Gang who tried to rob me is an example of failed society

Published: 23 September, 2010

• ON August 3 at exactly 20 minutes to midnight I was attacked by a gang of teenagers who attempted to rob me on Primrose Hill, less than 30 yards from busy Primrose Hill Road. 

I know the exact moment, because they asked me to tell them the time. And I did so as I kept on walking fast. They followed me and asked if I could stop to talk, and if I “wanna get stabbed?” in case I didn’t stop walking. Once I was encircled they told me that it was “an intervention”. 

I yelled for help at the top of my voice and leapt across the distance towards the lit road. They saw it as too much trouble and ran for cover.

I have been trying to come to terms with the incident, and I think I understand the cause of such acts of violence – teenage gang crime with so often fatal consequences. 

For those youths it is the desire to have material possessions  and to change their circumstances using the power of money that leads to crime. Sadly, they may never have thought about the real values of a decent life and ways to acquire the qualities of a good character, such as, the value of education and work. All they see in their presented reality (a mixture of TV and celebrity culture) is the effect of the power of money and various ways of getting it. And so they choose the way that they see works – violence.

But I am beginning to see the whole incident differently. 

What is so chilling about their attack is the way it was planned and executed. They must have seen me long before the attack, as I disembarked from a bus and entered the park. 

They were organised, fast and “ready to kill” emerging from the cover of tree branches at the right moment as I was approaching the ambush point. They had worked out their formation: one  asks questions, one pounces at the right moment and three come from behind to execute “an intervention” which meant getting my possessions by means of highway robbery. 

I am certain, they were ready to use their threat. I am inclined to think they acted badly because that is what they wanted to be – bad.

They were not underprivileged kids. They were born and raised in Britain – of itself a privilege. 

They live in wonder-world London with endless possibilities, whatever their individual circumstances. 

And they are a perfect example of failed society; where each social group from teenage gang to political party, uses every opportunity to turn any situation or phenomenon to their own advantage, however wrong or twisted their actions might be.
Edin Suljic
Howitt Road, NW3