Mayor criticised over response to London Fields shooting
London Fields yesterday, the day after the shooting took place
The Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe, has been criticised for his response to the shooting at 3.30pm on Saturday of a man in London Fields. The man was wounded as two groups shot at each other during festival on Saturday at London Fields, organised by Hackney Council and attended by hundreds of residents and their families.
The Mayor told the BBC, “Despite this very worrying incident, hundreds of people were able to enjoy the event in London Fields safely and without interruption.”
Local people who heard of the remark were appalled that mayor had downplayed the impact of the violent act on the festival.
Criticising the Mayor’s response, local resident Darrell Berry said, “The mayor’s comments of the events in London Fields are wholly inappropriate…
“I’d suggest he refocus on the reason his opinion was asked by the BBC in the first place: a member of the public suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds in a mid-afternoon gang battle at a Hackney Council-organised event.
“That’s an unforgivable failure of the Council’s duty of care towards those in London Fields on Saturday, and an equally unforgivable failure of their ability to uphold the rule of law.”
Hackney local Karen dubbed the remark ‘Crass Comment of the Year” on Twitter, to wide approbation from the borough’s twitteratti.
Other critics have asked whether Hackney Council should be authorised to hold events at which it may not be able to guarantee people’s safety, saying that if the shooting had happened outside a club, it is likely that the venue would have its licence revoked.
Businessman Liam O’Hare said, “This incident just proves that gang violence is a societal problem and not related to licensed premises. Maybe now councils will better understand the difficulties in providing entertainment rather than over react and punish good operators.”
Others are also concerned about the Mayor’s views on the recent stabbing to death of Godwin Lawson and the shooting dead of Agnes Sina-Inakoju.
Hackney Council has been asked to comment.
Update 12:20pm: A Hackney Council spokesperson said that the Mayor’s comment to the BBC was in response to a specific question, and that a full response to the incident will be provided shortly.
Update 2.55pm: A Hackney Council spokeperson said, “The Mayor’s statement was quoted out of context. It was originally given as a response to a question from a journalist asking about the general safety of the event for the public who attended, and included a witness appeal which was not included in all media reports.
“It was also given before any details about the nature of the shooting or its victim were available. We are of course deeply concerned for the welfare of the injured man and are in close contact with the police to get updates on his condition.
“The Mayor and Hackney Council take gun and gang crime extremely seriously and are working hard with the police to support them both in the context of this incident and the wider context of controlling gang activity in Hackney. All public events are risk assessed in partnership with the police. While the incident took place some distance from the event, we will be looking into whether there are any further measures we could take to ensure visitors are as safe as possible.”
Update 4.15pm: Chief Superintendent Steve Bending, Hackney’s Borough Commander, said, “London Fields was packed with thousands of people on Saturday afternoon, many attending a festival and many more simply out with family and friends to enjoy the weather. It would appear that there was a disturbance between two groups of youths and then two shots were fired, resulting in an entirely innocent member of the public being shot. This was a callous, reckless and brazen act, without any thought by those responsible, for the fact that they were in a crowded park. This was quite simply, appalling.
“The incident is being investigated by officers from Operation Trident. I know there were many witnesses to this incident and I would ask that if you witnessed the actual incident, or the events beforehand or have still or video footage that would assist, that you contact the investigation team on 020 8217 7377 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
“In the last three weeks, officers from Hackney Borough have undertaken an intensive operation targeting gang related violence. This operation has so far resulted in 125 arrests for offences including firearms possession, GBH, drugs supply and robbery. Three firearms have been recovered including a Mac10, there have been over 2,000 stops and the execution of 17 search warrants. Whilst strong enforcement activity does not provide a long-term solution, it does bring to justice those who choose to commit gang-related violence. The operation will continue and now intensify.”
Related stories:
The shooting at London Fields: the ‘kidz’ are here!
Hackney Council apologises for removing Godwin Lawson memorial
The ‘culture clash’ at east London Fields (BBC news London, Saturday 29 May 2010)
London Fields shooting likened to Los Angeles gang wars (Guardian, Friday 28 May 2010)
Letter: There is no ghetto of the rich in Hackney (Guardian, Tuesday 1 June 2010)
Time the police did something about these savage beasts that are shooting guns next to an event for children. Stop and search clearly needs to make a come back and these foolish selfish idiots punished …
What was wrong with his comment?? Yes their was a shooting, Yes it is a terrible thing, and yes they need to fsort out the problem. I don’t blame him though, focus on what a good day it was before these animals chose to have gun wars in a park full of familys. Have no sympathy for the so called victim, You live by the gun, You die by the gun. I do not wish death on any, and hope he pulls through, but who is to know what he does while in this “gang” life…
I love and miss hackney, but ain’t coming back till the monster are out. Whe I grew up in Hackney, things were nothing like this, My kids are not gonna become a Hackney statistic.
funnily enough i go through the London Fields every day and i see these gangs on a regular basis. They need to be searched regularly. It is obvious whom is a potential perpetrator of this type of crime and they need to be made to feel that they can’t get away with carrying a gun or knife !!! …. Who has the power ?
Born and bred: maybe you should inform yourself before leaving stupid comments, the victim was an innocent man who was hit when a bullet missed it’s true aim. Live by the gun, aye?
Get your facts right. The victim had nothing to with any gangs. He was just an innocent bystander enjoying the sun with his friends, sitting around 100 metres from the target of the gunman.
Of course when the shots got fired the gang members ran away like the cowards they are. We stayed put until we got moved to the other side of the park by the police.
I’d like to know why there seemed to be no police in the park before the shooting. Surely any event with thousands of people gathering in a public place should be well policed. The west side of the park in particular is well known for gang attacks and a visible police presence in this area would almost certainly have prevented this attack from happening.
The victim was an innocent guy … [Hackney Gazette story here] http://bit.ly/d65YRn
I saw the same gang gathering the next day and guess what … No Police !!! They have a leave it alone attitude …
@Born and Bred Hackney Girl I was under the impression the person who was shot was an innocent bystander and not gang related. This is the frightening aspect to this gang culture that every so often it bleeds into our everyday and normal lives. The mayor’s response could have been more thoughtful to the victim and community needing guidance / support after such an event.
This incident has nothing to do with it being a “Hackney Council Organized event” – It would have happened any way.
This has happened in the past and the connecting circumstances are the heat and well known local gangs.
The fault lays squarely on the local police who should have anticipated it.
Only the day before I said to my girlfriend that a shooting usually happens in london fields in hot weather.
The mayor’s comment is awful – it indicates that the crime took place away from the festival and away from people, in reality it was in a crowded area surrounded by hundreds of people who were just having picnics and BBQs in an open space – very very dangerous place to be shooting guns.
And in response to the person who has ‘no sympathy’ for the victim, this is incorrect, he was just an innocent guy having a picnic with friends and was hit by a stray bullet from the shoot out – I have a great deal of sympathy for him – wrong place wrong time……
The mayor should not down-play this awful crime.
I find it amazing that nobody challenged any of the perpetrators, they just ran away and hundreds of people just sat and watched. It really shows you the kind of people who frequent that area of london fields doesn’t it.
E8M8- Thats a little bit bizarre. Don’t know who you are but tackling a gang running through a crowd yielding guns seems a pretty insane thing to do. Sometimes the community does need to do more, but when the Police aren’t doing anything then what can we do?
Do you seriously think it is a good idea to go running into an estate to chase after an armed gang?
To E8M8
Are you mad? They gang had a GUN! How on earth were we supposed to challenge them?
Police presence should have been hightened. End off
@E8M8
You’re a fool E8M8 who has obviously never encountered a youth with a gun before or witnessed anything like this happening in front of them.
My girlfriend and I were walking through London Fields 2 weeks ago and saw a similar gang shooting unfold. Luckily it was during that weird week where we had 6 degree days and no families were around and no one was injured.
A youth with a gun is the least rationale person in the world, do not in any circumstance try to approach them – they have no regard for human life.
Scary times for familys living in East London. And there I was wondering why all our friends with kids are moving out of the area. As much as I love the place its not somewhere to bring up my family.
As for the mayor, well he needs to have a reality check and look outside of his seat at the town hall. If this happened anywhere else out of London it would have been big news and a strong message on condemnation from someone in his position.
It gives people the impression that this is business as usual and that we should expect this to happen. I don’t think so. A bad day for Hackney but what the hell are the police doing about it? They know about the problems with these gangs but do nothing. It’s not the first time its happened. I feel for the innocent victim of these scum bags.
There are a couple of right morons leaving comments on here.
The chap was an innocent bystander.
I would challenge you to challenge an armed gang with no respect for human life as they run amok through an estate.
I don’t think anyone can blame the event organisers here – as anyone who was there and who goes to London Fields will tell you, the festival was actually a small selection of tents and children’s activity areas, and the park was full of locals (mostly white, posh media types) having BBQs and drinking Pimms and cider. This ALWAYS happens on London Fields when the weather’s nice, it was no more or less busier than on, for example, July 4 last year.
Why the police don’t have a more visible presence in an area where known armed teenage gangs (London Fields Boys, Hoxton Boys) operate, while sending people to close down bars and parties in Shoreditch is something I will never get my head around.
This comment has been deleted following a complaint.
Typical lazy press rubbish, the presence of the ‘festival’ is irrelevant, it had diddly to do with the shooting or the reason why anyone was in the park.. I don’t think most people there even knew the ‘festival’ was going on..
No one had a clue what was happening, a load of black youths came running through the park laughing after the shots were fired – what exactly were we expected to do?
It’s usually a really good atmosphere down on London Fileds in the summer, the crowd is far from the type to encourage or tolerate violence – this was an outside influence from youths who had nothing to do with either the festival or the general public sunning themselves. The only criticism I have is the length of time it took The Police to show up, 15 minutes at least – shameful.
It’s the same story in London Fields at the start of summer every year. Last year, there was a gun related incident, the park was crawling with police and from then on, for what seemed like months, at any given time on a busy day there would be patrols in the park on bike/horseback/foot etc.
However the very day after this recent shooting, I was at the park the whole day and didn’t see any police presence at all.
And @gould terrorist – you’re right – the same gang was standing there by the same bench, just waiting for some action. You know they had weapons ready to use, and we just have to hope that some kids from E9 don’t turn up while we’re there..
I asked a police officer after the incident who I would need to talk to about getting cctv in the park down by the western corner where all the trouble is and he said that hackney council already had the most cctv cameras in London…
Btw – why did it take the police 20 minutes to turn up after the ambulance on Saturday? Useless.
We now need to turn to the police and ask for answers. Answers as to what they intend to do in order to curb the presence of these gangs and ensure the safety of the public.
I’d suggest asking the Mayor for such answers but perhaps we’d get some downplayed response.
If the authorities do not react with strength to this, this situation will spiral out of control.
It is time for the complacency to STOP!
I had this man’s blood on my feet yesterday after helping him.
Most people were more worried about their BBQs or made comments like “This happens in Hackney”. THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE AND WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS IN A CIVILISED 21ST CENTURY CITY!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Agree with stephoid we have had enough and people stop wearing this borough’s violent incidents as a badge of honour. Do we really need to allow this summer to turn into a war zone with our complacency?
Just saw the police slowly amass a force of 13 in the park over a period of 20 minutes, ample time for the usual suspects on their bikes to ride off with anything important. The police then stopped and searched about ten black kids. I saw one held while a ticket was being written out, obviously the poorly conducted operation didn’t turn up anything useful.
Maybe it’s to demonstrate our frustrations before another innocent bystander is shot and maybe killed.
These problems can be eradicated. But it is time for the liberal policing to stop.
These kids are taking away people’s civil liberties and it is about time they lost theirs.
WE SHOULD NOT PUT UP WITH THIS.
How can people say we should have apprehended the youths? Were they actually there? I was, and I can say that although my friends and I were sitting relatively near and saw the youths run away, we still at that point new nothing of what happened. We just sat there looking at eachother waiting for someone to say something. Once we heard on the grapevine that someone had been shot, we waited for the sound of sirens, which took ages. There was no screaming or panic. This is not the movies afterall. Everyone was having a peaceful and happy time before this, infact one of the nicest days in LF so far. It could have been any of us who got shot and it’s scary. I agree that there should have been a police presence seeing as their was an ‘organised’ event happening. What were they thinking? Mr Pipes comments were disgusting and I’m glad people have made their feelings clear. I love LF and will not be put off going there, despite this tragic event. I wish the victim a speedy recovery.
I was there that day as well and what surprised and saddened me, was that the festival just carried on regardless. This was a community festival, wouldn’t it be right to pay our respects to an innocent member of the community who just got shot. I found the whole atmosphere just surreal. Especially the music which was put on. The choice of (cover) songs was a little tasteless to say least, i.e. take a walk on the wild side etc…
My thoughts are with the victim and his familiy who’s lives were turned around in that instance, in that split second- I think to stop partying wouldn’t be asked to much of everyone else there.
As to the police, I lost faith in them a long time ago. I see a lot of activity in stopping cyclist crossing red lights or issuing parking tickets- but less so on issues that matter. the number of police men in the park following the incident was a joke and didn’t instill anyone with much confidence on them actually finding the person who shot the gun.
It’s very, very sad.
Moving forward – how do we make our feelings known. I’m all for discussion and its great to see people’s input and feelings are mutually shared, as they should be of course.
What can the Hackney Citizen do to help us get the answers we want… from the police, the mayor etc?
Is this really just a police problem. Do we expect un-armed police to chase these youths into the estates.
What is Mr Pipe doing to stop Hackney churning out these appalingly behaved children who committ these callous, reckless and brazen acts?
Of course, we could try a trial period of zero-tolerance in London Fields, no alcohol, no cycling except on the designated cycle lane, no BBQs, no fires, etc. That, plus a few park rangers (with powers) and a local cop shop, could transform the place.
But, as some local coppers admit, that just moves the problem from one place to another. The gang problem is here and needs to be fixed, soon.
@E8M8 – Yeah the first thing I think of saying when a gang carrying guns runs away from a shooting is ‘now there young man stop at once’. Get some sense.
As well as being saddened by either poor judgement by the Mayor of Hackney, I’m offended and disturbed by the comment left by ‘born & bred.’ The victim was an innocent fun loving big hearted guy, He works hard and pays his taxes so that he can be protected from crime. He is someone who would have been sympathetic had ‘born & bred’ been in his situation. I hope that s/he never wakes up to find out that a member of her family or close friend is ever in this situation and I sinserely hope that they think before hitting the mouse key. this is more than just a story about an old neighbourhood going to pot. This is someones son and brother and friend a fellow citizen of London… does that not mean anything anymore?
As a German living in in this Borough, British non-existing security ‘standards’ are just embarrasing.
Whenever my relatives hear any News about London it is either related to stabbing, murder, drugs, youth and gang crime or rape.
Amid this mayhem black youth gangs in charge of your streets due to a ‘laissez-faire’-policy rather than Law-and-Order.
Less than two years ahead of the London Olympics I am wondering how you are going to protect your guests if you can’t protect your own citizens in the Borough that hosts the Games ?
Media coverage on the continent is speaking a clear language – some more incidents and almost certain you will discover the outcome at your tourist information. I am tired of lying to my relatives: ‘It was not where I am living’. Actually, I left the park by random at 3pm that day.
Dear all,
As a consequence the mayor has to leave his job.
He didn’t ensure security measures in the first place.
The area is notorious for shootings ask the Hackney Gazette.
I saw a shooting from a distance myself one time on Broadway Market. Plenty of people out and about, gang members on bicycles shooting at each other not realizing the danger of the weapon, more like they were in the movies without mercy. Then they ran off and police arrived and closed off the area.
I read once that compassion is a feeling which should be taught by the time you are 4 years old, if it hasn’t been established by that time than there is less hope, plus video shooting games and violent movies will dumb down your feelings of concerns for others.
So the root to prevent is not police at first but to enhance education. I am German too and when we went to school we had educational teams coming to our schools which showed us the effects of being in a clique, peer pressure etc… and they made us understand why not to participate into cliques and gangs. They were also educational teams which came to speak to us about “citizen courage”, how to help someone who is being attacked, how to mobilize a group of people to intervene and if you are being attacked yourself to approach people directly for help like: You in the red coat, help me.
I am so sick of all the crime in London. London needs a zero tolerance policy towards crime and it needs to start with young people, who don’t seem to come out of their own borough and are scared to go into certain streets and who get fighting dogs for protection. You can’t look into their eyes because this is seen as an offence. They cleary loose out on a childhood.
Apropos childhood. Playgrounds in London are appalling and when I came to London in the late 90s I thought that I came to a 3rd world country concerning playgrounds. In Hackney playgrounds have gotten much better now but in Tower Hamlets this issue needs addressing.
Sorry this is not a tirade against London or Britain, I am an anglophile otherwise I wouldn’t be here but coming from a different country gives one the opportunity to see things from another perspective. Germany’s crime rate has dropped again this year even the economy got worse and it is not as good as Great Britain’s.
There is hope with new policies and you can do it if you really want.
look at the murder rate in Joburg South Africa do we want to follow that route … …
time to crack down on these people !!
Also very interesting.
Paintball is an out-of-school activity offered for hackney kids sponsored by the government.
http://www.hmp.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59&Itemid=301
Just google “paintball activity hackney school” and you will find plenty.
Also interesting. If you go to local markets and toy shops you will find plenty of toy guns. Try the same in chelsea and other richer boroughs and you will find it much harder. Ergo it also starts with parenting.
Why don’t they ban paintball for kids?
On the above website it says: ‘A child is not a vase to be filled but a fire to be lit.’ Francois Rabelais.
I guess they rather want them to turn into firing arms.
The mayor has to go!!!!!!!!
Mayor Jules Pipe and Hackney Council are extremely adept at either ignoring or re-spinning anything that casts them or the Borough in a bad light – just read HackneyToday and you’d think we all lived in some Labour created Utopian society.
Jules Pipe is not only wrong for his callous comment on the BBC but he and his administration are wrong for their complete disregard for young people generally.
Jules Pipe’s administration was awarded £2million by the childrens plan to construct play areas for children, £1million of which was to provide a staffed adventure playground where children could be nurtured away from the brutality of the current crisis in their culture.
The Learning Trust made the application citing an empty site on Kingshold Estate, very near London Fields and identified in Hackney Council’s Play Strategy as particularly lacking in facilities for young people.
Jules Pipe’s administration TURNED THIS DOWN. How can you fail to spend £1million on young people in Hackney? Look at what’s happening!
Jules Pipe’s plan for this site, a public site where once stood GLC housing, is for Hackney Homes, a public body, to spend public money on building flats FOR PRIVATE SALE.
When questioned at a public Neighbourhood Forum meeting on this subject, Jules Pipe shrugged his shoulders and smirked. His silver cuff links flashing under the hall lights…
Mr Mayor, if you have contempt for our children, you have contempt for our community.