People from all over the world give RWD their opinions on violence and express views on the increasing gun and knife crime that is destroying lives.

Omarion
What do you think should be done about the spread of violence?
Where I’m from in Inglewood, California, people in the hood live in a four or five mile radius and they don’t leave. They don’t see outside so they’re institutionalised and they’re stuck into a way of thinking. It would be good if there was someone that could go there and talk to them, but truthfully, it’s up to the individual. People have got to grow up and realise that solving problems doesn’t always have to be violent. Where I lived, there was a lot of Bloods, so you had to really kick it real tough. At one point I was stuck in-between the two worlds. I still have friends there that get down and do their thing but for me, it was a personal choice; the entertainer and happy side of me took over the dark side. So it’s all about the individual. When I was coming up, if you had struggles it was cool cos you could hold your own but people don’t fight anymore, they shoot and they stab. You don’t get a black eye now – if you get shot you’re about to die. I’m about peace, truthfully.

Mutya
How do you feel about the recent youth violence around the UK?
Right now it’s very scary. I mean, it’s made me appreciate my life so much more and made me really think. I mean, these boys are 15. 15 years-old. That’s so young and such a short amount of time to live. I’m scared of kids these days. If I see someone my own age, it’s whatever, but if kids were talking sh*t to me, I would avoid it because it’s like there’s no limits anymore. They don’t care and they don’t see the consequences of what they’re doing. The way I see it, I’m just looking after my friends and my family and I’m keeping myself to myself. It’s too much.

Klashnekoff
How do you feel about the recent spate of violence as a father of two young sons?[/b]
My eldest son is going to secondary school soon, and I’m thinking about how the kids are now – repping this and that. But I’ve made a conscious decision that before he goes to secondary, me and his mother are going to put a hundred million percent into making sure his mind is right. We are going to keep him active and let him know that he’s going to do a lot with himself, and keep reminding him of his greatness. His nickname is Vivid and I keep telling him to chase his dreams because he’s very business minded. My dad died of testicular cancer when I was 17. He was a Rastafarian so when I was young, he taught me Rasta philosophies. I didn’t appreciate it then, but now I’m older and conscious-minded, I identify with it, which comes through in my lyrics. But he died and now I have sons and it’s mad because I’m trying to pass on what I know, teach my youth how to be men. It’s a deep journey. Is there an answer to what’s happening? It’s deep. No.1 is self-awareness. People need to take responsibility. People attach themselves to things like other people or material objects just to get away from themselves. But when you’re on your own, you have to look at yourself and be truthful; I’m not eating right, I’m blazing too much. The answer to everything though is hope and it ain’t over till it’s over. They want us to surrender, but they don’t understand there’s always a way out. One love. Love is the key.

The Game
How has violence affected your life?
I can’t remember the first time exactly, but I’m sure it was one of those times when you’re walking down the street, you hear a gunshot and you turn round to see a body drop. That happens quite often when you’re growing up in these hoods. It’s not only Compton - it’s everywhere - but Compton is one of those places for record-breaking murder sh*t. I’ve lost a lot of friends to a lot of that violence; the streets, the drugs, the gangbanging. Compton is one of the cities in America that there’s less of the important things and more of the things that kill us as a human race. There’s less people being educated and less trash trucks picking sh*t up off the streets and more guns and more drugs. That type of thing breeds for one of the nastiest and f*cked up cities in the world. It’s gonna be that way until someone more than myself does something about it.

Sean Paul
Is music to blame for violent crime?
Art is something that reflects the society of where it comes from, whether it be a picture or whatever, people reflect what them see and what influence them. Everyone does it – whether hip hop or grime – cos it’s for the youth and people talk about what them see. That’s why for me, dancehall, grime and hip hop will always be a music of the yout’s. People fighting against the system. Sometimes people need to free up their thinking. The fact we voice such violent tunes is a crazy thing, but right now it’s happening to us. We have a big murder toll in Jamaica and it’s not us bringing the guns down here. There’s thousands of guns here and from where? Everyone have gun now and to me that's very violent living so it comes out in our art and our music. It’s gang war and politics and drugs – that’s why killing go on here. Jamaican music has expressed certain behaviour over the years simply because it's the main sentiment of the people – it doesn’t mean they’re going to chop them up, or they will bun fire. Right now my question to those dudes is, why say it so many times? It’s really hurting the music on a monumental level. Artists like Beres Hammond are getting cancelled in Europe. To me you should be smart enough to keep onto your career. If you want to be on MTV and BET, why keep doing it?

Snoop Dogg
What efforts have you made to bring peace to Crips and Bloods in LA?
Yeah, see people tend to forget that side of me, but it’s cool. You see, when you doing peace you not looking for credit – you’re looking for results. That’s all I’m looking for. I’m looking for people to give us enough attention to stop the killing. Fighting is cool but killing ain’t. We can fight about it and that’s cool but once you kill, that’s over with. A lot of people are influenced by what they see. It’s bad enough that a Crip and a Blood don’t get along. Why don’t we get along? We don’t know. So let’s give them a reason why we should get along rather than ‘We not supposed to hang with y’all cos y’all wear red and y’all say blood.’ We all black. We all people. We might have some things in common if we just sit down and talk about it. We just a conversation away from peace just as fast as we are a conversation away from war. So it’s a matter of which conversation you want to have.

Tulisa (N-Dubz)
What do you think about what is happening and is music to blame?
What I think is happening is that the generations are getting worse. I don’t know how we’re gonna make it stop, but something needs to be done. I can only see it going downhill now. It’s dangerous cos kids are walking ‘round with lethal weapons. It’s not like they can punch each other in the face and everything’s alright, it’s a dangerous game to be in. I hope the kids of the new generation wise up and see it needs to stop. I think it’s a lack of morals. I’m not blaming the parents, but they need to set an example. But it’s not just parents, it’s the surroundings. People’s morals are getting worse so it’s about strictness and setting standards. There’s a lot of good parents out there but I think discipline needs to be heavier – I think they should bring back spanking! My mum used to spank me when I was naughty, if she hadn’t done that I’d be well out of line by now because you need to know if you do something, there is consequences to that. They say give children more respect, but they’re not earning it.

UnkleJam
Why do you think youth are killing youth?
A lot of black youths are frightened to be themselves because they want to fit in with the gang. And that’s the problem; it’s why we’re having so many killings because everyone is frightened to be themselves. They’re frightened to say ‘I’m not going to fight, I’m going to school’ rather than be a rude boy, which is a stigma of a black person basically. You kill people cos you want to be a bad man? That’s not life. Reality is being yourself. No one in England lives in the hood. If you’re broke here, you go and sign on and they give you a house, they give you food and they give you money. So this whole black on black crime to me is ridiculous. It’s gone to the stage where someone under the age of 20 can’t even go to certain areas cos they’re afraid. So they go get themselves a knife, gun or whatever because they’re frightened. It’s a catch 22, it’s all fear. We need people to speak out about it, this cycle of doing things the same old way – someone has to stop it. It’s not music, it’s not education, it’s not parents. What you need to do is change yourself. When you do that, society will see you differently. You have to change and society will change their mentality. It has to start from yourself.

Ladjua Lesele (Kodjo Yenga’s Mother)
On the loss of her son:
I miss Kodjo and I will miss him forever. My life with my boy was fantastic. We loved each other. We were really inseparable. I will miss him all my life.

Kristina Caeser (Adam Regis’ Mother)
On the loss of her son:
"My house is so quiet. It's empty without him. He would do anything
for me. He was always there to help me."

Kanye West
How do you define right and wrong?
It’s as simple as those words there, you know? You know when you’re doing wrong, and you know when you’re doing right, for the most part. Some people make excuses and excuses are tools used by the weak to create monuments of nothingness. I just want to get that across to people – just be liable for your actions and don’t bill excuses. Just take responsibility and learn from ‘em.

We go on-road to find out YOUR views...
Tanya 22, Camberwell
What are you views on gun/ knife crime?
I’ve seen what everyone has seen on the news and there are things that don’t get as much publicity as they should. There are major crimes that middle class people are not aware of. I personally think that’s why not much has been done about it! It’s got a lot to do with education and job opportunities. There is a way out but it has to start from home.


Tanisha 18, Hackney
Have you seen crime escalate in north London?
There has been a lot happening, especially around my estate. Where I live there are about four gangs and it’s just ridiculous. There are people constantly coming down and shouting and turning up with guns. I don’t know why there is so much people going on about their ends too. If you think about it there is much worse things like global warming… we might not even be here in a couple of years.

Ayesha 17, Essex
Tell us about your area and the problems you face…
It’s not that bad where I live, I’ve only ever heard of one really bad thing where they found a body in Epping Forest. I think it is really stupid why people do things like that, I don’t see the reason. I dunno, I think boys just think they’re all big if they go around in gangs. My cousin was beaten up twice cos of gangs… it is just really stupid. When I went to the police station, the boys were all smiling as if it was funny!

We remember Kodjo Yenga. The 16 year-old teenager was murdered by a single stab wound to the heart in Hammersmith on March 14 2007. Four youths aged 13-16 are currently in custody. Raj Kapone speaks to Lazy, Kodjo’s best friend.

“First of all, people that knew Kodjo, knew that he was a talented, young person. He was loved by his whole community, he was a rarity, an intelligent person. He got 10 A-C GCSE’s and he was really looking forward to his life. He wanted to be a businessman. He also liked his music a lot, he was a MC and he was looking to go somewhere with his music. He was really enjoying his life. I met him at school and we became best friends.

I was with him about an hour before it happened. I was with my mate at my house, when another friend phoned me and told me Kodjo just got stabbed. I just thought, ‘Ah, more stupidness is going on!’ But I didn’t think that he was dead. As soon as I heard the news I ran to the hospital, and as soon as I got there, his girlfriend was there and I hugged her and told her everything would be alright. And she says to me, ‘No it’s not. Kizzle’s dead.’ And at that point, I didn’t know what to think. Within half an hour the whole of West London knew what had happened, and everyone was just upset cos he was a really well known guy. There was lots of people crying- it was so hard to find out your best friend just got stabbed and killed. Everyone was just devastated... everyone was just silent. Even now, everyone’s just devastated, tragic. Missing him a lot, crying. We’d have never thought it would be him.

Personally I’m angry that the ambulance and the police didn’t get there fast enough. I’m sure that if they’d arrived there earlier, then they could have kept him alive for a little bit longer, so that I could have said goodbye. But the point I’m trying to make is that these days no one really cares, to them it’s just more black on black violence. If officials had done something to keep them more on track, like activity centres, anything, so kids had something more constructive to do, then maybe Kodjo would still be alive today.

The worst part is that these were just little boys. There’s no explanation for that. None. A lot of people saw it and no one wanted to do anything. They just let it happen - that makes me feel very angry. What kind of people live around me? Of course some people will be scared and that’s understandable, but sometimes people simply don’t care, and that’s all there is to it. Everyone needs to realise the streets ain’t a joke any more, these things are happening everyday and something needs to be done about it. We have to make sure Kodjo didn’t die in vain. We need to make sure that he’s never forgotten. The streets miss Kizzle.”

If you have any information on Kodjo’s or any other murders, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

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