The Footsoldiers of the Street

Sadly, many children perceive themselves to be urban warriors fighting to survive the violence on the streets.  To ensure safety, they have to be seen to cause harm.  This is a message to potential perpetrators indicating they will not be good victims.  Legitimate justice placed in the police and the judiciary is not believed in; they watch as young children their barristers play with the truth in order to seek their release.  They watch some police officers recycle the drugs they seize by getting their peers to sell it for them on the street.  The justice which can be trusted is the one distributed by the extended family; in the absence of one, the gang will have their backs and ensure that no ‘diss’ (disrespect) goes unavenged.  The violence becomes eventually inescapable.  It begins with the mask of violence and it ends by being caged within it.