The Young Teams of Scotland
Kaitlin Dryburgh
You see a thug, I see someone in need. Those are the sentiments of Graeme Armstrong a reformed gang member who now shines a light on an often-forgotten part of Scotland’s society. Unfortunately, his brilliant BBC documentary comes bearing bad news.
The best-selling author explores the increase in gang activity currently taking place in Scotland. In three episodes he visits Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow as well as the surrounding areas to get an idea of what modern gang culture or young teams as they’re referred to in Scotland. This isn’t an expose in figures or government policy but an insight to the young people who consider themselves part of a young team. In among that we receive snippets of Graeme’s past experience, a problematic upbringing, issues with drugs and alcohol, pals dying of overdoes and his friend murdering someone. He can relate to the people he’s speaking to. He can wholly understand the reasons why someone would join a young team, why violence for many isn’t an option and why it becomes near impossible to turn your back on it. Graeme managed to get out, go to university, get a master’s, become a best-selling author and continue his studying as he currently undertakes a PhD. Unfortunately, he is very much the exception to the rule.
Dismiss the heritage of Scottish gangs at your peril Armstrong warns. In his work as a community speaker and outreach mentor to schools he’s come to note that gangs are on the rise in Scotland. Gang names that lay dormant for decades are now being resurrected, symbols and graffiti logos are cropping up around communities in Scotland. Graeme believes that unfortunately the young teams of Scotland will never be fully eradicated, instead they need to be managed and as of right now that isn’t successfully taking place. This speaks truth to what we’re experiencing right now in Scotland, an increase in youth violence, an uptake in young people carrying offensive weapons and schools seeing a disruption in behaviour, which at times seems uncontrollable.
But the question really is, why are people joining gangs and why now?
Well from the young people that Graeme interviews there’s a word that constantly crops up, family. A boy in a balaclava, dressed in a tracksuit gestures to his pals and calls them his brothers, his family, those who have his back. It’s a sense of belonging and acceptance that many working class, and in the majority of cases males living in deprivation don’t always feel. It seems that our society and media doesn’t always leave an opening for young working-class males to fit in. So if you can’t get acceptance and validation from the world around you you’ll find it in other places and turn inwards. Low self-esteem and disillusionment is rife within street gangs.
Yet the sense of belonging that most of us get to enjoy is often facilitated by your own family, from your mum, dad, and siblings. For those who came up from chaotic beginnings, who can’t always count on their family members due to other issues, look to build new family structures. Many have been exposed to situations as children that as an adult you would never wish to experience, a gang is an alluring prospect to get that assurance and comradery. It’s one hell of a dysfunctional family, one where no one is really looking out for anyone’s best interests.
As Graeme details things start to escalate quickly, in a sense it’s all fun and games at the start but eventually the longer you’re in, the more real it gets. Third year in high school becomes a pivotal time for reaching out to those who might be involved in gangs. This has been utterly exasperated by Covid. There was no routine, for many a lack of socialising and norms, so when young males retuned to high school there was a lot of pent-up frustration just adding to the situation.
But eventually things will escalate to the police getting involved, many then receive a criminal record. Then what? The chance of getting a job when you have a record decrease dramatically, you then become stuck. The violence and behaviour increases and many start to feel the only way they get out of this is being killed or being sent to prison.
It’s not new for those trying to solve violence to look at any other potential influences, many have tried to link music to the increase in violence and this documentary did explore that option. This time around the focus was on the fairly new Drill music genre. What was perhaps most interesting was that several of the young people spoken to believe that Drill music is playing a role of justifying or perhaps fuelling some of the violence.
Drill music is a sub-genre of hip-hop that originates from Chicago. The word drill is slang for fighting (often in retaliation) or to kill. So right off the bat the genre was centred around violence. Although it started in Chicago London has really adopted this style of rapping and put their own stamp on the genre and it’s filtered it’s way up to Scotland. The centre focus of the music is about gang culture and all that it entails.
Drill music is a symptom of something deeper. It was not the original igniter of this fire but perhaps acts as a catalyst, and with the help of social media the effects have rapidly accelerated. The debate around culture and recreation influencing our behaviours is not new. From Elvis shaking his pelvis, John Lennon and the rest of the Beatles being blamed for encouraging an unchristian like life, to modern rap music and in more recent times people have blamed video games for increasing violence among young people, even looking to video games as a scapegoat for school shootings in America.
It is too simplistic to simply justify an action by pointing to the TV or radio and blaming whatever that person may be exposed to. In the 60s it would have been foolish to say someone would listen to a Beatles track then turn around and renounce god, just like a person who hasn’t lived with and exposed to a great deal of violence would listen to Drill music one day and decide the next time they walk out the door they’ll carry a kitchen knife. It doesn’t work like that. Although there may always be a moral panic around music, music censorship still isn’t the answer. Additionally using music as a way to explain violent behaviour takes the responsibility away from those actually in charge to enact meaningful change.
It may although give validation to violence, it glorifies it and glamorises it. It is a snapshot of what really is happening and unlike other genres of hip hop where an artist may speak about violence, in Drill the story they are telling probably did happen. Yet it’s not the full picture it is a snapshot as it doesn’t portray the misery. Mixed with social media, which helps to bring a visual aid to gang culture but it again glamorises without the true picture being revealed.
Social media throws fuel on the fire. Escalations used to take place face to face in whatever form that may be, but now with the help of social media fights can first develop online before any in person aggravation. This has been apparent with several of the young teenage stabbings in England. The first contact happens over social media and by the time there is a physical meeting everyone's tempers are at boiling point.
Yet music and social media are but a mere smoke screen to the root cause. In all these years it remains the same. Poverty.
A child living in an unstable family situation, being brought up in poverty, experiencing poor housing and education outcomes creates the perfect opportunity for their path to be shaped towards a life in a young team. Graeme describes it as the fertile soil. It is no coincidence that the top private schools don’t have this issue, it’s those living in the most deprived areas that are most likely to be part of gang and be a victim of gang culture and violence. Poverty and the sense that you and your community are forgotten by those in authority plants the seed of dissidence, it’s the broken window theory in play. When you look around and see a bleak existence of no jobs in your community, nothing to do, the police are hounding you and your teachers have all but given up on you (this is no slight on teachers, the majority work incredibly hard for inadequate reward) where can you turn? Your friends, your team.
Unless we start to take child poverty seriously and start to undo the last ten plus years of shameful policies that have enabled this to happen this will only get worse. We'll keep failing children. We'll feel sorry for them when they're younger, then when grown slightly we'll lose all empathy and place the burden of responsibility on their shoulders for making poor decisions, when in reality their options were limited in the first place. It is not good enough to see success as slightly better than England, success is when child poverty is no longer tolerated and eradicated.