Not many youth workers have to don a flak jacket before going to work, but for Badrul Hussain it was a close-run thing.
It sounds more like special operations than his official job title - special projects officer at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Youth Support Service - but when Hussain set up the council's rapid response team in 1999 to tackle increasing antisocial behaviour, he was putting himself directly in the firing line. After one particularly nasty incident involving 200 people from rival Shadwell and Cannon Street Road gangs, the police were on the point of recommending he wore a bulletproof jacket.
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