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Fighting guns with words in Birmingham

Mediation methods learned in Northern Ireland aim to end lethal gang warfare

Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent
Monday May 16, 2005
copyright 2005 The Guardian

Leroy McKoy has a novel way of getting young gang members' attention. He asks them to list the children and babies of friends whose funerals they have attended. All can write down several names. Then he asks if they are prepared to add their own children's names.
By their late teens or early 20s, most of the young men involved in Birmingham's violent gun culture are fathers. What forces them to confront their own mortality is the thought of their own offspring being left fatherless.
They listen because Leroy and Antonnie "Rubba" Walker, two members of a unique new five-strong mediation team set up to try to bring about a truce in the gang warfare that has claimed dozens of young lives, were once in their shoes - young, black, poor and seduced by crime. Both served lengthy jail terms, but managed to turn themselves around and are now passionate, articulate advocates of helping the next generation.
The innovative mediation programme, the brainchild of Detective Superintendent Peter O'Neill of West Midlands police, borrows techniques used in Northern Ireland. Mr O'Neill and the mediation team visited Belfast to learn first-hand from go-betweens who helped to broker truces between paramilitaries in one of western Europe's worst civil conflicts. They also travelled to Newark, New Jersey, where mediation persuaded two of the US's bitterest enemy gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, to sign a peace treaty.
While Mr O'Neill has policed the city's gangs for years, and Kirk Dawes, who heads the new mediation service, is a retired drugs squad officer, both are keen to stress that it is not a police scheme. Rival gang members are not there to be interrogated, or forced to become best friends. The mediators do not judge or moralise.
"We're trying to save lives, not souls," explains Mr Dawes. "To many, belonging to a gang is part of their identity. It's about challenging violent behaviour, not gang membership. We're not saying love each other, just don't shoot each other."
Although the two main Birmingham gangs - the Burger Bar Boys and the Johnson Crew - are nowhere near as entrenched or territorial as their US counterparts, the mythology around them, and the kudos of membership, claimed by many with only the loosest affiliations, is difficult to dispel. As Mr Leroy explains, it is hard to dissuade young men with few job prospects or role models from seeing gang members as "ghetto superstars".
Mr O'Neill discovered that while many people had talked to those purporting to represent the gangs, very few had spoken directly to key gang members, or tried to find out their hopes, dreams and fears.
He sums up the main reasons for conflict as the "three Rs": revenue - from drugs or other crime; respect - a huge issue, particularly for young black males, where deadly wars can break out over the most trivial slight; and revenge - tit-for-tat attacks stretching so far back it is impossible to establish the original cause.
He also found that the gang world was so dominated by rumour and innuendo that many people had, in effect, been killed by gossip. He is convinced that by getting it straight from the horse's mouth, mediation has already saved lives.
"There were major problems between a Birmingham gang and a rival group in another city, but by going directly to the chief protagonists, a rumour was proved false and trouble averted," he said.
Trust
Trouble can brew at any time, so mediators have to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Mediation is by the mutual agreement of all participants. Venues are secret, confidentiality is assured, the gang members can have whoever they want present, and it is surprising who they ask for - sometimes the police, sometimes their mothers - strong, respected figures in a culture where fathers are often absent.
Bearing in mind that many participants have a history of violence, every meeting is carefully threat-assessed. If Mr Kirk thinks it is too risky, it doesn't take place.
Trust on all sides is paramount. As Mr Walker and Mr Leroy warn: "You must never promise what you can't deliver. If you bullshit these people, you lose all credibility."
But Mr O'Neill insists it is not a soft option for gang members. "There is no amnesty. It's carrot and stick. If you wish to eschew violence, then you can get help. But if you carry on, the police can get you."
And so they come. They don't want to die. It helps that many of the major players are off the streets - of the 50 most dangerous gun criminals, 25 are in jail, either sentenced or awaiting trial.
Like Northern Ireland, attitudes on the inside can have a huge influence on the outside. Already, two prisoners from opposing gangs have asked mediators to arrange a meeting.
Mr O'Neill hopes that silencing the guns will create space for everyone to think. He is realistic in seeing mediation as just one, albeit vital, part of a holistic solution. The work feeds back to the group Birmingham Reducing Gang Violence, which is working with schools, businesses and the city council to create better education, training, mentoring and support for young people.
Mr Leroy cautions that jobs and facilities are urgently needed, otherwise the danger is that gang members will fall back on violence to fill the void.
It's early days, and the mediators are still far from their ultimate aim: a formally negotiated peace pact between Birmingham's gangs. But they have already achieved significant progress by getting the key players to come in, listen and express their views.
As Mr O'Neill puts it: "They've gone from 'so what' to 'maybe', and that's a long way."