Hardly any city in England is as proud of its community as Liverpool. The cohesion has even made it into the unofficial city anthem: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – roughly: “You’re not alone” – sing the fans of the local soccer club FC Liverpool fervently. But togetherness is under pressure. The reason is a brutal gang war that has killed several innocent people, including nine-year-old Olivia.
The trial against the alleged perpetrator began in Manchester on Monday. The 34-year-old is said to have accidentally killed the child while stalking a man in August 2022. The hunted man entered the home of Olivia’s family, the gunman fired after him. The fugitive, a convicted burglar, was seriously injured. Olivia’s mother was also wounded – and the girl was fatally hit.
The outcry was great. At Anfield, fans commemorated the nine-year-old with heartbreaking clapping and manager Jurgen Klopp was appalled. But the investigation is difficult. Because in the search for perpetrators and backers, the police come across a wall of silence, there are comparisons to the “Omertà”, the confidentiality of the Mafia. In contrast to the famous football song, in Liverpool everyone is obviously next to themselves.
The city has the highest rate of drug offenses
There is a “no grass” culture, said the expert Robert Hesketh from John Moores University in Liverpool – the slang word “grass” is used to insult police informers. Anyone who chats is not only endangering himself, but also his family and home. A sensational appeal by the police to the “criminal fraternities” to exceptionally share information with the authorities in the Olivia case also went unheeded. “Usually it’s the fear of violence that keeps people silent,” Hesketh said.
Liverpool is world famous as the hometown of the Beatles. The Eurovision Song Contest in May will also attract many tourists. But the city with 500,000 inhabitants is also something like the capital of crime. In the 12 months to March 2022, the UK Home Office registered more than 28,000 violent crimes, up from 4,500 a decade ago. The city also has the highest rate of drug offenses in England and Wales.
The location as a port city on the River Mersey and the large Irish diaspora with their connections from decades of Northern Ireland’s civil war have ensured that arms procurement has been easier than elsewhere for decades. But recently the gang violence seems to be escalating. It’s about drugs, there are distribution battles. In the same week that the girl was killed, a 28-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man were also shot dead. They, too, apparently accidentally fell victim to the war in the underworld. On Christmas Eve, bullets hit a young woman outside a pub near town. Another accidental victim.
Lack of well-paid work fuels crime
“Youth gangs have become much more violent and have teamed up with organized crime groups,” said expert Hesketh of the German Press Agency. The perception of legal work and crime is blurred, also because of the lack of well-paid work. The cost of living crisis with enormously increased prices for energy and food contribute to this, in return there is no money for preventive measures such as youth work. “Crime has become a form of work,” Hesketh said.
Criminologist Simon Harding from the University of West London told dpa that crime families and cartels with international connections that made a fortune from human trafficking, money laundering and drugs dominated in Liverpool. Many gang bosses lived abroad, the connections reached across national borders. That’s why the investigation took a long time.
Violence in Liverpool is now reaching more middle-class areas such as Dovecot, where Olivia lived. A horrified mother from Olivia’s neighborhood told the Times newspaper shortly after the bloody crime: “This could happen again and again.”
