EXCLUSIVE:’I know what its like to lose a child, I urge you please communicate with your children and know who their friends are’.Havering’s first Knife Crime Summit a step in the right direction.
‘I’d love to open up a a box of new officers for the community, but sadly I can’t do that’-Police boss shares the difficulties of officer numbers across the borough.
Parents, concerned residents, bereaved mothers, anti knife crime campaigners, the Romford MP and local councillors all attended yesterday’s first knife crime summit in Havering. The event was held at Romford Baptist Church and was hosted by Ian, the local pastor who did a fantastic job.
The event was a step in the right direction giving the community the opportunity to chat with professionals and organisations about knife crime and what is going on in the borough to prevent it.
Stalls were set up inside giving the local community the chance to chat with the many organisations working across the borough helping our youths. Shirley Jackson and Riad Hacib from Youth Unity were present with their special youth unity bus. The team do an outstanding job not only across Havering, but many other London boroughs working with youths, encouraging them away from the streets and achieving positive results in fields such as music. They can be found in Romford on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons with their bus.
Also present were organisations such a Lifeline, who work with youths steering them away from knife crime, Marvin from AIR Network who put on football, fitness and mentoring for local youths and Chris Stannick from Havering Council Enforcement Team who work closely with youth organisations and our local police daily. Chris works alongside Jane Eastaff who does a very proactive job across the borough with her enforcement officers.
Local community champion Scott Squibb from JFF Security and Solutions was also at the summit with Pete from EMS Response. They were both on hand to talk about vital life saving skills, how to use bleed kits and how to train young people to stop any form of catastrophic bleeding. Both Scott and Pete are highly trained in first aid and have worked in the most challenging situations where people have suffered not only knife wounds but machete attacks.
“My son lost his life because of his friends. Please do not be the same as me. I urge you know who your children are out with and know the consequences.“
A panel was chosen and had the opportunity to talk to the audience about their experience. Peggy Kato from All Champion’s Charity gave a very moving and emotional speech about knife crime. Peggy lost her son Champion in 2013 to knife crime and her life has not been the same since. She told the audience: “Please communicate with your child. Please know who their friends are. My son lost his life because of his friends. Please do not be the same as me. I urge you know who your children are out with and know the consequences.” Peggy has been fighting knife crime for ten years and is tired of speaking to so many people in authority who promise and fail to deliver. Now, she urges parents and the community to come together in a desperate bid to stop knife crime. “Please let us join forces and stop Havering from becoming like all the other London boroughs.”
“We are undertaking many intelligence led stop and searches and last year removed over 100 weapons from the streets.”
Havering Neighbourhoods Superintendent Simon Hutchinson spoke openly about the challenges of local policing and lack of officers numbers. He spoke about the work his officers do each day across the borough, the levels of stop and search and the behind the scenes work officers do regularly. He responded to residents concerns about lack of visible police presence clearly stating that of course he would like to see more officers out on our streets like the community ask for, but sadly there weren’t any.
Residents understood the challenges officers face each day and the work they do, they also acknowledged that knife crime is not a situation that we can police our way out of, it needs to be a multi faceted approach. Many different sectors in the community need to join together to tackle this escalating problem across our community.
Residents also spoke about their concerns of gangs clearly visible across certain parts of the borough such a Romford train station. Stating how they are disrespecting residents and officials and blatantly causing trouble across Romford. How they feared for their children at school home time and how their children were targets of planned muggings.
The community also agreed that factors such as social media and peer pressure also played a heavy part in shaping our youths and needed urgently to be looked out.
This was a very well organised community event. It was also a very positive step in the right direction for Havering community as it encouraged open talk and gave residents the opportunity to voice their concerns.
Councillor David Taylor has worked with members of the community in planning this event and made sure that it was not politically driven, but resident and community led. Councillor Taylor faced opposition from Havering Council officers who were not happy with the event or its title and suggested it be called a Community Summit.
The event was very well received by the community who had the opportunity to talk with many professional bodies.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell left Parliament specifically to attend the event and spent a lot of time talking with residents and campaigners. Cabinet Member for Enforcement Councillor Barry Mugglestone was also present to chat with residents and hear their concerns.
We hope this is the first of many meetings to come.
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