Recently, drill music has been blamed by the Met Police for London’s rising knife crime. Now, five UK artists who planned to attack their rivals could be banned from making drill music.
The five members – comprised of Micah Bedeau, Yonas Girma, Isaac Marshall and two 17-year-old boys who cannot be named due to their age – were armed with machetes, knives and baseball bats for a suspected attack against a rival group in Shepherd’s Bush. Initially, the group said they were carrying props for a drill music video, and later pleaded guilty. They were convicted in May and will be sentenced today (7 June).
Kingston Crown Court has been shown seven drill music videos. “We are very clear we will take decisive action to get videos of this nature removed from the internet,” said Adam Lowe, Detective Superintendent of the Met Police. “Despite what the gangs may claim, there is a clear link, as in this case, to violence.”
After the hearing, the Met will apply for the court to ban the artists from making drill music. They aim to present a “raft of evidence”.
Last month, YouTube removed over 30 drill music videos, following accusations that the genre glamourises violence. In recent news, detectives and the Met Police could be granted new permissions to trace and target artists from online videos. If the new laws are approved by the judiciary, members are to be targeted and traced “like terror suspects”. Jim Stokley, the Met Police’s gang crime chief, says the measures will mean that officers will no longer need to prove a link between social media, online videos and violence to secure a conviction.
Read Crack Magazine’s feature: Drill Music an Gentrification in South London.
(via The Independent)