TWO BRUM SHOOTINGS - THE HEAT IS ON

15-11-2006

Passions are once again running high in inner city Birmingham following shootings on successive days. The Stirrer's sources tell us that although the police are downplaying tension between Asian and African-Caribbean youths, resentments which flared up during last years Lozells riots have been stoked up again.

It's unclear precisely what provoked the current outbreak of violence but we've been told of an apparentlyminor incident on Lozells Road on Monday when a woman was apparently nudged by a passing car. She wasn't seriously hurt, but this relatively trivialscrape is said to have escalated and led to the stabbing of two Asian men later that day in Lozells.

Another version claims that a local gang responsible for numerous robberies in the area came across a group of youths from a different ethnic group and an altercation ensued, leading to the two stabbings. One of the victims is said to have had his leg nearly severed by a machete.

That night Meshack Tesfa Bernard was shot dead at his home in Melbourne Avenue, Newtown while celebrating his 20th birthday, and although the police stepped up their presence on the streets last night there was a further shotgun incident last night in nearby Wheeler Street. On this occasion no one was injured.

Bernard's father Andrew Brown has today issued a plea for calm.

There is no confirmed link between any of these events and they could all be random, isolated acts of violence. Nevertheless, the word on the street is that they are all connected, leading to fears that the situation could escalate.

The Stirrer's insiders indicate that there is a hardening of attitudes between members of Pakistani Muslim community and African-Carribbeans in the area, which is allowing disputes between rival gangs to inflame normally law-abiding citizens.

One said: “People keep saying it's dying down, but this is a problem that isn't going to go away”.

Another pointed out that the economic gulf between blacks and Asians continues to grow wider and until that issue is resolved resentment is unlikely to disappear.

The bottom line is that despite soothing words from politicians, tame media outlets, and political spin-doctors the reality of life in this part of Brum hasn't substantially changed from just over a year ago when Lozells went up in flames - andanother young man has needlessly lost his life.

How many more must die before the pretty words are replaced by serious action?