[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Livia

I am tired of being told, on this forum, by people who have no idea who I am, that I must be honest with myself.

The fact this kid, from Leyton, who's been killed in a gang murder, is sitting on an illegal moped, with his face covered making a gun sign... doesn't ring any alarm bells with you? You can't see the correlation?

I come from east London, I'm a descendant of refugees. I've lived most of my life happily in one of the most racially diverse places in the country and I'm well acquainted with Leyton. I've seen kids just like this boy, younger than this even, hanging around on the streets, smoking dope and God knows what else, getting groomed by gangs, dropping out of school... Who is going to take responsibility for them? They're children. If there parents aren't going to take care of them, who is? Social Services? The police? Because when one of the dead kid's family comment, it's always that it's someone else's fault.

Was a general point, not aimed specifically at anyone in particular, just more of a commentary on what I read.

Kids with hoodies and masks, walking around the streets pretending to be gangsters can be seen in most big cities across the UK. I was smoking weed, underage drinking too, but because I grew up in a village that was deemed as one of the top 10 places to live in Europe by forbes magazine at one point, then none of this was an issue, and my parents didn't need to be controlling me. I remember seeing my brother crawling across the floor off his face on mushrooms when he was 13, and I was 7 (I didn't know what he was doing at the time!), that he picked from our own fields.

It's because you come from a refugee background that I expect you to know more and be better, and not to use it as a free pass to denigrate others.

These issues in life are rarely black and white, and laying them out as so does nothing to further understanding, discussion, or debate.