Finsbury Park

[Al-khiyal]

Police are concerned that rising tension within Finsbury Park’s Algerian community is leading to vicious turf war.

On Wednesday night a man was stabbed in the groin in Blackstock Road and was last night (Thursday) still recovering in hospital.

It follows an assault outside a café the previous week where another man had a bottle smashed over his head and was then battered with an iron bar.

Now a respected Algerian councillor is appealing for calm and hopes the community can put the attacks behind them and “move forward”.

Both victims are Algerian and the tensions are centering around cafes and restaurants around Blackstock Road and the junction with Rock Street.

Labour Councillor Mouna Hamitouche believes the fights are a feud between established Algerian immigrants and more recent arrivals following a bitter civil war in the north African country.

Councillor Hamitouche, a respected figure in the Algerian community, said: “I was shocked and saddened by these events as this does not reflect our hard-working and tight community. I would call on everybody to put this behind us and move forward.”

A police source said: “It’s relentless at the moment with the number of attacks we’re hearing about.

“There’s a lot of tension around here and worries that the whole thing could really blow up any day.”

Two police forensic tents were erected for most of yesterday (Thursday) as officers combed the scene for clues.

The stab victim lost “a hell of a lot” of blood, said one officer, while the bottle victim last week is reportedly being uncooperative with the police.

Police fear rise in tensions after Algerian stabbing

[Yazou]

I am not sure I understood why the fighting . Are the new comers harrasing the established ones? if so why? for not helping them or jealousy.... it's all confusing to me.

[Bent_Bladi]

yeah... me too -- . they didn't say why there was fighting... what the hell is this "civil war"??

[Al-khiyal]

These shocking pictures capture crowds gathering round a man who has just been stabbed - and the pools of blood still visible on the scene the following day.

The man, believed to be an Algerian in his 30s, was knifed in the leg in Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, last Wednesday, at 10.30pm.

Police say they are "open-minded" about the attack.

Doctors initially described the man's condition as "serious" but he was discharged from the Royal London Hospital two days later.

A resident, who did not want to be named, said: "I heard a big commotion - a lot of men shouting. There was a guy on the floor and lots of people around him. One of them was high and collapsed at the scene. His friends dragged him into a doorway and tried to revive him.

"About 50 Algerians came rushing over from the coffee shops to see what happened. The guy [who had been stabbed] was on the floor and someone was screaming.

"He had a shopping bag with some wine in it and at first I thought he must have fallen on the bottle. There was a lot of blood - a couple of pints."

The resident added: "The area is really going downhill. I feel like there are people with knives out there. People are being shot and stabbed in Hackney but it's going on around here too."

Two police tents were erected in Blackstock Road and the area was cordoned off to traffic for most of the day after the stabbing. Shopkeepers were forced to remain shut for the day.

Wederie Atlaw, owner of St Gabriel Ethiopian Delicatessen - opposite the scene of the attack - arrived at work 7am the following morning. She said: "When I came, everywhere was closed. The police told me someone had been stabbed. I was shocked. It's not happened before. I don't feel comfortable now. It's very shocking."

Anyone with information is asked to call Shoreditch CID on 020 7275 3630.

Blood on the streets

[Al-khiyal]

27 April 2007 -- RIVAL gangs involved in drug dealing and selling stolen electrical goods could be to blame for the latest stabbing in Finsbury Park.
Traders and residents told the Tribune that Tuesday afternoon’s knife attack in Blackstock Road may be linked to a burgeoning drugs trade.

Shopkeepers in the street, on the Islington-Hackney border, say organised gangs sell laptop computers and MP3 players from car boots.

The attack, which happened in daylight, is the fourth stabbing in the past month.

A 23-year-old Lithuanian man was stabbed twice, once in the lung – right under a CCTV camera. Although he managed to run a few hundreds yards towards Highbury, he collapsed outside City and Islington College.

His attacker fled the scene and police have not yet recovered a weapon. The victim was taken to a north London hospital, where he was in a serious condition yesterday (Thursday), although his injuries are not life-threatening.

Part of Blackstock Road was closed on Tuesday night and much of Wednesday as detectives and forensics teams searched for clues.

Mustapha Yeldiz, 33, who works in a grocers opposite the college, described the scene after the man was stabbed. “There was a lot of noise and then a huge crowd of people – about 100 – were all around him,” he said. “Police came very quickly and sealed off the area.”

Past knife attacks were blamed on increasing tensions within Finsbury Park’s Algerian community, although the motive for the latest stabbing is unclear.
Tuesday’s attack happened despite extra CCTV in the area and an increased police presence.

Traders complain that attacks are costing them business, with Blackstock Road placed under a heavy police cordon every time someone is stabbed.

A shopkeeper on the Hackney side of the road, a 62-year-old father-of-two who asked not to be named, has written to Hackney Chief Superintendent Steve Dann to protest at the lost trade.

He said: “Every time something happens they’ve got to close the road. The police know who is operating in the area but are doing nothing about it.

“People know this is the place to come to buy knocked-off stuff from car boots. It’s very well organised.”

Residents say the problems have been getting worse in the past few months.

Lynne Savery, 47, a children’s charity worker from Highbury, said: “The people who work here are good people. It’s so sad that the criminals are ruining everything. You can get anything here. Crack, cocaine, heroin, it’s all sold here. Everything bad that happens in the street is down to drugs.”

Fourth stabbing sparks drug gang invasion fears

[Al-khiyal]

9 May, 2007 -- A café worker is rebuilding his life after being knifed in a street that has seen three stabbings in six weeks.

The 32-year-old Algerian, who does not want to be identified, spoke to the Gazette about his ordeal - and about the problems in Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park.

He had just finished a day's work at Sim Sim cafe when he was attacked with a 12-inch kitchen knife outside St Gabriel Ethiopian Delicatessen around 10.30pm on March 21. His heart stopped for 10 seconds as he was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, but he managed to survive.

A few weeks later, a 22-year-old Algerian man was knifed in his side by a man of North African appearance outside the Mediterranean Café around 7.30pm on April 6.

A 23-year-old Lithuanian man was then stabbed twice in the back after a scuffle with a man thought to be from Eastern Europe outside the Café El Madina around 5.45pm on April 24. The second wound punctured his lung.

Recalling the day he was stabbed, the Sim Sim worker said: "Two men were fighting in the shop at about 7pm to 7.30pm. I pushed them out and one of them said, 'You pushed me hard'. He later came back and apologised.

"After I'd shut the shop, I got on my motorbike. Suddenly I was stabbed twice in the leg - once in my knee and once in the side of my thigh. I fell off my bike.

"He was Algerian, about 30, and looked like he was on drugs.

"I needed three units of blood and an operation to repair a nerve. I was off work for a month and I can't sleep.

"The police need to take over this place. Then the area would be fine. The problem is the young men and especially the teenagers. They steal. They fight. They drink and are on drugs. About 80 per cent are Algerian."

The violence has left many people in Blackstock Road worried.

They deny the existence of a gang culture but believe there is a problem with young men getting involved in drugs or selling stolen goods.

Bilal, 33, who did not want to give his surname, was helping out at Algerian coffee-house Café el Madina.

He said: "People get drunk and they start fighting each other. But it's not a gangland thing. Sometimes it makes me worried. It gives Algerians a bad name and we don't like the reputation."

A Blackstock Road supermarket shopkeeper, 57, said: "The problems are becoming worse and worse. People are stealing things like mobile phones and trying to sell them here.

"It's not gangs. It's just people stealing, selling and having arguments. Every time it happens I lose trade. Customers say they have their purses stolen."

A 37-year-old Algerian man, who lives in Finsbury Park and is a regular to the street, added: "People don't have work permits. They can't get work so they go and steal. They get involved in drink and drugs. It's young men and teenagers.

"It's a problem for the Algerian community. It creates a bad reputation.

"We need to help young Algerian men get jobs - proper work, not slave labour - and then it would stop.

"We need the Muslim community to help. There are two mosques here but these people are doing drugs."

According to Finsbury Park mosque in St Thomas's Road, the area desperately needs attention.

Abdirahman Warsame, executive manager, said: "It needs regeneration.

"There are a lot of young Algerians who are unemployed and who don't have legal status. Either they have not been granted leave to remain or they are waiting to find out.

"Some of them are involved in selling stolen goods like mobile phones, watches and cameras. I don't know if they are involved in selling drugs and I don't know who is involved in the violence.

"Local government needs to focus on this area and provide opportunities for young people, especially Algerians.

"We can help in terms of advice and community building but the area needs money."

Islington police would not speculate on the cause of the recent spate of stabbings.

But Detective Superintendent David Miveld said: "Where there is increased violence, then we increase police patrols in the area.

"The number of these incidents is low. We are monitoring the situation and if residents have concerns, they should contact police."

Anyone with information about the first stabbing should call Shoreditch CID on 020 7275 3630. Call Islington police on 020 7404 1212 if you have information about the second two incidents. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Street's climate of fear

[Al-khiyal]

August 24, 2007 -- Dozens of mobile phones are being stolen to order every week and ‘fenced’ through middlemen in Finsbury Park who mail them in bundles to north Africa.

A senior police officer said last night (Thursday) that Blackstock Road was one of London’s “hotspots” for fencing stolen mobiles to Algeria.

Chief Inspector Jane Johnson said the handsets are robbed across the capital and brought to Blackstock Road for sale through unscrupulous shopkeepers.

Now a six-month clampdown is underway in a bid to stamp out the sale of stolen goods. Eleven people have already been arrested.

Chief Insp Johnson said: “We know there’s a strong Algerian link and a market for stolen mobile phones in Algeria. They have been blocked from working in the UK but will still work in Algeria.

“Very often they are shipped out of the country and the word is out that if people come to Blackstock Road, it is where they can get mobile phones.”

She added that Islington police took action after parcels containing mobile phones bound for Algeria were intercepted by Royal Mail and airport customs officers.

A turf war between criminals selling on stolen goods has also led to three stabbings around Blackstock Road cafés in recent months.

As well as mobile phones, seizures have included SIM cards and satellite navigation systems.

Mobile phone thefts linked to Algeria