The county lines gangs, the drug dealers come from every ethnicity I can think of
Good Morning Wednesday 6th May 2026
If you bought a potato salad would you expect potato?
It’s been a while so I will start us off…….whats for supper and why?
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This week a 14 year old boy was stabbed to death on a London bus. he was targetted as a member of a specific gang. He had just come out of care and had been groomed and recruited into a gang while in care.
Day after day, week after week we see reports of children being stabbed. Mainly black boys on in city estates, and there seems to be no national initiative to try to deal with the tragic wastage of lives and none of the publicity and horror that surrounds the grooming gangs that exploit vulnerable girls.
How could a 14 year old in council care be an established and targetted member of a gang? Shortly after he died, there was a Drill song online celebrating his death?
How could society be so indifferent to it that it merits a few inches in the news over a few days, before being forgotten, while the scandal of the grooming gangs continues to dominate the headlines.
The county lines gangs, the drug dealers come from every ethnicity I can think of
Kandinsky - the county lines organised crime groups don’t advertise, they keep it quiet. Their curriers might be aged 8 upwards. They’re seduced, treated to stuff, driven ariubd in posh cars then set to work. They are by then totally under the control of their handlers, much like the girls / terrified to tell anyone. Sexual abuse of these boys is common
The pattern is similar
Seduce, befriend, treat then begin the fearbcontrol
Kandinsky we all know about the Pakistani gangs, much less publicity about the white gangs. I suppose being groomed by white men doesn't worry people so much.
Talking about these boys being in gangs, not all of them are, is little different to the people who said groomed girls were making lifestyle choices. All groomed as children, some get to grow up and recover but apparently that's worse than bleeding to death as a child.
The killing of young boys is terrible, even if they are violent & gang members themselves. They need help too. And yes, a lot of these boys are killed which the girls of the grooming gangs aren’t - but the difference is, no one is covering up the drug gangs like they did ( possibly still are? ) with the Pakistani grooming gangs.
There will always be crime, there will always be rapists, child exploitation, & murder. It’s the covering it up that’s the issue.
I was in school in the 40’x and 50’s, the big fear was The Truant
School, a boy was suddenly moved from school to the Truant,
I don’t know what help if any was given to families but this is what happened, only boys I never heard of a girl taken from school
We are failing vulnerable children and their families. 14 years of cuts will do that
Agree theworrywell
How if being stabbed and bleeding to death not as bad as being groomed? How would you even work out what is worse. One thing is for sure and that is if your child bleeds to death there are no second chances, no chance of recovery. I don't want either happening and I can't see why one has to be deemed more worthy than the other.
There’s no comparison IMO between boys being stabbed and girls being groomed and used by sexual predators.It’s a completely different thing, and much worse than a physical injury.
A lot of the boys being knifed are gang members who regard it as a way of life, and if they survive as a badge of honour.
It needs to be got under control, sure, but the grooming gangs are a whole other thing.
vegansrock
What happened to youth services? School welfare officers? Support for families? Special needs schools?
Ooh no all cut during the austerity years. Now we wonder why youth crime is on the up.
And support services for early years, parenting classes, drug/alcohol/mental health services, all decimated. Austerity will continue to cost us
What happened to youth services? School welfare officers? Support for families? Special needs schools?
Ooh no all cut during the austerity years. Now we wonder why youth crime is on the up.
valdali
Allira
The two young boys murdered in Bristol were killed in a case of mistaken identity. The man who drove the four perpetrators there, Antony Snook, expressed innocence but was found guilty and got 38 years in prison.
The shocking thing about knife crime is that it doesn't always involve gangs or County lines; youths carry a knife and aren't afraid to use it if someone looks at them wrongly or says something out of place.
The 15 year old schoolgirl killed in London was just trying to speak up for her friend.
Farms? Apprenticeships?
Sorry, some of them have gone way past the point of that.Mason & Max, what a tragedy. They were 2 boys in a not very good area, not scared, going out& living a normal life, law-abiding & caring & very much appreciated at their schools. Just the sort of young people Bristol need.
The sentences for those who were involved were seriously long, rightly. But did they ever find out who started the chain of events by throwing bricks through one of the perpertrator's windows & injuring their mum? I do hope so.
I don't know, valdali.
It was truly shocking, those lovely boys killed for no reason at all.
It seems that knifing someone is the answer to a lot of things these days. ☹
Allira
The two young boys murdered in Bristol were killed in a case of mistaken identity. The man who drove the four perpetrators there, Antony Snook, expressed innocence but was found guilty and got 38 years in prison.
The shocking thing about knife crime is that it doesn't always involve gangs or County lines; youths carry a knife and aren't afraid to use it if someone looks at them wrongly or says something out of place.
The 15 year old schoolgirl killed in London was just trying to speak up for her friend.
Farms? Apprenticeships?
Sorry, some of them have gone way past the point of that.
Mason & Max, what a tragedy. They were 2 boys in a not very good area, not scared, going out& living a normal life, law-abiding & caring & very much appreciated at their schools. Just the sort of young people Bristol need.
The sentences for those who were involved were seriously long, rightly. But did they ever find out who started the chain of events by throwing bricks through one of the perpertrator's windows & injuring their mum? I do hope so.
A lot of these youths are feral, they hunt in packs. They earn a lot of money from drug dealing and no placements in rural areas will give them that. It’s fantasy and wishful thinking. By the time they’re deep into that lifestyle they don’t care and would knife anybody.
‘Men are stronger than women so have more opportunity.’
My father and my husband, my sons in law/nephews are all physically big men. None of them have hit anybody.
Mr I was 6’ 5 1/2”. I remember when we were young, some other young men trying to provoke or wind him up is it cold up there? Etc. he was so good at deflecting these comments
I’m not sure what point you’re arguing ?
Men are stronger than women so have more opportunity.
But the fact that 3 times more men are attacked than women does show that even the men that do attack people are less likely to attack women than they are men.
No one, especially me, is suggesting females aren’t capable of violence, nor that violence against me doesn’t matter. None of that diminishes the reality, men are more likeky to be violent than women
Yes Jackiest, there have. Teenage (and younger) girls have also committed murder and manslaughter. Whilst the majority of violent crimes are committed by males, they are by no means the only offenders. There are girl gangs and mixed sex gangs too.
Iam64
Yes, men and boys are vulnerable to attacks - by other males. Women and girls tend to be very careful when out, especially at night. Generally speaking, females are less likely to be violent - always exceptions of course.
I don't think my son or partner would be thinking while they were being attacked "Oh it's Ok they are the same gender as me". It is being attacked that worries me not the attacker gender.
There have been cases of women perpetrator of the attack.
Yes, men and boys are vulnerable to attacks - by other males. Women and girls tend to be very careful when out, especially at night. Generally speaking, females are less likely to be violent - always exceptions of course.
Jackiest
Maybe it is the same reason that we talk about women's safety out at night but men are three times more likely to be attacked by a stranger than a woman.
I've stated on a number of threads that my work brings me into the courts on a regular basis and I can confirm this is largely the case.
Even from my own experience...my son was attacked walking home from a friend's house one evening and my brother was attacked returning from work.
Neither are youngsters and thankfully no serious injuries were sustained.
Personally I'd like to see an agenda of "violence towards anyone" being treated with the same seriousness.
BlueBelle
These young kids need moving out of London putting on farms or working on land in some way working with animals being away from the temptations and in a quieter environment maybe learning a trade is far better than locking them up
Most are not bad kids they are feral and frightened
Makes no difference where they live.... County lines is everywhere.....City or rural
Whose talking about 'wringing hands'? I certainly am not. I just think that if the public, as a whole could get as worked up over these senseless killings of children by other chlldren as they do about child sex exploitation, so that it got the sustained publicity it justly deserved. More time effort aand money would be put into taking action on it.
M0nica
Legalising a crime has never been a satisfactory way of dealing with it. Once started where would it stop?
Not to mention the harm that wide use of drugs will do to society. The extent that weed can cause serious lifelong mental illness and psychosis is well documented.
Drugs are already harming society, MOnica. From top to bottom.
Wringing hands over these senseless murders isn’t going to make any difference.
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