[guide.chat] riot 7 london gang called broadwater farm
- From: "Vanessa" <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GuideChat" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:47:08 +0100
Broadwater Farm Posse .
Location
London Borough of Haringey. , located on the Broadwater Farm estate within the
N17 postal district.
History
Broadwater Farm housing estate was built in 1970. By 1979, an official report
by the government said that the long-term future of the estate looked bleak and
at best the local authority should seek to make it tolerable for another
decade.
The Broadwater Farm Posse began in the late 1970's with a group of
predominantly British-born black youths of West Indian heritage. One of their
most infamous alleged members was Winston Silcott. He was born in East London
in 1959 to parents who came to London from the Caribbean isle of Montserrat.
Silcott, his younger brother and parents moved to Broadwater Farm (known as the
Farm) in 1964.
Silcott developed interests in reading, writing, music and football and people
recall that he speaks articulately. His academic record and his interest in
reading and writing declined throughout secondary school as he endured racism
from his teachers. At the time, racial tensions in Britain generally were very
high. The government by way of the media helped to alleviate concerns amongst
the wider British population about schools becoming "over-run" by immigrants.
There were policies placing limits on the amount of ethnic minority children
that could attend any one school which resulted in black and Asian kids often
being bussed out into other areas to adhere to this.
There was a point where his parents wanted him to push for a career in
medicine. He went to Sunday School, was in the Boys' Brigade and had an
apprentice by the time he was 15. One morning when travelling to work at his
apprentice aged 15, Silcott was stopped and searched by police. They found
nothing on him yet he was charged and fined £15 for faulty brakes on his bike -
his first conviction. He was stopped and searched and penalised on numerous
occasions afterwards and within 15-months of his apprentice he lost his job.
Silcott, his friend Stafford Scott and others on Broadwater Farm unable to find
employment began hanging around on the estate with little to do. They turned to
crime, burglary. In 1977, Silcott, then 18, and his group were charged for nine
counts of burglary and sent to borstal.
When Silcott got out of borstal, he and his friends pursued music and began
arranging sound systems for local youths. A co-operative started by Broadwater
Farm's youth association also helped the group open a shop to help earn money.
The sound system culture, a competitive scene that brought healthy area
rivalries, sometimes got heated and resulted in clashes between different parts
of London. In 1979, a man attacked Silcott with a broken glass during an
argument at a dance, Silcott jabbed him with a chair leg and later received six
months for malicious wounding.
A musician, Lennie Mackintosh, was stabbed to death outside a party that same
year for which Silcott was charged with murder. Witnesses changed their
testimony and he was later acquitted. At this point, to the police Silcott was
a troublemaker who had now got away with murder. In 1984, Silcott broke up a
row outside the youth associations shop. One of the youths involved in the row
was Anthony Smith, a boxer who led a gang called the "Yankee Posse". They often
came to Broadwater Farm and robbed local youths.
Smith and two other members of the Yankee Posse tried to kill Silcott at a
party in Hackney, east London, December 1984. During the attack Silcott was
slashed twice, a knife was passed to him by a friend that he used to defend
himself, inflicting two stab wounds on Anthony Smith. Smith died two weeks
later in hospital. Silcott, always maintained that he acted in self-defence.
A young woman who was to give evidence against him was kidnapped and threatened
by a group of men not to go to court. The woman, a model, was taken from her
place of work by four men and told if she gave evidence then she would lose her
pretty looks. Silcott was later found guilty of the murder in 1986.
Broadwater Farm Riots
In 1985, the Farm erupted in riots after black resident Cynthia Jarrett died
during a police search of her home. It was the final trigger following years of
unfair and racist treatment by a predominantly white British police force.
Similar unrest had been caused by racist and aggressive police tactics in
Brixton in 1981, and again in 1985. Jarrett's son had been stopped by police
over an allegedly suspicious tax-disc on his vehicle. The police went to search
his home and during the search, a disturbance occurred whereby Mrs Jarrett was
knocked over by a police detective and died almost instantly.
A week earlier, a black woman, Cherry Groce, had been shot by police in
Brixton. The deaths sparked outrage and disturbances grew throughout the day
following in Tottenham. By 9:30pm a full blown riot was taking place on the
Farm on October 6th 1985. At Tangmere House, police officers came under attack.
One of those officers, PC Keith Blakelock was surrounded and attacked with
machetes, knives and other weapons. The group tried to decapitate him. The
police were the enemy, any of them, good or bad, would have been a target.
The case is clearly one of Joint Enterprise, and it would be impossible to
ascertain which of the mob inflicted the fatal wound. At least several people
contributed to the death of PC Blakelock. The police only wanted one man -
Winston Silcott. Many believe that he was the main instigator, it is fair to
assume much of this blame has been perpetuated by the media portrayal. However,
the police were accused of perjury and constructing evidence to put Silcott in
the frame. The facts are that:
- Of more than alleged 30 eye-witness descriptions of Silcott that night, not
one matched the red and white outfit he was wearing
- Of the 1,000 photographs taken during the riot, he appeared on none of them
- Despite there being 42 wounds to PC Blakelock, there was no forensic evidence
linking Silcott to the killing
The only evidence against Silcott was that, officers claimed Silcott had
implicated himself during questioning. The evidence was destroyed by expert
evidence which showed the police notes had been altered and that some of
Silcott's responses were manufactured by interviewing officers.
The killing remains unsolved, by falsely creating evidence against their target
the police have hampered the investigation and denied the innocent victims
family from the truth. This line of thinking will never reach the wider public
who have been conditioned to see Silcott as a 'badman' who is guilty. The truth
is, no-one knows for certain, but Silcott will forever be synonymous with the
label 'cop killer'. If he really was guilty, then unlawful police practice has
stood in the way of justice.
Silcott was initially convicted, but the charge was later squashed after appeal
in 1991.
Aftermath
Following the riot, the Farm gained a reputation for lawlessness, not just
throughout London but nationwide. The police continuously swamped Broadwater
Farm for many years to come. In 1987 during police raids, handguns and other
firearms were discovered as well as drugs. Drug dealing and wider distribution
become the prominent form of income for the local criminals on the Farm with
little opportunity for legitimate employment. For the younger kids aspiring to
be 'shottas', robbery was the main form of crime, carried out in large groups,
during what the 1980's media called a 'steaming epidemic' - despite recorded
levels being half that of today's figures.
In 1988, police arrested Parnell 'Bird' Perkins who was believed to have ran a
powerful international drug smuggling racket from the Farm. He was sentenced to
12-years and ordered to pay back £330,000 of his profits. His organisation had
been bringing in £630,000 worth of cannabis from Jamaica with the aid of female
drug couriers. The gangs influence spread beyond the Farm in Tottenham,
covering nearby areas such as Hornsey and Edmonton.
Policing on the Farm / Community Relations October 2010.
Perkins, who was unemployed, lived on the deprived Farm yet drove a £20,000
Mercedes car, owned holiday homes in the Caribbean and Nova Scotia, and moved
money into foreign bank accounts.
Two years later in 1989 police mounted more raids on drug networks on the
estate. The raid which was to involve 200 police officers was not as successful
as planned. Police believe that the drug network had been tipped off about the
raid. Police were criticised during the raid as innocent residents were
strip-searched. Fifteen people were arrested for supplying drugs and quantities
of cannabis and cocaine were seized along with equipment for making
crack-cocaine.
Frontliners and Tottenham Mandem
What Tottenham, and many other of London's most notorious gang hotspots have in
common, is a criminal (gang) history that evolved rapidly amidst racist and
oppressive policing. This has created long-term distrust and dislike of the
police in such communities that continues to exist, despite the alleged
progress within the Metropolitan Police and following on from the McPherson
Report in 1999. This is a deeply rooted culture that is now so alien to the
police that there is little hope of change in the immediate future.
Winston Silcott was released in 2003 after 18-years in prison for the murder of
Anthony Smith. Had there not been the implication in the PC Blakelock killing,
it is very unlikely that he would have served a full 18 years for the murder of
gangster Smith. He left prison with a glowing report, described as a model
prisoner.
The gang that followed from the Broadwater Farm Posse was headed by youths
involved in those same riots of 1985 - the "Frontliners" or "Totten'am Boys"
gang, later known as the Tottenham Mandem. .
Vanessa the Google Girl
My Skype name is rainbowstar123
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