Our article ‘Streets of Burngreave, safe and quiet’ last month provoked a number of comments from young people, worried we were portraying them in a bad light, and from residents, upset by young people’s behaviour and the difficulty they had in getting the police to respond (see below).
Readers respond
The photograph we used on page 4 last month was intended to show young people hanging about, we didn’t intend to identify any individuals or to imply that they were part of a gang, but some of the young people were worried that they could be recognised. Our thanks to Omer Mohammed, a Connexions Youth Worker, who helped us to talk to some of them. They said;
“You can still recognise people in that photograph. It’s not fair for them to be linked to talk about gangs. It makes people think we’re all in gangs and it’s not like that. If people feel intimidated by us, that can only make things worse.”
Omer talked to them about all the things on offer in the area for young people, but many of them wanted to be in the park.
“There’s nothing to do here. A shelter would be good, but why can’t we use that building at the back?”
Plans are already being made to improve the facilities in Abbeyfield Park see page 10, while Green City Action are continuing to seek funding to bring the stables building back into use.
Lack ofPolice response
We also received a complaint from an Earl Marshall resident about the comment “There was gangs of youths here everyday before. But now the police have clamped down and moved them on.” The resident told the Messenger that the police had been called on many occasions because of blatant drug dealing but they did nothing to tackle this. The resident explained that the young people only moved on because of the shooting.
Other residents have also complained that the police do not respond effectively. A recent environment meeting heard complaints that getting through to police in the first place was difficult. The Messenger has learnt the New Deal Police number is only ever answered by a machine. Residents complained that messages were left but no one returned their calls.
Get your number
A call was made for all residents to make sure they got incident numbers when reporting a crime. That way the complaint is recorded properly, you can follow it up if nothing is done, and if there is still no response, complaints can be made to the police.
The Messenger attempted to get a response to these concerns, and left messages for the New Deal Police Team, but no one responded.
To contact South Yorkshire Police phone 220 2020 or to contact the New Deal Police Team phone 2964381. In an emergency phone 999.