Thursday, May 01, 2014

Residents angry in Broad Green



On Saturday 12th April, like many party activists, I was tasked with obtaining signatures for a consent to nomination form for the forthcoming local elections. That afternoon I was in Broad Green. When knocking on doors in one particular road, I was told by a resident that there was a stabbing across the road, and two weeks had elapsed and the blood of the victim(s) was still on the pavement. I went across the road to look for myself. I couldn't believe my eyes. My immediate reaction was that children in the area would view this. Without question, that would create a mindset of what they should perceive as normal, growing up to see blood splattered on the pavement. Additionally, you could even get children touching the blood. The question on my mind was: Are the authorities treating Broad Green as some sort of District 13, a place where violence and gangs were the norm, therefore, residents won't mind if cleaning up after such an incident was low priority? I took a photo and tweeted @YourCroydon. 

The following Saturday I went back to Broad Green and was relieved to see the blood had gone. I spoke to a shopkeeper and we both surmised that maybe the heavy downpour we had had a couple of days earlier had washed it away. Although what is more probable given that concrete is porous, the blood would have needed specialists to wash the pavement clean.

The shopkeeper recalled that he had heard the stabbing occurred with a glass bottle in the first weekend of April, late at night. The police came and cordoned off the area. After a few days the cordon was removed but no-one came to remove the blood.

I am not sure what the process is but, surely there has to be a system in place to deal with this kind of incident. Someone has to be responsible for reporting the blood stained pavement, and someone is responsible for cleaning it.  We need some answers because no family in Croydon should live on a street with this situation apparently being the norm.

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