CYP Now - Gangs: An alternative to Gangs

Inner-city Birmingham has had its fair share of problems with guns and gangs in the past few years. So what is it like to grow up in the shadow of violence? Tom de Castella meets a group of Black young men to find out.

Riots in the Lozells area, pitting Blacks against Asians, may have grabbed the headlines last year, but for youth workers in the deprived area of Aston the problem of gangs is part of everyday life. Ironically, the riots actually brought together Birmingham's two main Black gangs - the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys - for a rare truce in which they joined forces against Asian youths. "But look what it took to bring the gangs together," says Nathan, a 22-year-old worker at local youth organisation City United.

"There should be unity like that anyway." The border between the Johnnies and Burgers, as they are known locally, is Birchfield Road, with the former on the Aston side, the latter towards Handsworth.

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