Hackney and 'The Wire'? Maybe not

It's silly season with little news around, so Hackney gets it in the neck. This year it's being compared to Baltimore, the setting for hit TV show ‘The Wire’. Last year, the Baltimore Sun reports the city had 37 homicides per 100,000 residents (the lowest for 20 years) while latest figures for London - at least according to the BBC are 2.1, which puts things into perspective.

Poor Hackney isn't even at the top of the London league, with several South London boroughs getting higher figures for murder and most types of violent crime, yet in past years before the 'Wire' slur it's had to suffer headlines comparing it to Soweto and extensive publicity about a number of killings largely related to one particular club, since closed, on what became known as 'Murder Mile.'

In the last year (to July 09) the Met report 7 murders in Hackney, estimated population around 210,000. At 2008 Baltimore rates you would expect 78. 'Nuff said.

Chris Grayling, the Tory politician who came up with the comment should know better and almost certainly does. But politicians don't let facts get in the way of cheap smears against the opposition.

Hackney's notoriety perhaps largely comes from its success as London's most creative borough as well as being one of its most deprived. There are disused factory buildings now crammed with young artists making it the most dynamic of London's 'creative quarters' along with many start-ups in media and graphics. Hackney has long had a "buzz", and provided cheap living on the very edge of the city for young and aspiring professionals. It's in many ways an exciting place to live and of course the home for over 40 years of London's greatest living author, Iain Sinclair, who earlier this year published his "confidential report", a work of documentary fiction, 'Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire.'

Of course, 7 murders is still too many, and last Sunday women in Hackney joined in the international peace parade celebrating the 10th anniversary of Mothers Against Violence, mothers from bereaved families who are having a real impact in reducing gun, gang and knife crime, particularly in Manchester where they were founded.

The march, organised by a number of community groups including Songololo Feet, Friend's Charity, Hackney Council for Voluntary Service (HCVS), International Action against Small Arms (I.A.N.S.A), St. John's Church and The Crib, a youth group from one of Hackney's estates, was a small but colourful event, and ended with a rally with speeches from a mother whose son was stabbed, a former gang member, the Speaker of Hackney Council and others involved in meaningful action to cut street crime.

It's events such as this, and the kind of action at community level they represent which is the real news - rather than the kind of idle speculation around TV series that fills the papers about this and so many other real issues.