Gun Crime makes the headlines - underlying problems don't.

welcome to downtown pitsmoor not burngreave as the the bnc would have.. now we have nice new front walls new layed out gardens.. the front doors on our social problems stay closed.. now did i here the spectrum centre a local community resource was going to be used for this  http://www.aktivix.org/ welcome to downtown brixton done in a sheffield style.. we hope you enjoy that pig in his car pointing his 22 rifle at you.. oh, the helicopter is there most nights just to add to the flavour.. now the food is cheap as all the people are the new hidden slave labour to this new imperialism.. now we all get along when people like  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/08/296115.html can be used as politcal pawns.. meantime did we hear of a drug overdose in the politcal/social community.. apparently, they were living with a class A dealer.. bloody rumours tell us of a serious coke problem emerging here in sheffield.. but keep your mouth shut as that's all they are, rumours.. meantime back in downtown pitsmoor, were not more kurdish residents raided the other night just for being themselevs..?

carter..

i have seen on the news that leeds has had a "peace on the streets" campaign against gun crime recently. I was organised by a group called mothers against violence.

So you're saying the underlying problem that causes crack abuse is because of other coke users who are more stable and don't get addicted. That seems a very weird way of looking at things.

I think if you look a bit deeper one of the root causes of drug problems is low self esteem and not much of a future to look forward to. That means it does affect working class people more than others - but all sorts of "successful" people have also run into problems.

okay, the story i put up here may not be that well written, i know what i'm trying to say and have wanted to put something up on here for ages along the lines of social problems - and the underlying drug problem - in inner city areas but am not that much of a writer.

I see drugs affecting different people in different ways and was trying to make the connection between recreational drug use and the more negative effects of being trapped within a community of despair and drug violence. After all, it's the same substance just a different clientele that's all, and recreational (safe) use of cocaine is still encouraging the stuff that ends up being shit on the streets.

I don't live in Burngreave/Pitsmoor and feel a bit dismayed that nobody's managed to put anything up about recent shootings that are obviously drug related (or am i being slightly hysterical here?). The link to sheffieldtoday (star newspaper) never makes the connection either. Even so, something like 80% of all crime is drug related with addiction costing £18-billion per year in the UK, that must be about £5,000 per average taxpayer each year.

Is there a point of principle in this?

The 'activist community' should be taking a lead and setting an example for other people to follow. I do not have problem with recreational drug use on the whole but for me the issue is more about how it is becoming "cool" to take serious drugs like coke. In a similar vein the gangs in pitsmoor who are taking/dealing crack are setting an example to the youths and teens that it is "cool" to take crack, this leads to stealing/mugging and such like which causes grief to the local community and some people further afield. I have witnesses how pitsmoor kids go over to meersbrook/heely and sneak into peoples houses or mug people who do not have the ability to defend themselves.

Nobody should be inclined to take *anything* even if it is somthing as simple as a pint of beer or cup of coffee because it is "cool". "it is only abit of weed", "it is only a pill", "it is only a line of charlie".

Drugs are not the only cause of crime in pitsmoor, fasion is often where the spiral starts. It is "cool" to have all the latest 'gear' and naturally because unlike other areas, kids in pitsmoor can't afford the latest stuff they are more inclined to go out on a mugging journey to one of the more leafy places. The only trouble with drugs are that once you are in the dealers pocket some people tend not to be able to get back out as a recent tragic incident has demonstrated.

I am not anti-drugs, i am just against things that cause people to be anti-social and with quite alot of people that tends to be drugs and not nessasarily the hard ones.

muggings -> beatings -> shootings

hmmm...

i feel rather uncomfortable with this sort of thing:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/09/297513.html

it isn't news but the sort of execrable logorrhoea that we are
increasingly having to put up with in place of quality grass roots
journalism on our site.

i will take the usual course of action, with extreme prejudice, after
twenty-four of the Queen's hours unless the progressive mob get me first.

chipski

okay, i'm the "author" of this here piece:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/09/297513.html

I'd like it to stay because even tho it's not that
well written, could even say it's shoddy journalism if
u like but i feel it's an attempt at trying to get
stuff up there about what's going down (oh sorry,
forgot that's what The Star's there for!)

The indymedia story above wasn't written to provoke
some kind of rift and call me misguided if you like
but i think this drugs stuff, and how many people play
a lesser of greater role in it, needs highlighting -
ther's no reason why we should all agree.


As an extra thing, does anyone feel like writing to
the local newspaper:
starletters at sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk on some subject
or other, leaving the imc address then maybe a few
more people will take a bit more interest?

cheers

I say leave it up. It may not be well written but it has generated a
discussion on an important topic. The only real answer to bad
journalism is to write good stuff and post it. It may not be news as
such but it is comment on news.

DDave

I'm with Chip here. It is not news, clear and simple, so should be
hidden.

That something generates discussion is not a reason for something to
stay up. All you have to do is post something slightly controversial
(news, non-news, anything at all) and you'll generate a discussion.
There are thousands of bullitin boards, bloggers etc that do just
that. For Indymedia to stay successful it has to be different to
those.

As you agree it's not news its a comment on news. The comment section
of an article is for comments on news, not the main section.

I don't want to see Indymedia end up as just another bullitin board.


cheers

steve

erm what all taken from here  http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-sheffield/2004-September/thread.html a public archive..

so to talk about locall news all over the star last week make just another bullitin board well fuck me.. guns are on the street,s of sheffield and not because we desire then there.. when we are shooting it will not be each other.. the guns are there because the police desire them to be there.. gang wars are there so thay can introduce more police to area.. look i have lived here all me life.. ill genrate more soon.. just to add this is news our sisters brothers comrades are being shout here.. what the fuck we do shut up.. oh yes we got.. how we deal with shit round here shut the fuck up..

Full Metal Jackoff Jello Biafra
(re worked eat more fruit)


around our nation's capital there's a motoway 6 lanes wide white concrete ringed around the city for those who want inside get on get off ignore everything to the sides in your midst i drive while homeboys in the back of the van make drugs wanna hide something like a ccrack lab just put it in plain sight only stop to refuel and unload more poison to tear more lives apart gang wars like never before better lock your doors, buy some guns and prey for martial law on the m25. motoway around and around i go in the black van with no windows and a chimney puffing smoke bloody headlines in the news each day drug "crisis" everywhere so much comes in so easy it's as though someone wants it there it would be a little obvious to fence off all the slums hand out machine guns to the poor in the projects and watch 'em kill each other off a more subtle genocide is when the only hope for the young is to join the army and slowly die wall street or crack dealer avenue the last roads left to the american dream wall street or crack dealer avenue wall street or crack dealer avenue only on road leads to this neighborhood little kids wanna sell drugs when they grow up the folks might get just a little upset if they knew where that dope comes from froom columbia to the contras to our air force bases, where we trade it for guns the moral equivilent of a serial killer and his mi5 friends call the shots from the white house but now that we own the media too those stories just aren't run on the m25, 'round and 'round i go in a black van with no windows, and a chimney puffing smoke some gang that ran smack in viet nam ain't got no reason to fear just get a labour govermant so dumb the crook at the top never gets impeached that sure was easy wasn't it? that sure was easy wasn't it? more crack-more panic-moe cops-more jails you see emergency-total war you see emergency-total war you see a black face-you see a crackhead you see a black face-you see a crackhead you see a black face-you see ian hunter with a knife you see ian hunter with a knife you see one ian hunter you've seen them all they're everywhere, i know you asked for it, you've got it drug suspects have no rights at all property seized and sold before trial labor camps-on - uk-soil?!? (have you seen medwhell?) neo-nazi bootboys that the cops never seem to arrest prowl neighborhoods with baseball bats why now? why do they get so much press...? medowhell-the mini series nick griffin-"patriotic" hero the leader for tomorrow is yours today finally gotcha psyched for a police state on the m25 motoway around and around i go in a black van with no windows and a chimney puffing smoke my van's a mobile oven now that burns the bodies you never see just like in chile or guantamo bay people just seem to disappear just like rome we fell asleep when we got spoiled ignore human rights in the rest of the world ya might just lose your own as the noose of narco-militarism tightens 'round your necks we worry about burning flags and pee in jars at work to keep our jobs but if someone came for you one night and dragged you away do you really think your neighbors
would even care?

yes not news just a song buy hay this is now hidden for fulling your dersire..

peace
psydonym no 297513

Hi, for those who're into columbian marching powder, i'm thinking of getting hold of some Fair-trade Coke if anyone's interested?

Guns don't kill people, governments do.

A million people converged on Notting Hill for two days of frolics and fun in August and only one person got shot. There is no "gun problem" in the UK... but, how many innocent folk have been massacred in Iraq by Blair's Coalition of willing murderers? 10,000! And that's a conservative estimate.

Let's put things into perspective.