A Young Lives Matter protest took place across South London and ended in Brixton “because of all the knife crime that’s going on” said protestor Josh. The rally was to protest and raise awareness of the youth violence that occurs in South London.

The campaign is called Wailing Mothers, which is to empower mothers and families in recognisin

g and understanding the nature of youth violence in young people at a very early stage.

Protester Latifa said: “If mothers see children out late they should say, go home to your parents. Working as a community to try and educate our young boys and girls to stay off the streets and get them into something better then what the streets our offering.”

UK crime statistics show that youth violence is the highest in London with total of 9,549 crimes with 86% of it being males from 17 and over.

Protester Josh said: “A lot of young people are involved in violent crimes because they want to find an identity and find themselves in their friends and lack support whether it will be from schools and colleges.”

The South London Pentecostal church used religion to connect and reach out to the youth and join as a community. Protestor Josh said: “Wailing mother is a religion based thing and it’s saying how God should save our youth but it’s not only religion but everyone that cares about our youth and cares about the struggle and people dying and everything that’s going on.”

The police surrounded the rally as a security precaution. Protestors talked about the strained relationship between the public and the police. Josh said: “ The police care but they don’t care enough, in the community we feel like we should take a stand ourselves and raise more awareness so then the police can get involved”.