Jack Straw talks of a "walk on by" culture (Boy's death spurs attacks on 'culture of thuggery', November 30), and the need for society to shoulder some of the responsibility for the crimes of this latest lost generation. This is both insulting to those who live in areas such as Peckham, and blind to the fundamentals of the crisis facing our inner cities, and the teenage kids living in them.
The Metropolitan police can neither recruit nor retain good officers, and our inner-city schools are staffed by desperate teachers lacking the resources to cater for the special needs of teenage kids surrounded by drug abuse, gangs and poverty. Fear is the reason Damilola Taylor wasn't helped. Lack of confidence in the law is why the police are not called.
The investment in urban regeneration is obviously a positive step, but the government needs to listen to those working on the ground, and direct resources to providing caring human contact for a generation of disenfranchised kids who don't care about themselves, let alone anyone else.
Jonathan Hawkins
London
jonathan@pumpkin.uk.com
Earlier this year two older boys viciously assaulted my 11-year-old son near our home. His nose was broken, he was knocked unconscious and left bleeding on a main road. Dozens of cars drove past. Eventually he was helped up by a passer-by, who left him to walk home alone.
The police refused to take a statement from my son, to put up witness boards or to investigate this attack properly. The head of the local robbery squad told me that this was because "there was nothing unusual about the incident, it was a schoolboy scuffle".
In our neighbourhood the police seem incapable of seeing black and white boys in working-class areas as anything other than trouble. Their witness board in Peckham even describes Damilola Taylor as a "young man", not as the 10-year-old child that he was.
Jack Straw and David Blunkett need to wake up. Simplistic rhetoric about "walk on by culture", curfews and tagging is cheap. They would do well to look at their own part in the demonisation of children in inner-city areas and to consider the impact of their pronouncements on police and public attitudes.
Alison Higgs
London
I am afraid your leader misses the point. Bullying is the issue that needs to be addressed, outside school as well as inside - and not only in deprived areas. My eight-year-old son goes to a posh, private school, a couple of miles from Damilola Taylor's school. Since September, my son, a white, middle-class, physically fit child, has been bullied at school. Like Damilola, he has come home asking me what "gay" means.
The school may enforce an anti-bullying policy, but it cannot prevent what goes on outside the gates, especially on the way to and from school. Parents should be made to feel responsible and give a good example. Children should understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of - or potentially dangerous - in reporting anti-social behaviour. The ritual initiation that Damilola's headteacher refers to ("bullying, name calling, every newcomer gets it") is demeaning and should be stamped on.
Name and address supplied
Damilola's murder cannot be separated from the insecurity and destruction wrought by five years of the biggest single regeneration budget project in the country. Politicians persist in giving money to urban regeneration programmes that are about buildings more than the people who live in an area.
The Peckham Partnership SRB programme will spend at least £260m over seven years, £207m of that on housing. Of the £12m devoted to education, only two projects are non-school based. One is the Peckham library, the other a sports/youth centre for 14 to 23-year-olds.
The SRB project demolished nine community spaces; four new ones have been built, only one of which is easily available for general community use. One community centre has been improved and remains available; it is constantly booked.
There was a community in Peckham but it has been torn apart in the interest of long-term improvement. Yes, it will be a better place to live in the end, but if that takes 10 to 15 years to achieve, and a community takes longer to rebuild than a house, how many children will have been lost?
Pascale Vassie
London
Pascalev@aol.com
Your leader is right to say that we shouldn't jump to conclusions as a result of one tragedy in Peckham. The neighbourhood has one of the most active regeneration programmes in Britain, tackling poor housing conditions, jobs and crime.
Improving the quality of life in areas like Peckham is a steady grind over a period of years, in which confidence in the area is gradually restored. It can be done, as success stories in equally difficult areas have shown.
Peckham has already suffered a major setback. It certainly doesn't need either the media or politicians condemning those who are actively building a new future for and with its residents.
John Perry
Director of policy, Chartered Institute of Housing
john.perry@cih.org
• This column was amended on 14 January 2015 to remove personal details at the individual's request.
