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07/12/2008: "Crips and Bloods: How Britain's mobs are imitating US gangs"

There seemed to be no obvious reason to pick on the teenage boy who was leaving the Tube station in West London. But within seconds he was being encircled by a group of young lads who forced him, at knifepoint, to take off his clothes before they allowed him to go on his way.

By the appalling standards of knife crime in London today this incident may not be classed as particularly shocking. Until you consider this: the hapless teenager was targeted because he was wearing a blue shirt. And in this particular sliver of London, this gang's chosen colour is, apparently, red. Wearing the wrong colour in the wrong territory smacks of disrespect - even if you were not aware of the "rules".

There is no more terrifying violent crime than the seemingly arbitrary one. David Idowu, 14, was stabbed in Southwark, southeast London, last month and died this week. It has been suggested that the school uniform he was wearing may have been a factor. There is no indication that he was involved in gang culture. His Walworth Academy tie is fastened to the lamppost near where he fell, along with dozens of floral tributes. Last year Sophie Lancaster, 20, was kicked to death by youths in Bacup, Lancashire, because she was dressed as a Goth.

Have we reached a point where a young person might be attacked because of the clothes he or she happens to be wearing? Do parents, who now worry about what colour sweatshirt their son puts on before he leaves the house lest he inadvertently "disses" an unknown gang member, have a legitimate fear, or are we all in danger of becoming hysterical?

[ Pluralism again! Whites living in areas with few immigrants don't have to worry about such things. They must know this, yet they fear the "racism" of their own common-sense observations. ]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4311680.ece