Segun's Story Gang Life

In London alone, there are 250 recognised gangs...

and an estimated 4,500 young people caught up in gang culture.

It's the streets.

The violence...

it's just part of the life, innit?

Crime and territorial disputes

underpin the violence of gang lifestyles.

It's postcode war, you get me?

When I go to Tottenham, I HAVE to pull out my shank.

But for many, injury, even death,

or a life spent in the penal system are the real outcomes.

The best part of their life is spent in a prison,

and people say that it's a holiday camp.

It's not a holiday camp.

For families caught up in the violence, the pain is never-ending.

It's every, every day, every moment, every minute.

We miss him. We really miss him.

Just hundreds of people, you know, instantly affected by one murder.

# And I'm a new me And I'm a new me

# And I'm a new me Full front, that's me. #

Gang members carry out half of all shootings in the capital,

22% of all serious violence and 14% of rapes.

It's the streets. You've got to be violent.

Out here, yeah, the violence is just like...

It's just part of the life, innit?

Like, you're on the road, you're mixing with certain people,

you're selling drugs, whatever.

Maybe you're holding a gun for this guy, whatever.

So it's going to come with it, innit?

In recent times, gang shootings, stabbings and murders

have propelled gang culture into the mainstream.

Here, gangs and those caught up in and affected by the lifestyle

reveal the impact and the consequences of gang life.

When you're young, you start doing small crimes,

then you get minor crimes, then it starts getting bigger and bigger.

You don't, all of a sudden, wake up and say,

"Today, I'm going to join a gang."

It gradually happens.

You don't, all of a sudden, say,

"Yeah, now I'm in a gang. They recruited me,

"They're came to my school and recruited me."

You just... These are your friends.

These are your friends, and then it evolves into like,

"Oh, yeah, now we're a gang, cos we've been labelled a gang."

The friction between rival gangs protecting their areas

often boils over into violence.

It's postcode war, you get me? So it's not really...

It's a community war, innit? You get me? N18, N9, you get me?

If you're from N9, you've got a beef with N18. Tottenham against Edmonton.

Weapons such as guns or knives - known as shanks - are often used.

Like, I can't lie, I used to move with older people.

Like, I had to walk with my shank, cos I had no choice. You get me?

Cos if I didn't, I'd get rushed.

I know people, they can't even go and sit down in a restaurant.

Cos they sit down in a restaurant, their head gets licked off.

Know what I'm saying?

Government figures show that knifings

and other violent crimes are actually on the decrease,

thanks to concerted efforts by the police

and other agencies to target gangs.

We, as police, are going to come and look for you

if you're into that criminality.

You know, we are one of the most effective

when it comes to surveillance and, you know, covert operations.

You will be found out,

and then when you're inside and doing whatever time,

you've got a lot of opportunities to think,

"I should have done it differently."

Away from the streets and in jail,

former gang members can find prison

a tougher place to be than on the road.

I got involved in a gang when I was about 14, 15.

A first it was just fights, hand fights and punching and that.

It went to knives and guns,

and that's it, isn't it? It escalates from there.

I weren't thinking about the consequences, you know?

It was just there - the adrenaline, the good life, the money was there.

Chains, the attention from the females, you know?

Everything was going good.

I wouldn't think, "Nah, this can't happen. You can't get arrested."

You know what I'm saying?

I've been in jail twice now - this is my second time in jail.

It's not really a place where I want to be.

It's no holiday camp - you have no freedom, you're banged up all day.

Your freedom's stripped down, and it's totally different.

Oh, at first it was tough.

But the experience in jail's not good, you know?

Away from family and that.

People think it's cool, but it's not.

When my family come to see me, it's real hard at times.

I'm happy to see them, cos I don't get to see them that often.

But when they leave, actually leave from here and go home,

I feel very saddened by that fact

that I'm not able to go back with them.

It made me realise who my real friends are, you know?

I don't talk to them no more.

When I came to jail, they said, "We've got your back," and all this.

"We'll be there to the end."

Couple of months down the line, they're all gone.

When you're in jail, you're more or less a ghost

and you're forgotten, basically.

My friends used to write to me, but the contact has died out.

Prison is only one price that active gang members might have to pay.

The rate of people involved in gangs

and negative peer groups ending up in prison...

or a mental asylum or the morgue

is extremely highly increased because of that activity.

So, you know, you might be cutting short your life expectancy.

For some, an early and violent death

is another aspect of the lifestyle they have to consider.

A current and active North London gang, Dem Africans,

reflect on the pain of losing friends.

This is the life everyone lives.

No-one chose to live this life. As a baby, I never said,

"Yeah, when I get older, I want to be involved in a gang." No way.

It's more than it looks like. It's not a happy times every time, innit?

You could lose your loved ones. You know what I'm saying?

I've lost my loved one. But you've got to carry on living, innit?

Get me?

My friends died because they were involved, to be honest with you.

And...

Ugh, it's not good, man.

They were too young to die for that. They were way too young.

Losing friends to gang violence is tough,

even for gang members.

To be honest with you, when I heard Negus died,

I was so angry I just wanted to go there and do it myself.

But then if I went there, then I would be next,

to be honest with you.

Ugh, it's too much, man.

Gang-related deaths have decreased in recent years.

But despite the reduction,

communities and families who lose children

continue to be affected by the murders of their loved ones.

What we've got here, we've got a graffiti monument...

to local people who've died to from gun and knife crime.

In the top-left, we've got Venn Dogg, that's Venomous,

who died just there from gun crime.

Jonathan Matondo, a.k.a. Venomous, was in a gang.

In October 2007, he was shot in the head and murdered

as he attempted to escape from a rival gang

that had come to his house to kill him.

His childhood friend, Viper, recounts what happened.

On the night, there was a group of people here.

And somebody came and fired shots

and they tried to run.

A number of shots were fired, and one got Jonathan in the head.

And that's where it hit him, and he died there.

Although the friends had gone their separate ways

since Jonathan had become involved in gang life,

his death was still a huge shock.

I wasn't as closed to him as I would've liked at the time he died.

And for the local area, it was sad, because he was 16 -

another young kid shot over nothing, really, and a life wasted.

So it was just sad for everybody, really.

Growing up in this area,

I've had lots of people who went down the other way to me,

and if all the friends that are around you

are doing that kind of stuff, it's quite easy to get dragged into it.

But many parents of young people caught up in gang culture

are unaware that their children are involved.

We did find out that Jonathan was in a gang when he was dying.

When he died,

we were told by the police that he was living a double life.

But when he was alive,

why did he not tell us, so that we could do more?

What happened to Jonathan...

Us as a family, that was a big loss.

It was a very, very big loss.

Every, every day, every moment, every minute, we think about him.

We lost a really, really...

We miss him. We really miss him.

There he is with you on his knee, big, lanky legs.

For mothers and families left to pick up the pieces,

it can take years to come to terms with the loss of a child.

Theresa Cave's son, Christopher,

was beaten and stabbed 19 times by a gang

as he defended a friend who was being intimidated by gang members.

He was stabbed in both legs. He was stabbed through the back first.

He was stabbed through the palms of the hands in defence,

the soles of his feet.

He was bottled in the back,

he was kicked to the groin, he was punched to the brain.

And he'd been left to die in a pool of blood on a stairwell.

And, um, the shock...

because I didn't expect that to greet me at the hospital.

And...I took him into my arms...

And they closed his eyes for me.

And there was a bandage on here.

And I examined his body. And he had 19 wounds on his body.

And...

he was still warm. I could feel him. He was still warm.

I'm sorry.

See, it never goes away. It never, ever leaves you.

But...that's how you find them.

That's how...that's life. That's reality.

And that's how we found him.

He did nothing wrong. He had a good job. He had a lot of friends.

He'd never been in trouble with the police in his life.

He despised drugs and violence in every shape or form.

And yet still he was the victim of a knife crime.

The pain goes on forever. I mean, it's nine years, Christopher.

To me, it's yesterday, because I still wake up in yesterday.

And I can't wake up in tomorrow. I never, ever can.

OK then, guys, so welcome to today's session.

The thing we're going to be looking at today is goals in your offending.

Whether it is a gang-related death, violent attack or robbery,

a spell in jail gives those caught time to reflect on the damage they have caused.

Would you be happy for your goal to be money?

-That's the reason why it happened?

-Yeah.

-OK. You can move to goal, please.

'When you come to prison, you have a lot of time to think.

'I think you kind of put yourself in the shoes of your victim.

'And just think, what would I have done?

'How would I have felt if I was that guy's mother or father or whatever?'

It doesn't feel good.

I can kind of see like why people...

really want prisoners to suffer. I can understand it.

The realisation that it weren't really the best thing like was, erm,

was like sitting down in jail getting knocked back on parole,

cos I was involved in gang fights

and I still associate with old gang peers and whatnot.

And sitting down for years, my family just out there

and I'm in here. So the penny just dropped, if you like.

I realise it's not really where I want to be -

I don't really want to be sitting in jail for the rest of my life.

We've put a few questions up here.

And these are, what do you want to achieve? What was your reason behind it?

'Now I've been here in jail three and a half years.

'A lot of time to think, you know. Like it wasn't worth it at all.'

Basically, greed got to my head, and that's why I didn't stop, innit?

If I stopped, I wouldn't have been in jail. You know what I mean?

I've got family out there that paying for my, my mistakes.

They're suffering more than me.

The short-term gains seem all well when you're actually out.

But the long-term cost of gang life is, it's not worth it at all.

You get into lots of conflicts.

People you'd know will either be in jail for the rest of their life

or some people pass away.

The drama and everything you go through, it's not worth it at all.

The government have recently cracked down heavily on gangs.

Anyone present during a gang-related crime

can be charged with joint enterprise for the offence.

The police are also making examples of infamous groups,

so more gang members are being prosecuted and jailed.

Terry Thomas is leaving jail after serving a five-month sentence for a knife offence.

The experience was a powerful wake-up call for him.

Three people committed suicide whilst I was in there.

I found it was a wake-up call.

You realise there's more to life than this culture.

If you're continuing to be in criminal activity

for the rest of your life, eventually you're going to get caught.

And to escape that, you've got to be strong, strong-minded.

It's a way of life for people. That's all people know.

But you can get away from it, you can.

You've just got to be strong and focus on yourself,

stop worrying about what everybody else is thinking about you.

That's the real challenge.

But the friends of murdered gang member Jonathan Matondo

have found a positive way to move beyond the shadow cast by his death

and the gang culture that has damaged their local community.

Their music project offers a space for young people to be safe and off the streets.

# All right, P Jonathan

# Missed, never forgotten

# Joe, listen

# Joe

# Often the one that talks Screws behind my back

# I back plenty Your man say, "war"

# But the favour I never got that back

# So I don't want to hear no talk from them, man

# About how they back beef and trap. #

I want to do that again.

I definitely feel that somebody needs to do more for these youths

to keep 'em off the street

and keep their mind occupied on things that are positive.

I guess, like, Jonathan's death also is the kind of thing

that makes me how I am now

where I will try and do as much as I can for my people around me.

We can't help everybody, but anybody that does reach out,

we do like, try and do what we can to help them.

# And your flow I draw for is cold

# And your flow you draw for is due, due, due, due, due. #

For all of us... There's a call to action for all of us to say,

"Listen, what can we do to mentor, to encourage young people

"to nurture them in a way where they think,

" 'OK, there is a way out'?

"You don't have to go down that road

"and...you need to know the risks that go with those choices."

Segun is 13 and from South London.

For the last two years, his life has been endangered by the local gangs

that control his area.

But despite the gang violence that surrounds Segun,

he still feels the need to mix with those that are in

and are affiliated to gangs.

Walking the line's like, to either join a gang or not to join a gang.

I'm not picking none of them options - I'm...in between.

I'm not in a gang, but I can still walk around,

I can still say hi to certain people.

I get myself out of tricky situations if I have to.

Why you talkin'?

But Segun's family is worried that his proximity to gangs

could result in him being killed or going to jail.

They get together to discuss what they can do to help keep him safe.

But if you're walking fine line, you're not in a gang.

But you know a gang.

If you move into that area, if you find your local gang,

you're like, "Yeah, all right. Hello."

-Yeah.

-That's the best thing to do.

-That's the best thing to do.

-Go say hello and you get robbed.

Get robbed? No! But if you're walking a fine line, you don't...no.

I remember one time I was going through my brother's BB,

obviously when he wasn't looking, yeah...

Are you...?

And then there was like...

I think it was one of Seg's school friends is like,

"Do you want to be in my gang?"

What made me so proud, Seg's like, "No, I don't want to do that."

I didn't even have to, like, think twice about it.

I'm not saying, well, you shouldn't be in a gang

or you should be in a gang,

I'm saying, like, be...

be on that fine line.

Just be on the line. I'm not in a gang, but I can say hi to them.

As soon as you do that, they're going to want you to join the gang.

If you say no, they'll think you are against them,

and if you say yes, you're into the gang.

If you don't want to be in this gang life,

don't associate with no-one.

When you don't associate with no-one, that's when you become a victim.

It's half term, and Segun and the family have decided

that he should attend an anti-gang crime conference

to help him understand the consequences of gang life.

Former leading gang members share experiences with the audience

in a bid to get them to understand why gang life

is definitely not cool.

When I was on the streets, I was brainwashed,

I had nothing going for me.

I got stabbed when I was a kid.

After I got stabbed, I said,

"Hold on a minute, this can't happen again."

Specialist youth workers and experts in the field

are on hand to assist and provide direction and intervention.

Segun meets one of them, David Mullins,

whose organisation helps young people without fathers in the home

to seek out positive male role models.

Tell me a little bit about where you come from,

what are some of the dilemmas that you're finding yourself in?

I'm not in a gang, I'm not involved in a gang.

The gang's not my crowd, but I know certain individuals

where I could, like... "I'm cool with him."

You've grown up with them.

You've gone to school with them or you've seen them around your way,

so it's inevitable.

I think a lot of the time parents will say,

-"Don't even talk to them..."

-Yeah.

..and probably don't understand the logistics of that

and how sometimes unrealistic that is.

So, inevitably, they are associates,

and what's important is

what you do with that... association.

Segun then meets with reformed gang member Jamal

who also thought it was possible to walk the line between

being in a gang and not getting involved in the lifestyle.

I didn't come from a bad background, my home life was all right.

My house was nice,

my mum raised me well.

I had gangs around me, but I sort of rebelled from being in a gang,

but I still got involved in selling drugs

and walking around with weapons.

How have you turned your life around from going into prison?

-I had examples around me.

-Oh, yeah.

I had my brother who is in jail now for murder.

I've got another cousin who just came out of jail recently.

I've looked at their life and I've said...

..that's exactly where I was headed.

But a lot of people glamorise that lifestyle.

People just pretend that it's a good life. It's not a good life.

Then former gang member Robyn Travis

separates the fact from fiction on how dangerous it is being in a gang.

I've got scars... stab wounds, been shot at.

Mental wounds that can't really heal.

It's not something that I'm bragging about or I'm proud of.

When asked, "Have I been to prison?" I bow my head and say,

"Yeah, I've been to prison." I'm not proud of it.

Today, I've met people that's been through stuff

and turned their life around.

So if I decide not to fall into these traps,

then life could be a lot better for myself.

Segun is beginning to realise that the apparent glamour of gangs

and road economics

is less important than having a role model in his life -

someone who can show him how to believe in a future

that does not include jail or a premature and violent death.

-Segun?

-Yeah.

He meets multi-millionaire property magnate Charles Gordon,

who faced a similar dilemma to Segun 20 years ago.

-This is sick.

-Yeah, I've got a PlayStation in here, as well.

-For real?!

-Yeah, yeah.

-That's how we do, cuz.

Shit!

That's sick, that's sick.

From my perspective,

I know a lot of guys that have been involved in gangs

and even when I was younger, I dabbled.

What I learnt early, is that there's no positive position

that comes out of it.

None whatsoever.

The first thing to do is make a plan of where you see your life going

and what you see yourself doing.

As a young black person,

where do you see other black, successful people?

-Music or football guys!

-Yeah?

-Yeah, yeah.

-You seeing it?

Yeah.

A lot of the programming,

a lot of the things that you think you think

are kind of messages that are implanted in your head.

You've got to almost break that mould, if you see what I mean,

because, for me...

it does come down to role models,

it does come down to all of those aspects,

because if you see certain things and you think,

"I can achieve that," then you strive to achieve it.

The only thing stopping you from achieving anything in this world

is your belief in yourself to achieve it, do you understand, yeah?

I believed there was nothing I couldn't do

and then I went out there and I did it.

There was always a way to do it, and it's a similar concept for yourself.

Just decide what you want to do and know that you can do it,

cos the only limitations we have

are the limitations we place on ourselves.

-Yeah.

-Just think big. Aim big and don't stop until you get there.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-All right.

'Meeting someone like Charles has inspired me,

'cos he's obviously living the life right now

'and he's obviously come from a place that I've come from.'

So seeing that it's possible to live a life like that,

coming from where I'm coming from, it's great news.

It's just a little bit more hope.

Segun has now seen the light.

He now understands

that walking the line between gangs and street life

will not guarantee him success in life.

All of the knowledge I've gained,

it's so difficult to refuse the positivity that I can grab from it.

Being in a gang's not going to help you forever,

you're not going to be in a gang forever.

But a job, a good job that you want...

that's bringing in money,

putting food on the table...

that's the best option to go for.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd