Residents to reclaim park from ‘terror gang’

This Thursday evening, local residents will issue an ‘eviction notice’ on a teenage gang which has been carrying out vicious, unprovoked assaults in and around Gillians Park, Blackbird Leys, Oxford.

Over the past couple of months the gang has been responsible for a string of incidents, ranging from threats and intimidation, to street robbery and gratuitously violent physical attacks. One young victim had his nose smashed with a sawn-off pool cue while another was slashed with a knife, the length of his back. In a recent incident even a pizza deliveryman was mugged.

Now residents say, ‘enough is enough’.

As the park effectively controls access to the only shop on Greater Leys, numerous families have been affected by the activities of the gang using it as a base. Many parents are now frightened to send their kids to the shop. Yet, up to now, those who have sought help from the authorities have come up against a brick wall.

One mother who turned to the police after both her sons were attacked on two separate occasions was told there was nothing the police could do. She is now living in fear of reprisals after one of the ringleaders of the gang threatened to burn her house down.

Local resident Jane Lacey, who is involved in organising the picket, said, ‘what are we supposed to do? The police say they can’t do anything but no doubt they’ll complain about any action we take and say that we have to consider the “human rights” of the gang members. The fact is we need a strategy to deal with these problems—as a community.

‘The picket will be the start of our campaign. What we are trying to do is show them that they’re not big or clever doing this stuff—they’re screwing the community and they will be despised for it. We also want the parents of the gang members to sit up and take notice before it’s too late and their kids become totally beyond control. It’s the mothers and teenagers on the estate who are most concerned and we’ll be out in force to show them.’

IWCA councillor Stuart Craft, who was elected to represent the ward in May 2002 said, ‘Last year, in response to a successful IWCA campaign against crack-cocaine and heroin dealers operating in Gillians Park, the police and Labour-run council said they were going to “design out” crime but all they seem to have done so far is take some aerial photographs of the park. The fact we now have a mugging epidemic taking place there is further evidence that their response has been totally inadequate.

‘Generally while there’s been a lot of talk from the government about tackling antisocial behaviour with new legislation being introduced practically every month, the truth is that on the ground we still see the same indifference, the studied reluctance from the main political parties to get involved.’