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‘WE’VE HAD IT WITH GANGS’
Teen shooting leads to new calls for action to tackle thugs
A SHOOTING on an estate in Paddington has sparked calls for a major crackdown on teenage gang crime.
Residents of Warwick estate met on Wednesday for crisis talks following a spate of violent crimes that last week led to a teenager being hospitalised.
The youngster was sprayed with steel pellets which struck his back and a day later a woman was mugged at gunpoint.
Pensioner Mary Amaro of the Warwick Residents’ Association warned the muggers: “Enough is enough.” She said: “In the last few months crime has increased dramatically and the quality of life just isn’t there for me.
“If it wasn’t for the violence and the muggings I wouldn’t mind so much – but when things like this are happening you can never tell. They (youths) sit there talking about who they are going to mug next.”
She said car windows were repeatedly smashed and that street crime was thriving in the narrow alleyways and dark corners of the Warwick estate.
She added: “There is a lot of money in Westminster. Why don’t they spend it on helping these kids? Send them to boot camp!”
Labour MP Karen Buck has lobbied the council to release City Guardians from the West End to help fight crime in north Westminster.
And David Boothroyd, Labour councillor for Westbourne, has organised a petition from the estate to double its Safer Neighbourhood team.
He said: “Westbourne has a higher crime rate than other wards in Westminster, which have more police in their Safer Neighbourhood teams.”
He added: “We don’t want to see all the policing shifted over to deal with this problem, so that the Brunel and Wessex Gardens
are left out.” |
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