No-one can have failed to notice the increase of guns in circulation in the UK. In a recent shooting in Birmingham, Charlene Ellis, 18, and Latisha Shakespear, 17 were killed , while Charlene's twin sister, Sophie, and 17-year-old Cheryl Shaw were injured. A sub machine gun was used in the attack and along with another weapon(s) sprayed over 30 bullets at a crowd attending a party in a hairdressers.

Merseyside saw a number of shootings over the recent Holiday period, Edward Byrne, 66, was killed by a single shot to the head as he drank in his local pub, the Yew Tree. This was one of 3 fatal shootings in December. Carl Seaton, 28 died from gunshot wounds in an execution style attack on Martensen Street, Edge Hill. He had left the nearby Weighing Machine pub and was hit by at least 5 shots. Karl was one of the lads who acted in the TV Drama 'Shooters', which gave a realistic and disturbing portrayal of those who use guns on Merseyside. Ray Craven, 27, was shot dead in another execution style shooting in the Thatched House pub in Liverpool. A lot of victims, who survive being shot, will understandably not give information which helps the Police. There are also lots of gun incidents which will go unreported as the people involved in shootings are generally reluctant to give information.

Gun use spiraling out of control

In 2001, Francis Gemmel an unemployed bouncer shot his ex girlfriend in the face in front of her three young children before turning the gun on himself, the inquest was held last year and it is worrying that a number of mentally ill people, who seem to be left to fend for themselves, may have access to firearms. In July 2002, a Liverpool schoolboy was fighting for his life after being shot through the throat near a stash of dumped guns which were found in an alleyway in Toxteth. Police discovered a semi-automatic pistol, three revolvers and a sawn-off shotgun nearby. The schoolboy was said at the time to be paralysed for life after a weapon was discharged by a friend. The Police themselves shot a man in July, he was said to have been brandishing a gun on the Motorway. Luckily, he only received a gun shot to the leg, unlike Liverpool man Andrew Kernan, a schizophrenic who was shot dead by Merseyside Police in 2001.

Career Oppertunities

Kirkby Times has briefly covered the rise and expansion of the drug trade on Merseyside, simply stating in plain English what we all know, and as we all generally know, a lot of the shootings are drug related in some way. Back in the 70's and 80's, the average outlaw in Kirkby with access to a gun, would generally only have the weapon for use in the then traditional Working Class occupation of withdrawing money illegally from Banks and post offices etc. The gun was rarely fired, and was simply an incentive to reluctant bank managers or 'have a go heroes' to go along with the robbers plans to get rich quick.

When Cops respected robbers

Of course it's not nice for the Bank Staff or security guards etc to see a gun poking in their faces, but anyone holding large amounts of cash took the risk that someone with less than large amounts of cash would wish to possess it. Some would say the Banks were robbing us anyway, and the traditional armed robbers of the post war years to the 80's had a certain amount of respect from the local Working Class Communities. Even the cops had a begrudging amount of respect for these people. That was in the days when Kirkby and other towns in Liverpool and elsewhere had coppers who actually stayed around long enough to know who was who, before the Police Force became so unpopular that it needed to drive around certain areas at high speed, dropping the local beat, for a few radio linked cars. An experiment which began in Birmingham in the 60's led to a dramatic change in Police working practices. The Panda Car alienated the Police from the Public. The cops left on the beat were encountering a more and more hostile and mistrustful Public. People no longer volunteered information and so paid informants took off. In the UK this meant that informants received cash payments for informing on various crimes.

Dubious Policing Practices

In the 80's, a worrying amount of these paid informants were themselves involved in drug dealing. The Police began to get desperate and there were a number of cases involving dubious practices in which informants were basically allowed to continue criminal careers as long as they informed on a few other fellow criminals. There was also a certain amount of corruption involving Police Officers and Drug dealers/distributors. Many Police were themselves wary of the change in Policing Practices, some were of the opinion the Police needed to resort to the old tried and tested Policing methods where the Police were living in the Communities they served. Perhaps the Police's image was forever tainted when in the 80's they became an Army which Thatcher used to crush Working class resistance wherever it surfaced. It seemed the Police had given up trying to win the trust of communities and alienated themselves to a point of no return. The traditional 'Bobby on the beat' became the Patrol Car, the Patrol Car became the Riot Van and that in turn became an armed response unit.

A Commercial Interest

The 80's saw a change as drugs became the main source of money and the traditional Working Class armed robbers route to riches was succeeded by the far easier occupation of supplying drugs. Why risk 10 or more years nick by robbing a few grand with a shotgun when you can just sell drugs with what was then a minimum risk. Many of the old hands of the armed robbery circuit would in turn use there ill gotten gains to fund drug deals. In every nick throughout the UK, the drug culture of the 60's and 70's became a major point of interest for traditional armed robber who saw how they could use their own influence and resources to turn the drugs trade into a full blown commercial interest.

Supply and Demand

Within years, the small time imports of a few kilos became the shipments of Tons. Cannabis was the first major commercial drug business in Liverpool, and for years it had been a bit of a free for all for those who smuggled it. The organisation was not here in the 70's and early 80's and plenty of small time smugglers would supply a multitude of dealers. Like any industry, it simply became more centralised and in turn more organised. Supply and demand is simple economics. The law didn't stop Al Capone and the Mob from trading in alcohol, and history shows that the American politicians who tried to outlaw alcohol were, in hindsight, acting unreasonable, maybe like our own politicians are now in the UK for continuing to prohibit drugs.

Heroin enters the scene

The early 80's saw a shift as heroin entered the scene big time. Whereas cannabis may have been a comfortable earner for the emerging 'major dealers', the introduction of heroin involved profits which made cannabis profits seem like pocket money. Add a few guns to the equation and it's obvious what happens next. This could well be a classic divide and rule tactic by the establishment. Flood our communities with 'Class A' drugs and you take people's eyes off what's really happening. You destroy the solidarity of communities and it becomes easier to control them. Throughout the 80's and 90's we saw Working Class areas destroyed by the subsequent violence and divisions bought about by heroin flooding into communities. Note that the medias interest really came when the sons and daughters of the privileged and Middle Classes began to end up as casualties, O.D.'ing (overdosing) on heroin and then coke, maybe a mix of the two.

Not tackling the root of the problem

Armed Robbery came back in with a bang in the 80's. The reason being that there were too many junkies who had little to lose. A lot of these 'armed robbers' were using knifes and the usual baseball bats or hammers etc. This wasn't the carefully planned robberies of the old school robbers, just the desperate acts of junkies. The money they were targeting could easily be under £100. In Kirkby, drugs had a major impact and at times it seemed the 'skagheads' were like a plague of locusts robbing anything that was not nailed down. Nowadays everything is nailed down, and you have security guards in the local sweetshop and supermarkets. Every spare building or plot of land has a notice informing us the premises and property are protected by any one of hundreds of Security Firms on Merseyside. We have CCTV everywhere with Northwood in particular being subject to intensive surveillance. Security and surveillance are not tackling the root of the problem; they simply deal with the outcome of more serious social issues which are not addressed.

Cocaine, a rich mans habit passed down to us

The UK's politicians are going through a period which could be likened to the days of alcohol prohibition in the USA. Many politicians move in circles where drugs are freely available and while cocaine may have been top of the charts on the drug menu in Liverpool for a while, it was in circulation amongst the rich and powerful even in the 70's. The Queens Cousin was caught in possession of cocaine as far back as 1973. Lord Lichfield was let off scot free at a time when the average working class person would have landed a custodial sentence for possessing what the Queens cousin was carrying. 100 years ago the Queen herself (Queen Victoria) was using cannabis without anyone being unduly alarmed; it was consistently in the top 3 of the most popular prescribed medicines. Today, it would likely cause Fleet Street to collectively fall over and the Country to be shut down were they to get a zoom lens shot of HRH lighting up a reefer.

Below, cocaine being used in a common household brand of soft fizzy drink.

Old Fashioned 'straighteners' becoming shoot outs.

The use of guns in Kirkby has thankfully not been too much of a problem compared to bigger places like Manchester or London. There are those who can acquire guns if needs arise, but most of the main gun action has been elsewhere on Merseyside, give or take the odd incident over the years where firearms have been fired in Kirkby. This is rare though, and it seems that no-one wants escalate the situation by bringing guns into disputes. Once someone is shot, it often creates a spiral of violence. The 70's and 80's saw hundred's of old fashioned 'straighteners' between rivals in Kirkby. If we are not careful, the next two decades could see 'straighteners' become shoot outs and the disputes which once saw a broken bone or two on a local school field, could become funerals.

More shootings

On Tues Jan 8th there was another double shooting, this time in Croxteth. Two men from Toxteth were blasted by a shotgun as they sat in a car. This has led to Merseyside Police setting up a series of meetings were the different units will try to formulate an adequate response. We may well see armed officers becoming a permanent part of our streets in the City Centers and its likely more armed response units will be set to work. There will be a lot of behind the scenes work and a greater use of technology to collate information. However, all the technology in the World will have little effect unless we can rebuild Communities were the residents have control of the democratic processes and begin to make radical changes to the way in which a Community is run. Until we do make real changes then the situation will only get worse.

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