Some hospitals say serious assaults are under-recorded by at least 50% and possibly up to 70%. And the age of gang members seems to be rising, with even men in their 50s involved.

Chief superintendent Bob Hamilton, of the Gangs Task Force, wants Evening Times readers to know what his staff face on a day-to-day basis.

“This is what we’re up against,” he said as he showed us a collection of video nasties illustrating just how awful the violence can get. “But we will win,” he vowed.

In one film, shot on a camera phone, one young thug attacks another boy for no apparent reason, kicking his head and stamping on his face.

After a brutal assault lasting more than a minute, the victim lies twitching on the ground.

The attacker then lifts him up and boots him in the face one more time.

Doctors said any one of the blows to the head could have been lethal.

This brief attack ruined the victim’s life, sending his school grades plummeting. He was too scared to tell the police, who only found out about the attack when the gruesome footage appeared on the internet.

Other footage taken from a CCTV camera showed a teenage couple walking down an alley in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

They bump into a group of yobs, who proceed to beat the boy with a metal baseball bat, striking him up to 20 times as he lies on the ground.

As one attacker walks away, a smile flickers across his face and he breaks into a cocksure swagger, delighted with what he’s done.

In another incident, a group square up against each other in broad daylight, armed with swords, knives and a crossbow. Some of them are aged around 50.

It’s sickening scenes like this that the Gangs Task Force want to eradicate from the streets.

Mr Hamilton said: “We have a straightforward policy – we pester the life out of them. It’s nothing scientific, we’re right in about them. If they continue to step out of line, they’re getting the jail.”

But the tough-talking cop’s main priority is keeping the people of Glasgow safe. That applies whether they are an innocent bystander or a young man on the cusp of fully fledged gang membership and a wasted life.

He adds: “It’s not about stats, it’s about victims. The more we can reduce the number of victims, the better, because we don’t want to see people walking about with knife wounds on their face.

“We once arrested a 15-year-old boy who had been stabbed 15 times and didn’t report most of the attacks to the police.

“Only two things were going to happen to him: he was getting the jail for stabbing someone or ending up dead himself. There was no controlling that boy.”

The Gangs Task Force works in conjunction with the Community Initiative To Reduce Violence, which has tried out an anti-gang model first used in Boston.

Some 350 gang members have signed up to the scheme and there has been a 49.2% drop in recorded violent activity among those involved.

The initiative involves going out on to the streets and asking gang members to come in to a session where they are addressed by an ex-gang member and warned of the consequences of their actions.

Here, they are asked to promise to give up violence. If they do, they are shown possible alternatives, which could include training to make them more employable.

If they don’t promise to stop, they are reminded that police now treat the gang as a whole, which means that all of them will be penalised if any violence takes place.

Ex-gang members are used as peer mentors, to show kids how bad having a facial scar can be and to guide them towards a better life.”

Chief inspector Robert Stevenson explained: “Social work and education have already ditched these boys. They say, ‘they didn’t turn up for interview. Case closed. Chapped door twice, no answer. Case closed’.

“But we get an ex-gang member to go to their door and say, ‘come to a wee interview with us at the Jobcentre,’ and their eyes open a wee bit.”

The police have managed to build up good relations with young men in gangs.

Mr Stevenson said: “These guys are just friends and some of them care passionately about one another. So they say to us, ‘my friend’s carrying a weapon and I’m worried about him’.”

The programme has had notable successes. One boy went on to be named an Apprentice of the Year; another got a job as a design draftsman with the Army.

Mr Stevenson said: “Violent people are still there and still violent, but they are involved in small group disorder violence and feuds against each other which doesn’t result in a 20-on-20 gang fight in a field as used to happen.”