By Ashley Young And Sammie Jones-
Many street thugs track down their rivals by turning up in person or sending spies to their court cases where their address is read out before proceedings.
The information came out as The Eye Of Media.Com conducted a survey to obtain the opinion of members of the public in relation to the practise of defendants and witnesses reading out their address in court. The survey which included a sample of individual from North London, East London, and some parts of Essex was conducted alongside two other questions on two other topics. The aim was to gather a variety of different responses, that touch on both the answer and the reason for it.
Not only do defendants and witnesses give out their address in court, the local or national press also spread the name of the road they live on, which gives enemies a lot to work on. A number of youths we spoke to said they many gang members had located their rivals by either attending their court cases or sending spies to attend in order to obtain their address.
Upon discovering their address, they would go there to terrorise them or whomever they find at the property. The problem would then escalate in a way that guarantees further clashes if the feuding parties meet in the street. A 20 year old from Kilburn, North West London, who gave his name only as Clayton, told The Eye Of Media.Com:
” I know a lot of people who have used the court system to track their enemies down or members of their family.
Most clued up people from the street know that all you have to do is turn up at a court hearing of your enemy and you will get to discover his address. If the beef(grievance) is strong enough, the next step will be to go to the address with a few of your boys and cause harvoc. It may mean attacking the rival if they find him there, bullying the mum or dad by treating them disrespectfully if the rival is not there, or smashing the windows if nobody is there. When the target of the attack finds out, things will just roll from there” .
Another 21 year old from Harrow and Wealdstone seen in Kilburn said:
”The system in courts that makes people announce their address to the whole world is bad. No clued up guy from the streets will give his address in a court where there are other people apart from the court officials. Many people have died because of this system which not a lot of people are aware of . Once an enemy who did not know your address bothers to go to a court case to find it out, you know trouble is coming. I know of people who have gone to people’s addresses and ask their mothers politely for her son, then kiss the mum goodbye on the lips very quickly because they know it will get back to the son
Many people from the streets who are smart would rather tell police they have no address than give them their real address. It is a horrible practice, I am quite surprised it has gone on for so long without anyone thinking about it”.