Today, I just want to get straight into this.
The Most Recent Story:
On Thursday 24th October 2019, six men were convicted of multiple sexual offences against young girls in Huddersfield between 2005 and 2007.
The following quotes are pasted from the news source, 'The Yorkshire Post':
"Umar Zaman, 31, of William Street, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield and Samuel Fikru, 32, of HMP Armley, have both been found guilty of two counts of rape."
"Banaris Hussain, 36, of William Street, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, was also found guilty of one count of rape."
"Three other men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of 12 sexual offences including rape, rape of a child under 13, arranging the commission of a child sex offence and trafficking."
"They will be sentenced on November 1."
If you want to read more about the story itself please go to the most recent source I have found: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/huddersfield-grooming-gang-members-found-guilty-of-multiple-sex-offences-against-young-girls-1-10067741
What I Must Stress...
I feel like people are being led to believe that this is the only case of arrests which have been made- when in actual fact this isn't the only case of arrests which have been made, this is just the most recent.
Previous Convictions:
In October 2018, 16 members of the Huddersfield grooming gang were sentenced to over 200 years in jail between them.
The group's ringleader was sentenced to life in prison, and told at a minimum he would serve 18 years. He was charged with 54 separate charges including 22 counts of rape.
He was just one man who was charged though. This helpful Sky News article lists a number of convictions which have been made, and the sentence length, and what judges had to say to the criminals: https://news.sky.com/story/huddersfield-grooming-gang-20-men-convicted-of-abusing-15-girls-11529579
My View On The Matter:
So far, justice is being served. Police are doing in-depth investigations into these matters. People claim the media is "being silent" about these matters- but how is it when multiple newspaper companies are writing about this issue?
Believe me, if the media was silent about it- we wouldn't know about it.
Most of the victims were of working-class background. And most of these crimes happen in the North of England. Now I live in the North of England, and one thing I know about it is our youth services are victims of cuts.
If these young girls had a safe place to go, like a youth club run by paid qualified staff, after school clubs run by paid qualified staff, libraries run by paid qualified staff- chances are the staff would be looking out for these young people, and they would be able to spot these young girls being groomed and inform the authorities.
I would say I am of a working-class background myself. I went to a primary school and secondary school with predominately students of working-class background, and in my college so far the students seem to be of working-class background.
And from my own experiences, I have seen situations where a kid's parents are working long hours even after school, and some manage to afford some kind of childcare, but some don't.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones, because my parents were able to be at home during after school hours- and now even if they might not be sometimes, that's okay because I'm 16 almost 17 now, so I can act as a legal guardian for my little brother- so my parents wouldn't have to pay for childcare.
As I mentioned earlier, some parents have to work during after school hours and cannot afford childcare which they might need. So a kid would come home, and often be home alone by themselves. There's no mum or dad at home to tell them what to do, and give them rules so it's like the kid has complete freedom.
And for one reason or another the kid decides to go out into the streets instead of stay at home. Now some kids have youth clubs, or some kind of youth facility in their area- but many don't. And many which do- their youth facilities are oftenly poorly run, because of lack of funding.
So this leads to kids just wondering the streets. And because there is less police patrolling our streets due to government cuts, it makes it easier for groomers to spot a kid in a vulnerable position, meaning their parents are at work so their parents aren't watching what they do, the kid is basically alone wondering the streets and that makes working-class children an easy target for predators.
As I said, I live in the North of England, and right now the closest thing we have to a community center in my area is the local library. And because the council wants to cut funding to libraries, the library in my area is under threat and could possibly be closed down. Now, sometimes I'm there during after school hours, and I see many kids of secondary school age (12-16) at the library. And if you're questioning how I know that, it's because I see their uniform. The library is a safe place for them to come and hangout. And they don't cause trouble- the worst they'll be is a little too loud and they might throw bits of paper at each or something- but it's never drastically out of control behaviour. Now if these cuts take place, and the local library in my area closes down- these kids won't have a safe place to go and meet, their next option will most likely be just to hangout in street corners. And the police do not patrol our streets due to the funding of the police services being cut. So these kids could be hanging out in the street where there is no authority to watch over them- so that makes them an easy target for predators.
Summing The Situation Up...
Parents are out working, slaving away to make ends meet. Because the parents are out working, in certain instances the children will be left by themselves with no adult supervising them. And for some reason the kid will decide to go outside somewhere.
Our youth services are getting cut left right and center- and the few that are here are also under threat, so soon there could be no safe place for these young people to take refuge.
So they take to the streets, where the police should be patrolling and watching over our neighbourhoods. But they're not. Because the police services are also victims of the cuts in the North of England.
So these kids are left to the streets which results in them being targets for the predators because they are vulnerable one way or another.
Questions I have...
Why is it that our working-class parents have to work during after school hours when they should be at home looking after their children? Because they need to make ends meet. And sometimes the employee can't say to the employer "actually, I can't work these hours because I have to look after the kids" because sometimes those hours might be the only opportunity they get to earn some money so they can put food on the table.
Why are our youth services and police services being cut? Where is that money going, that it can't be spent on our youth and our police?
Something else I have to say...
See those are the main problems. Income inequality. Cuts to our services. Yet people seem to be blind to these problems and they're more outraged at the ethnicity of the abusers.
Many are distracted by the smoke screen of the emphasis of ethnicity and religion of the abusers and the victims and that's what gets everyone talking. Not the real problems.
Abusers and victims can come in all religions and ethnicities. That's not the common demoninator here. The common denominator is the background in which the majority of these victims are from. A lower-class background.
Maybe if the system was a little more fair to the workers, then parents could stay at home and take care of their children. And let's say the system was more fair to the workers, and for some reason the parents still had to work during after school hours- then maybe if we had sufficient youth services in which youth workers who are qualified can look out for these young people and connect with them, then maybe the issue of 'grooming' could be prevented from happening. And maybe if there were more police patrolling our streets, they could identify who the predators are and get them off our streets before they harm anyone!
In my area and my city our youth services have been victims of the cuts, and they're facing even more cuts now. Our police services have been cut. Our schools are victims of cuts. And this isn't just my city it's many cities and towns in the North of England!
But nobody seems to care about this! Nobody wants to discuss this!
You'd all rather discuss the skin colour of a perpatrator or a victim! But the real problem comes down to social inequality. Most places in which these crimes happen are deprived places, which cuts have been made to!
If we stopped dividing ourselves on colour, gender and religion and projecting hatred- we could actually come together and fight against the cuts, and fight for a fairer system for the workers!
But I don't see anybody wanting to do that any time soon.
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