-Caveat Lector- Brits love to preach about their draconian gun control laws. Over the past several weeks a celebrated TV newswoman was shot on her front step. Several armed car jackings in London with AK 47's and of course the rate of "home invasion" burglaries is 5x's the rate in the US. flw THE TIMES July 7 1999 BRITAIN Innocents at risk as drug gangs go to war with guns BY DANIEL MCGRORY A SPATE of murders on crowded London streets has provoked fears of a summer war between rival drug gangs. The latest victim - 20-year-old Dean Roberts - was murdered by two men with handguns in a busy suburban road. They did not try to disguise their identities. Witnesses were, as usual, too frightened to say anything to police, who increased armed patrols last night amid fears of revenge attacks. Eight people have been killed in as many weeks - all victims of what detectives described as "gangland-style executions". Appeals for calm by Scotland Yard brought scorn last night from many community leaders, who fear that innocent bystanders may be caught in the worsening feuds.One leader in South London said: "You don't have as many shootings as this without people getting scared. Most incidents go unreported unless there is a corpse, but the level of violence has never been worse. "We need to know how it is that with ever more stringent gun laws, these gangs can get hold of weapons so easily." Chief Superintendent Paul Green said: "London is a safe city and people do not need to fear leaving their homes." After a gunfight at the weekend outside a pub in Hoxton, East London, police found nine cars with bullet holes. There were bloodstains in many of them, but they had been abandoned by the time armed officers arrived. Two of the victims were later traced to a hospital near by. They had driven themselves to the accident and emergency department but refused to say how they had been wounded.Police could find no witnesses to what one officer said "must have been a massive and very noisy gun battle". The murder of Mr Roberts in Harlesden was the fourth killing in that area of northwest London in recent weeks. It came after a weekend of violence and less than three weeks after Scotland Yard created a new task force to tackle violent Jamaican "Yardie" drug gangs. The reason for the killings was drugs, but not all the victims were drug dealers, detectives said. There are thought to be a number of rival gangs involved in the feuds on both sides of the Thames. One senior officer said: "With every victim and every incident, you get the seeds of revenge. There are so many guns in the hands of these people that the opportunity for them to cause more violence is immense." Security sources say there are more guns than ever in the hands of low-level drug dealers who have little fear of using them. Among the most recent attacks was that of a 23-year-old man shot in the head as he sat at the wheel of his car, chatting to another motorist, in Clapham, South London. Two masked men walked up to him and fired at least ten times. They calmly walked away as women ran from their homes to help. Police refuse to name the victim, who is under guard in hospital. It is thought that among other drug war victims was a mother, Laverne Forbes, who was murdered last month with her partner, Patrick Smith, in front of her seven-year-old daughter. Police believe that the 28-year-old was shot simply because she had seen a drug gang at work in Tottenham, North London. A Yard spokesman said: "With so many incidents, detectives are trying to establish any links between them and also incidents in recent weeks outside London." Police have linked two murders in South London last month. In the first, Alexander Junior Ero, 30, was found dying on the stairs of a tower block. He had been stabbed in the abdomen. Four days later police found the body of Andrew Burke, 27, in the boot of a car that had been set alight in Lewisham, southeast London. There is evidence that many shootings go unreported. Police were recently called to a South London club that had been peppered with gunshots. There were bloodstains on the walls and floor and yet all of those crowded inside insisted that nothing had happened. The Yardie gangs often use restaurants, clubs and taxi firms as a front for their drug dealing empires. Their armouries consist of automatic weapons, including Uzi and Mach 10 sub-machineguns as well as pistols. A favoured weapon of late is the 9mm machine pistol known as the "spray and pray", which can "squirt" 20 rounds a second. Official figures disclose the escalating violence of the drug gangs. Of the 160 murders in London in 1997, 41 of the victims were black and 18 were shot. All those shootings were thought to have been by Yardie gangs. In the two years from 1996 to 1998, guns were fired 291 times in London. A senior officer involved in the investigations said that witnesses were always hard to find. "The problem is that even the victims of shootings don't want to say anything. Often they try to sort out their own medical treatment rather than go to hospitals, and are intent on seeking their own revenge," he said.. "These are people who also routinely carry firearms and seem to have little regard for how and when they use them. Once we get into this seeming spiral of attacks, then the potential is there for revenge attacks. "The added problem is that few want to tell us what happened for fear that they will be the next victim." When Mark Burnett, a drug dealer, was shot dead in a nightclub for accidentally standing on a Yardie's foot, about 2,000 people were present. Hundreds gave police false names and addresses; 350 said that they were in the lavatory when the shooting happened, and not one witness emerged. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
