The recent spike in knife crimes gives the impression that crime as a whole in the UK is on the rise. However in 2016/2017 criminal arrests dropped 12% on the previous year. In the same period black people were three times more likely to be arrested than white people. But that imbalance has also been decreasing steadily since 2011. To add some individual insights to the mass of statistics available online, Rising East asked reformed criminal Emanuel to share some of his experiences, and thoughts.
Emanuel is a 30-year-old businessman and owner of a Caribbean restaurant in South West London. He grew up with his mum and sister – eight years his junior – and had no contact with his father as a child. He was brutally attacked and stabbed outside his house at the age of 20 and nearly died as a result, but he has now turned his life around by putting his criminal past behind him.
How old were you when you were first involved in crime?
I was about 15 years old, and I started stealing trainers from sports shops. I would go into one shop for the left foot and then go to another shop for the right foot, all from the display counters. Mum always used to buy me big ones that I didn’t like.
Who were your role models when you were young?
That would be my uncle, he was a business man. He always had nice clothes and nice cars and then he became a Jehovah’s Witness.
Would you say you were content as a child? Were all your needs met?
I wasn’t a kid to moan about stuff. How it was was how it was, so yeah, I was content. I was an easy-going kid. I didn’t think about my dad growing up, Mum did everything she could for us. It wasn’t till I was older that I started thinking about my dad.
When was the first time you were arrested?
It was for a robbery on a travel agent. I was with my mates and we went straight to the tills. I’m not proud of it by the way but yeah, we went in and we took all the money from the tills. We told everyone to get out of our way. We didn’t hurt no one, we didn’t touch no one and we didn’t have weapons on us, and we made off with the money.
So how did you convince the workers to hand over the cash?
To be fair, everyone knows it’s usually women working in travel agents, so we just told them all the same thing: it’s not your money so don’t fight for it. I was arrested on my way back to the train station about twenty minutes later.
How did that make you feel?
I was pissed cuz I could see my mates running across the train tracks and they didn’t get nicked for it. It made me feel like a mug cuz I thought how stupid I was to get nicked, and I also thought about the fact my mum was going to kill me!
Have you ever been to prison and if so what for?
Yes, for that same offence. I went to a young offenders’ institute at 16 and got three and a half years for two robberies.
How did your mum and sister react?
My sister was only eight so she was quite young, although I know it was hard for her cuz she only had me and mum around. My mum was mad, disappointed about the fact she used to always tell me to stay away from a particular friend. She blamed him.
What was it like for you behind bars?
It was a weird experience, good in the sense that it was a good lesson. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through it, but it was a very good experience cuz it teaches you different situations, different people, how to react, how not to react. It tests you to the limit of whether you can handle stuff or not.
What did you do when you got out?
I did 23 months in prison and when I first got out I realised that everyone was a lot older and things were moving forward and so I started working in a job that my cousin lined up.
Did you ever go back to prison after that?
Yes about five years later for two years and three months, and that was for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
How did you move from robbery to drug offences?
Drugs became part of the lifestyle based on the fact that when I came out of jail a lot of friends were selling drugs, so they had moved up the chain and so it became another way to make money, because ultimately it’s always about making money however you make it. So that’s when I started to sell marijuana and I then went onto the harder stuff.
At any point did you feel that what you were doing was morally wrong?
Nah, the only time I felt bad was when I was doing robberies because I used to scare people. Not that I ever hurt nobody, but I did feel bad about scaring them, so I stopped.
What about dealing drugs?
Nah, because I thought well someone’s gotta give you the drugs, it’s either me or the hospital or another guy so it might as well be me.
What are you doing now?
Now I’m living my best life with my wife and kids. I have my own business. Still got no money (laughs) but life’s better. I’m still in the supply and demand trade but I sell jerk chicken now instead and it’s the best because now I don’t have to look over my shoulder.
What was your turning point?
I came out of prison and lost a lot of friends to gang crime and I knew I didn’t wanna die. Plus I had responsibilities and kids and I knew that I wanted to see them grow.
Do you think there is a link between absent fathers and the crime rates amongst young black men?
I do blame parents in terms of knife crime in some situations, but politicians don’t know what they’re talking about. They created the term ‘black-on-black’ crime and then they created a team called Trident – like there isn’t white guys killing each other and there isn’t Turkish and Asian gangs killing each other? But I’ve never heard of a Turkish-on-Turkish crime in my life!
Why do you think they created the term black-on-black crime?
For years black people have been getting terrorised by police, from the days of Winston Silcott and the Broadwater Farm riots. Black kids will get stopped more than white kids. Then when that became a problem, they needed a way to stop black kids in the street without it being blamed on racism, so now they have Trident, a unit that’s allowed to stop you without questions. It’s not black-on-black crime. Everyone has fights and white kids kill other white kids all the time, but there’s no team for them.
What advice would you give to the youngsters who may be involved in crime?
Know what you want to do in life, and get out now while you can. You can get dragged in too deep and end up in the ground. Don’t get involved with every piece of drama your friends might be in, because you’ll be surprised when some of those same friends that started the drama won’t be involved in it till the end, like with me for instance. I got caught up in a drama that had nothing to do with me and nearly lost my life. Life is worth living and it’s not all about the fame, glitz and glamour. Nowadays kids are killing each other for literally no reason. It’s sad.