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Jun 21, 2023

Resurgence of Scottish gang violence must be tackled and dismantled

Record View says we must not rest on laurels or become complacent about Scotland’s ranking in gang-related violence. Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our

Record View says we must not rest on laurels or become complacent about Scotland’s ranking in gang-related violence.

Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter

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Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter

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Scotland is no stranger to gang violence.

Glasgow’s historic No Mean City reputation, which found echoes in the resurgence of knife crime at the turn of the 20th century, was tackled head-on by a combination of police, court and community action.

The pioneering work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit turned around the stabbing statistics and put many young gang members back on the right road.

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There is, of course, no reason to rest on laurels or become complacent about Scotland’s ranking in gang-related violence.

There are warnings of a worrying new trend of Drill Gangs, dedicated to violence without redemption, sweeping through the country having being borne across the Atlantic.

School closures, a rise in poverty and the copycat power of internet videos are combining, experts warn, to a new explosion of violence ranging from football hooliganism to street attacks.

All the lessons of previous waves of gang-related violence are already in Scotland.

Just as this stupid trend for drill gangs is being imported into the country, it is time to revive and improve the existing system for tackling and dismantling gangs.

On the pavement adjoining the north-east side of St James’s Square in central London is a small stone tablet commemorating a cowardly murder.

“Here fell WPC Yvonne Fletcher”, reads the plaque which tells the near-forgotten story of the young policewoman tragically killed while on duty on April 17, 1984.

Yvonne was fatally wounded by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy as she patrolled a demonstration outside the building.

The killer and the organisers from the Gaddafi regime were spirited away under diplomatic immunity.

But the man who was on duty with Yvonne that day, John Murray – who said he still suffers nightmares about her death – did not give up on his friend.

Yesterday, almost four decades after her murder, a High Court judge found a former aide to Colonel Gaddafi was jointly liable for her shooting after John’s long legal fight.

John cannot forget how his colleague fell and his fight for justice is testimony to a very special bravery.