One Mile Away Page #3

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all these mans together

and make them have to fight a cause

like the Lozells riots...

Make them have

to fight a cause together.

I reckon, that's what will bring

everyone together again

and make people

appreciate each other.

That's what I'm sayin'.

Birmingham love all the way around.

He knows what it is already.

I don't have to say no more.

I'm from the older generation, man.

I used to follow my grandmother

with shopping

and you have to say hello

to every black woman

and every woman.

See, here's a big man right here.

You know, this is the man

that owns the dumpling shop

up the road, Sovereign's Caf.

This is a documentary.

We're talking about resolving

the gang situation in Birmingham.

Tell them what you think about what's

going on with this gang situation

and how it was

back in your day, as well.

My days were proper.

Life was ever so simple.

We didn't fight each other.

Stop lying, man.

You fought the Teddy Boys.

Oh yeah, oh yeah,

oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

But we didn't fight each other.

You know, we think about love.

We think about love and girls.

So in the riots, the ones in '85,

do you remember those?

I remember both of them.

I remember both of them.

Then people were fighting

the police and the National Front.

They weren't fighting each other.

No, they weren't fighting each other.

It was the police.

People were just fed up with society,

you know?

Nothing was happening,

so people just burst out one night,

the police.

When police lost control

of a half-mile stretch of road

in Handsworth,

the neighbourhood was reduced

to a blazing inferno.

The police were powerless to stop it.

The orgy of destruction that followed

made it look like something

out of the Blitz.

But, the tragedy is

that it's come after so many years

of very good community relations here

with nothing to indicate

that this would happen.

It is pure naked hooliganism

running on

into upright violence and theft.

Two days after having

one of the best carnivals

that we've ever had in the city,

and it would appear,

through insensitive policing again,

we're now struck

with this silly problem.

The bigger generation

were fighting for a real cause

which was to get rid of racism

out of Birmingham.

You know what I mean?

But it was never

no kill black-on-black crime.

We're arguing over postcodes

that don't belong to us.

Street corners

that don't belong to us.

We have to pay council tax

to live there.

We don't want these roads.

You're fighting for a postcode.

Do you own a postcode? No.

Like you were saying,

trust is a luxury.

Yeah, it is, man.

Trust is a luxury,

cos you can't trust anybody.

A lot of people let you down.

You trust anybody

and that makes you vulnerable.

You have to stay paranoid

to be on point and it's horrible.

It's been sad for a long time, Penny.

That's what I'm saying.

Man, a lot of heartache and things.

Right now, it's not that bad.

There's times

where you don't even wanna

be driving up on the road like this.

Do you understand it?

You know, when it's peak

and it's fully on, Shabs.

There's times when

you don't wanna be on the road.

You'll get the call saying, "Yo. "

You get me?

There'll be gang bangers

driving around

looking for someone to lick down,

so you don't come on the road,

become a victim.

It gets like that.

To tell the truth,

it's been kind of hell.

People are falling out

with each other,

saying I'm trying to get to Hollywood

by making a documentary.

There's been bare arguments.

People are been saying,

"You're working with police. "

We haven't been able

to film any of this madness,

because the mandem

don't allow cameras in the hood.

It's all good me having my opinion,

but without any backing,

it don't really make no sense.

Like I say,

for me to reach out to the elders,

they're not gonna listen to me,

cos they'll say,

"D boy, your opinion

don't really count like that. "

So I need somebody with some weight

in this thing to back me on it.

Be the boss, paid the cost

It nearly ruined my life

Wasted years in the penny

So I'm newing my life

For all the dirt and the sh*t

I've been through in my life

I should be stuck in jail

doing the life

Touch down in H town

No more confined to a cell

A lot of n*ggers actin' hard

Spitting grimey as well

Never seen a prison yard

They no done no time in a cell

This for my gangsters

doing time with an L

Look, hot up out of prison

I feel I got religion...

Bredren Zilla's

just come out the penner.

He's original Burger Bar.

He's been doing this ting from

the get-go. Done eight years in jail.

This blood is influential.

Bad people listen when he speaks.

This is the prison right here.

You know what I'm sayin'?

You don't wanna be ending up

behind that wall.

So they accused you

of trying to kill a policeman?

Yeah, times two.

Trying to kill two of them.

I was on two attempted murders

of the police.

That was my original charge.

Attempted murder times two

on two officers.

But they had to drop it

to a lesser charge,

cos they couldn't prove

that I tried to kill nobody.

Tryin' to say,

I tried to shoot one of them, yeah?

And the gun jammed.

Then I tried to shoot the next one

and the gun jammed.

But if the gun's jammed

on one person,

how can I attempt

to kill someone again?

It was just a load of sh*t.

I got eight-and-a-half years,

which I done eight years out of it,

more or less.

I've been jail enough times.

This time,

I tried to really learn something,

so when I get out, obviously,

I'm gonna do something right, innit?

You know, the place is a mess,

so my priority was,

if I can make one difference

in the hood where I come from,

then that's an achievement to me,

you get what I'm sayin'?

If I can deter one person from

ending up in there where I ended up,

that's an achievement for me, innit?

So that's what I want, innit?

I've got a lot of friends

left in jail still. You get me?

I feel their pain.

But mans here and some of them

ain't gonna get to experience this.

You understand what I'm sayin'?

Zilla has agreed

to support the movement 100%,

but he has asked us to highlight

the case of four of his friends,

who are doing life

after a high-profile trial.

The thing people remember most

about Burger Bar and Johnsons

is the tragic killing of Letisha

Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis

on New Year's Day, 2003.

This has got to end.

My daughter's life was cut short...

.. by this killing.

A part of me died when Letisha died.

This is as bad as it gets.

Please help.

Please help.

OK.

But two wrongs don't make a right.

My friends were identified

by an anonymous witness

and Marcus Ellis got 35 years

based solely on his evidence.

I don't think

we've really taken on board,

what a serious step it is

to allow witnesses

to give evidence anonymously

in our courts,

speaking in Dalek voices

through voice-distortion equipment,

shielded from the view

of everyone in court,

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