A surprisingly sensitive article on youth violence and “postcode wars” in the right wing London evening newspaper.
“Asher Senator, CEO of Code 7, regularly sees the problems at first hand. ‘The other day I took a couple of youngsters to a meeting and stopped off at a shop. When I came back they were lying down in the back of the car, hiding. They said it was a peak [dangerous] area for them and they couldn’t be seen there.
‘I grew up on an estate in Wandsworth. There was another estate over the road and we all used to link up and do things together. Now the people on my old estate can’t go there at all. They literally cannot cross the street without putting themselves in danger. We need to tackle the mindset of this generation. We need to introduce more London-wide initiatives so that youths from different areas have the opportunity to interact in a way that brings them together instead of pushing them further apart.’”
Of course, Asher will be better known to readers of this blog as one of the finest London reggae MCs of the eighties, as covered in Born To Chat: The Asher Senator Story.
Thanks to STN for the tip off!
Googling Asher Senator was how I found this blog a while back.
Came for the fast chat stayed for the music and stoke newington chat 🙂