We had a young man, lived on this estate.
One night he was enticed into a situation and it resulted in him losing his life.
We wanna protect our kids.
The child has become the head of the family.
You know, we have to kind of try and take some responsibility
of not just our own kids, other people's kids.
When you see it in the media, you see so and so got stabbed and that's the end of the story.
That isn't the end of the story when you're living it.
If there was no community centre, what do you think the effects would be on us?
If there was no community centre, I think I'd be dead,
I'm not gonna lie. I think I might probably be dead.
Hiya, I am from a group called 'Lives Instead of Knives Ealing',
And we are working together to stop the knife crimes and the stabbings happening in our area.
What about KFC, should we try them?
Lovely. Thank you very, very much.
You'd like one as well?
Next Thursday, I'm going to be talking to young people
and it's just a small amount of them.
Would you like to be part of it?
Yeah.
Yeah? There's your band.
I am totally against it.
OK.
No one is for it.
Some people ...
Some people ... you would be surprised.
I've known him since he was knee high. It weren't that long ago.
If you heard there was a stabbing at the McDonalds tonight,
would you be like 'Oh my gosh, it's terrible'?
No, I'd be in my house, on my phone, on my PlayStation.
I would go on Instagram and I'd see it and I'd be like 'oh',
if I am talking to someone I'd be like: 'Oh, did you hear about this stabbing?'
We'd probably talk about it for 5-10 seconds and that would be finished,
and then I'd forget about it. A lot of kids they feel pressured
if their mum or dad ain't making money, they want to help out,
so then they'll go out there and sell drugs because they're not given the resources
or the money to actually help themselves.
... about the knife crime in the area and what can we do to try and prevent it?
I should have a trim while I am here.
Shall we start off with how we got into this? How do we get to this place?
The child has become the head of the family, the child has become the provider
and because of what the child is doing the child is bringing in better income
into the home than what the parent is either on benefits or even in a low paid job.
The child is gonna look at that parent and think 'you're a joke,
I know what you're talking about, you can't come and tell me nothing about life
'cause you are not even living life itself'.
I thought it's ridiculously hard, 'cause you know songs like, people like Lil Pump,
I'm not sure you know him, but he's basically got a song saying
'Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang', 'Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang, Gucci Gang',
That song has got millions of millions of millions of views.
When my youngest, who is 12, when he last year was having some problems in school,
I told him straight: 'I will come up to your school
and I will fist you up at school. Forget about the law, I am the law.'
Yeah, a lot more parents kind of maybe even need to be taught how to be a parent,
as much as that sounds...
It's not condescending.
Can I just say, while we've been on air, I've just looked on Facebook
and there's been another 17-year-old stabbed, which brings it up to 59 in London so far this year.
Stabbed and killed or stabbed?
Critical condition.
Poor thing.
So, you know we're sitting here talking about it
and it's happening out there. And, you know, this is reality.
Hi lovely, how are you? I'm absolutely fine, thank you.
Nice to meet you, finally. Yeah, lovely. How have you been?
I've been made a chair of the specialist scrutiny committee, which is posh speak
for basically a committee that will meet for something that's important in the borough.
And right now, for me, the number one thing is youth service.
What I want to know is to find a list of recommendations where I can say to the council:
'Can you help us with this? Can you sort out funding for that?'
Ok, well if you can find a full-time wage for me, I would be more than grateful.
I wish, I mean seriously, I wish I won the Euromillions or whatever is these days
just so that I can do that.
OK, so stop charging me council tax,
'cause that just really, can't you just let that go for me?
Can you just sort, especially if I am doing work for the community,
yeah that rips my heart out. I mean, this is a community centre
that you are running off your own back.
Providing for the community, saving the council thousands,
you know, can't you give me something back, please?
Just a bit.
You know, it is a bit.
I went into local government to do good
and now I am the person who has to go to people and say:
'Sorry, we can't afford to keep you open anymore, we have to shut you down'.
Lovely to meet you.
I wish it was about something a bit more chirpy.
Are you OK, Jenny?
Yes.
Is that for your life thing, is it?
Yeah.
How is it going?
We're getting there.
She's got a very funky pair of Dr Martins on, hasn't she? Have you seen them?
Yeah.
I've never seen them three-quarterly length heels before.
For a politician ...
Oh, she's a politician. Oh, I see.
I'm sort of a bit frustrated, maybe a bit insecure about the fact that,
I feel like I am being a bit of a fraud.
I want it to work and I want it to happen, I want it to make an impact
that's gonna stop these kids doing what they are doing.
I don't want people to lose loved ones, I don't wanna lose loved ones myself.
And I don't feel I am sort of producing what I am promising.
But he-ho. Is that a moment?
He said I'm not allowed to organise
the Christmas event this year 'cause I cause myself so much stress.
I'll take you away.
Take her on holiday.
What with? You can't afford a day trip to Ealing Broadway.
Yeah, I could, I've got my bus pass.
Right, let's go. We're off to Ruislip. A friend of mine contacted me
and said that the BBC are coming to see her, to discuss knife crime and patrolling.
Hello, love. Hi, come in. It's mad in here, come in.
OK.
What would you like?
Have you got Diet Coke? If not, water is fine.
My doggy would like you. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Here we go.
These dogs.
... in a second, right? So, it's Jen, Jen Lock.
All of us that are parents have got to take some responsibility
and put something into our community.
Won't people be putting themselves at risk by doing this?
Not if it's done under a proper... You know, you can't have one man go off
and check the parks at night. That's foolish.
It's definitely something that we'll look into and see if there's enough people
that are prepared to volunteer, and see if they can take an active part in it
and I think it could be a really positive thing.
Of course it used to be called vigilantism?
Yeah, it did, but it's knife crime, it's crime.
That's fine, thank you.
You're hard work.
No.
Yes.
Yes, I wasn't prepared for those questions.
I am just asking all the questions that will have to be asked.
That's fine. If I'd known them I'd have thought about them first, though.
I'm just asking all the questions.
Yeah.
All good, I'm sure it's gonna work out now.
I might, I should take your number, shouldn't I?
Because I don't think this is going away for a long time yet.
I don't know whether that came across, but I didn't like him.
And the fucking questions, isn't it vigilantism, isn't it against the law?
Why are you asking me things that you know I am not
going to be able to answer?
I'll see you later guys. See you.
Well, thank you very much for coming, hoping we will get lots more.
We haven't had very good turnout so far, no.
We will be having more people, we will just let them filter in as they come.
The reality is I am not surprised at this turnout because every other meeting
I've sort of made excuses, oh well, it's the weather, it's the cold night,
you know the last meeting we had eight people turn up,
one being me and one being my partner.
What do you get out of helping this community?
What do you get out of it? What did they give you out of it?
Nothing.
I've never liked this estate, I hate this estate. I hate estates, I can't stand them.
Yeah, they're having their lunch. Fifty, sixty, seventy...
Thank you.
There used to be some young kids around 17, 18, 19 and they said
they were trying to keep my door down but then I went there with a knife
and I tell them, no, I went there with a knife and I told them
If I caught them doing anything, I would stick the knife into them ...
Oh my God.
And then their father came up and made them apologise to me, like, you know.
Oh dear, oh dear. It's actually the first day of, I don't know what's been the matter
really I just lost me mojo. I haven't been out the house,
I've been struggling to get up and I just haven't been
in a very good place for the last week.
Cheeky man.
Yes, that's not a side that I show to residents 'cause I don't see it
as a weakness in any way, shape or form, but I do in my role on the estate.
Everything is the estate's business so, you know, you could be spoken about
around the corner, you'll never stop that.
You know, it's part of estate community, really, but I don't know really, I don't know,
it's just my depression has just been sort of lingering there for a bit lately,
but he ho, paint on a smile and carry on. Yeah.