Gun crime in south Manchester
Encyclopedia
Analysts trace the high rates of gun crime in south Manchester, England, to acute social deprivation in an inner city
area south of Manchester city centre
stretching from Hulme
through Moss Side
to Longsight
. Whilst by the 1990s, the trade in illegal narcotics and firearms had given rise to Manchester's nickname of "Gunchester", by the late 2000s levels of gang related gun crime had greatly reduced in the area as a whole ". The reasons for this transformation are not entirely clear but the heavy sentencing of main offenders and finding new ways of police, agency and community working and co-operation in tackling this kind of crime may have played a key role.
and poverty in the area, which is known as a centre of Manchester's Black British
/Afro-Caribbean
community. Finding it difficult to make a living from legitimate means some residents chose to turn to the drug trade - mainly the sale of cannabis
.Most of the drug conflict was centred around the Moss Side precinct where black British youths would sell cannabis or heroin. After police cracked down the drug sellers moved down to the Alexander park estate in Moss Side.
During the early 1990s, the use of firearm
s by criminals in south Manchester soared along with gang associations. Gangs related to their 'patch', named after places such as Gooch Close, Doddington Close and the Pepperhill pub. South Manchester's gangs became engaged in feuds with each other for the control of the drug trade. Shootings and murders increased in frequency in the area. This started attracting negative news and media headlines, with the nickname of 'Gunchester' being used to sum up this increase in gang, drugs and firearms activity.
Gun related violence featured throughout the 1990s. In January 1993 14 year old Benji Stanley was shot dead as he queued for a Alvinos takeaway in Moss Side. The reasons surrounding his shooting are not fully known and no one has ever been prosecuted for this crime.
During the mid-1990s, the police
started developing new approaches to confronting gun crime in south Manchester which initially met with limited success. These started with Operation China in the mid 1990s, which aimed at targeting gang members and taking them out of circulation.
By the late 1990s gun related killings had increased with the nature of shootings changing becoming more reckless often seeming to take place over petty disputes, such as 'a row over a girl or ownership of a bike', and, surprisingly, rarely over the drug dealing "turf". 1996 saw 28 confirmed shootings with 12 wounded and four dead. In 1997 there were 68 confirmed shootings, with 39 injuries and six deaths. In 1999 more shots were fired in the Manchester area than in any other year, at least 270 (based on found casings), with the majority being in the south Manchester areas of Longsight, Moss Side and Hulme . In 1999 there were 43 gun related injuries and seven fatalities.
Source: Manchester Evening News
:
1999 Tilley and Bullock report. A new approach to tackling gun crime began to develop with police working more closely with the local community and other agencies.
The high rate of shooting incidents continued into the early 2000s, though gradually the number of gun murders declined to a much lower rate. April 2004 saw panic at Manchester Royal Infirmary
as rival gangs spotted each other after a shooting and ran through the building with guns in the air.
Bearing similarities to the death of Benji Stanley 13 years earlier, 15 year old Jessie James was killed on 9 September 2006, cycling home from a party with friends. The youngest victim since Benji Stanley, his was also believed to be a case of mistaken identity, with the police maintaining he wasn't involved in any of the area's gang and drug related activities. Similarly, the lack of witnesses willing to come forward has prevented his killers being identified and bought to justice.
In January 2007 the Manchester Evening News
reported a 'consistent decrease' in firearms incidents over a period of two years, which it attributed to the work of Xcalibre, Greater Manchester Police's specialist task force. Xcalibre received a funding boost of £6.5 million in June 2008 A police spokesman said that the recent Operation Cougar has had a "massive impact" on gang related shootings in the area and it was hoped the new money would help build on that success.
A combination of targeting key offenders, along with diversionary activities and better communication with the local community, through working closely with local authorities, including child protection and other agencies, appears to have been effective in cutting gang related firearms incidents.
In April 2009, Joyce and Amos were among 11 members of the 'Gooch gang' who were found guilty and charged with a 'catalogue of crimes' which included the murder of Ucal Chin and Tyrone Gilbert. These convictions were hailed by Manchester's chief prosecutor
John Holt as having 'enormous significance for public safety'. Not unusually, the perpetrators of gun crime were also the victims, with Amos's brother Stephen Baba-Tunde Amos having been shot dead, in a gang related shooting, aged 21, outside a bar in Ashton-under-Lyne
in 2002.
Colin Joyce, aged 29, known as the leader of the gang, was given a minimum 39 year sentence. Lee Amos was sentenced to receive at least 35 years. Three other members of the gang were given minimum sentences of between 30 and 35 years.
resident Giuseppe Gregory outside the Robin Hood pub in Stretford
on 10 May 2009. He was someone who had been noted for an association with gang members and police had sought to warn him of the dangers by delivering a note to his home address in November 2008, in accordance with Operation Cougar policy of treating potential young gang members as children at risk.
Following the shooting, there was some apprehension about the possibility of reprisals but shootings continue to be at an historically low level, with only one fatal gang related shooting in 15 months.
On 3 December 2009 Khurram Ashraf, a 30 year old student, was shot outside a money exchange in Longsight, later dying in hospital. The motive appears to have been robbery, with a laptop and £10,000 in cash thought to have been missing. It did not initially appear to be gang related.
, Conservative
Shadow Home Secretary
, in August 2009, comparing Moss Side to the Baltimore
set TV series 'The Wire
' met with an angry response in the area, from locals and the police. Having been out on patrol for a day with the police, observing the results of a shooting at a house, he described himself as having witnessed an "urban war" and said "It's the world of the drama series The Wire". Police responded that gang related shootings in Greater Manchester had fallen by 82 percent on the previous year, and that to speak of "urban war" was "sensationalistic". They said that he had not taken account of their achievements in pursuing a multi agency approach to tackling gun crime in the area.
Local councillor Roy Walters complained of the Moss Side unfairly being a "negative target" due to historical associations. Sticking by his comments, he said, "I didn't say Moss Side equals Baltimore. What I said is that we have in Moss Side symptoms of a gang conflict in this country which I find profoundly disturbing". Baltimore, with a population of about 600,000, was noted as having 191 gun related murders in the past year, in comparison to Moss Side, which had none.
of Greater Manchester Police, Peter Fahy
, referred to the need to keep guns off the streets. He spoke of working with the local community with the aim of identifying those at risk of being drawn into gang membership and educating them as to the consequences of involvement in such activities.
Some newspapers have reported a change coming from within the community in the area of Moss Side, in particular, where there have been no gun fatalities for over three years, reporting that "Moss Siders feel that change is running more deeply than the police's work in winning convictions for the Gooch gang". Patsy McKie, whose son was shot dead over ten years ago, in a row over a bike, was reported as saying "People are standing up and saying, we don't want this any more, and the young people are taking notice". Local councillor
, Alistair Cox, noted ""People had been very frightened, understandably. But witness protection
schemes and an absolute transformation in policing have changed that".
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
area south of Manchester city centre
Manchester City Centre
Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England. It lies within the Manchester Inner Ring Road, next to the River Irwell...
stretching from Hulme
Hulme
Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....
through Moss Side
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 17,537...
to Longsight
Longsight
Longsight is an area of Manchester, England, about south of the city centre. Its population is about 16,000.-History:Longsight has been known over the past for its gang related violence, similar to that of nearby Moss Side. Most of the violence came from tensions between 2 gangs; The Longsight...
. Whilst by the 1990s, the trade in illegal narcotics and firearms had given rise to Manchester's nickname of "Gunchester", by the late 2000s levels of gang related gun crime had greatly reduced in the area as a whole ". The reasons for this transformation are not entirely clear but the heavy sentencing of main offenders and finding new ways of police, agency and community working and co-operation in tackling this kind of crime may have played a key role.
History
Gun crime in Manchester appears to have begun in the 1970s at a time of rising unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and poverty in the area, which is known as a centre of Manchester's Black British
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
/Afro-Caribbean
British African-Caribbean community
The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...
community. Finding it difficult to make a living from legitimate means some residents chose to turn to the drug trade - mainly the sale of cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
.Most of the drug conflict was centred around the Moss Side precinct where black British youths would sell cannabis or heroin. After police cracked down the drug sellers moved down to the Alexander park estate in Moss Side.
During the early 1990s, the use of firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
s by criminals in south Manchester soared along with gang associations. Gangs related to their 'patch', named after places such as Gooch Close, Doddington Close and the Pepperhill pub. South Manchester's gangs became engaged in feuds with each other for the control of the drug trade. Shootings and murders increased in frequency in the area. This started attracting negative news and media headlines, with the nickname of 'Gunchester' being used to sum up this increase in gang, drugs and firearms activity.
Gun related violence featured throughout the 1990s. In January 1993 14 year old Benji Stanley was shot dead as he queued for a Alvinos takeaway in Moss Side. The reasons surrounding his shooting are not fully known and no one has ever been prosecuted for this crime.
During the mid-1990s, the police
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
started developing new approaches to confronting gun crime in south Manchester which initially met with limited success. These started with Operation China in the mid 1990s, which aimed at targeting gang members and taking them out of circulation.
By the late 1990s gun related killings had increased with the nature of shootings changing becoming more reckless often seeming to take place over petty disputes, such as 'a row over a girl or ownership of a bike', and, surprisingly, rarely over the drug dealing "turf". 1996 saw 28 confirmed shootings with 12 wounded and four dead. In 1997 there were 68 confirmed shootings, with 39 injuries and six deaths. In 1999 more shots were fired in the Manchester area than in any other year, at least 270 (based on found casings), with the majority being in the south Manchester areas of Longsight, Moss Side and Hulme . In 1999 there were 43 gun related injuries and seven fatalities.
Gun crime fatalities by area: 1999–2009
| Area | | Year | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | TOTAL | |
| Ardwick | - | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Beswick | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Chorlton-cum-Hardy | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Chorlton-on-Medlock | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | - | - | 2 |
| Fallowfield | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Gorton | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| Hulme | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Levenshulme | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Longsight | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 10 |
| Moss Side | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 2 | - | - | - | 5 |
| Old Trafford | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | - | - | - | - | 3 |
| Stretford | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Whalley Range | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Withington | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| TOTAL | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 35 |
Source: Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
:
Multiagency response to gun crime
In 2001 a multi-agency approach to tackling gun crime was initiated when the Manchester Multi Agency Gang Strategy (MMAGS) was introduced as a result of the Home OfficeHome Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
1999 Tilley and Bullock report. A new approach to tackling gun crime began to develop with police working more closely with the local community and other agencies.
The high rate of shooting incidents continued into the early 2000s, though gradually the number of gun murders declined to a much lower rate. April 2004 saw panic at Manchester Royal Infirmary
Manchester Royal Infirmary
The Manchester Royal Infirmary is a hospital in Manchester, England which was founded by Charles White in 1752 as a cottage hospital capable of caring for twelve patients. Manchester Royal Infirmary is part of a larger NHS Trust incorporating several hospitals called Central Manchester University...
as rival gangs spotted each other after a shooting and ran through the building with guns in the air.
Bearing similarities to the death of Benji Stanley 13 years earlier, 15 year old Jessie James was killed on 9 September 2006, cycling home from a party with friends. The youngest victim since Benji Stanley, his was also believed to be a case of mistaken identity, with the police maintaining he wasn't involved in any of the area's gang and drug related activities. Similarly, the lack of witnesses willing to come forward has prevented his killers being identified and bought to justice.
In January 2007 the Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
reported a 'consistent decrease' in firearms incidents over a period of two years, which it attributed to the work of Xcalibre, Greater Manchester Police's specialist task force. Xcalibre received a funding boost of £6.5 million in June 2008 A police spokesman said that the recent Operation Cougar has had a "massive impact" on gang related shootings in the area and it was hoped the new money would help build on that success.
A combination of targeting key offenders, along with diversionary activities and better communication with the local community, through working closely with local authorities, including child protection and other agencies, appears to have been effective in cutting gang related firearms incidents.
Jailing of the Gooch gang
Ten members of south Manchester's Gooch gang were put on trial in October 2008 for a catalogue of gang related crimes. Gang members Colin Joyce and Lee Amos, had been arrested in 2000, when they had been apprehended at their 'nerve centre' in a house in Moss Side, found with a 'extraordinary array of firearms'. In 2001 they had been sentenced to a 9 years in prison but had been released early, on licence, in 2007 and there had followed a new bout of shootings.In April 2009, Joyce and Amos were among 11 members of the 'Gooch gang' who were found guilty and charged with a 'catalogue of crimes' which included the murder of Ucal Chin and Tyrone Gilbert. These convictions were hailed by Manchester's chief prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
John Holt as having 'enormous significance for public safety'. Not unusually, the perpetrators of gun crime were also the victims, with Amos's brother Stephen Baba-Tunde Amos having been shot dead, in a gang related shooting, aged 21, outside a bar in Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
in 2002.
Colin Joyce, aged 29, known as the leader of the gang, was given a minimum 39 year sentence. Lee Amos was sentenced to receive at least 35 years. Three other members of the gang were given minimum sentences of between 30 and 35 years.
Shootings in Stretford and Longsight
Optimism about the reduction in gun crime in the south Manchester area was tarnished by the shooting dead of 16 year old ArdwickArdwick
Ardwick is a district of the City of Manchester, in North West England, about one mile east of Manchester City Centre.By the mid-19th century Ardwick had grown from being a village into a pleasant and wealthy suburb of Manchester, but by the end of that century it had become heavily industrialised...
resident Giuseppe Gregory outside the Robin Hood pub in Stretford
Stretford
Stretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
on 10 May 2009. He was someone who had been noted for an association with gang members and police had sought to warn him of the dangers by delivering a note to his home address in November 2008, in accordance with Operation Cougar policy of treating potential young gang members as children at risk.
Following the shooting, there was some apprehension about the possibility of reprisals but shootings continue to be at an historically low level, with only one fatal gang related shooting in 15 months.
On 3 December 2009 Khurram Ashraf, a 30 year old student, was shot outside a money exchange in Longsight, later dying in hospital. The motive appears to have been robbery, with a laptop and £10,000 in cash thought to have been missing. It did not initially appear to be gang related.
Comments of Chris Grayling
Comments of Chris GraylingChris Grayling
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Grayling, PC, MP , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Shadow Cabinet from 2005 to 2010 and was the party's Shadow Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010. Following the 2010 general election, he was appointed a Minister of State in the...
, Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Shadow Home Secretary
Shadow Home Secretary
In British politics, the Shadow Home Secretary is the person within the shadow cabinet who 'shadows' the Home Secretary; this effectively means scrutinising government policy on home affairs including policing, national security, immigration, the criminal justice system, the prison service, and...
, in August 2009, comparing Moss Side to the Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
set TV series 'The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
' met with an angry response in the area, from locals and the police. Having been out on patrol for a day with the police, observing the results of a shooting at a house, he described himself as having witnessed an "urban war" and said "It's the world of the drama series The Wire". Police responded that gang related shootings in Greater Manchester had fallen by 82 percent on the previous year, and that to speak of "urban war" was "sensationalistic". They said that he had not taken account of their achievements in pursuing a multi agency approach to tackling gun crime in the area.
Local councillor Roy Walters complained of the Moss Side unfairly being a "negative target" due to historical associations. Sticking by his comments, he said, "I didn't say Moss Side equals Baltimore. What I said is that we have in Moss Side symptoms of a gang conflict in this country which I find profoundly disturbing". Baltimore, with a population of about 600,000, was noted as having 191 gun related murders in the past year, in comparison to Moss Side, which had none.
Community attitudes
In the wake of the Gooch gang prosecutions, Chief ConstableChief Constable
Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
of Greater Manchester Police, Peter Fahy
Peter Fahy
Peter Fahy QPM is the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police , the United Kingdom's third largest police force.-Personal life:Fahy holds a degree in French and Spanish from the University of Hull, and a Masters degree from the University of East Anglia.-Police career:He joined the police in...
, referred to the need to keep guns off the streets. He spoke of working with the local community with the aim of identifying those at risk of being drawn into gang membership and educating them as to the consequences of involvement in such activities.
Some newspapers have reported a change coming from within the community in the area of Moss Side, in particular, where there have been no gun fatalities for over three years, reporting that "Moss Siders feel that change is running more deeply than the police's work in winning convictions for the Gooch gang". Patsy McKie, whose son was shot dead over ten years ago, in a row over a bike, was reported as saying "People are standing up and saying, we don't want this any more, and the young people are taking notice". Local councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
, Alistair Cox, noted ""People had been very frightened, understandably. But witness protection
Witness protection
Witness protection is protection of a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during and after a trial, usually by police...
schemes and an absolute transformation in policing have changed that".