Another day in Hackney, and the council sends letters to everyone in my street threatening them with a £100 fine if they don’t keep their wheelie bins off the pavement. Of course, no-one thought to send a polite letter first: civility has no place in the council machine.

Meanwhile, over the Hill on the Hackney side of the Haringey border, the roads have been taped off and the place is teeming with police, detectives and bystanders. I ask a policeman: “Was it a bus incident?” He replies: “I can’t say”.

But the bystanders have got word from somewhere. “Someone got stabbed.” “Someone got killed”.

Two more policemen arrive on the scene as I leave (I’ve been buying fruit from Fresh ‘n’ Fruity). One says to the other: “What use are we going to be to anyone here?”

Perhaps they could be investigating last week’s murder?

UPDATE: Yes, it’s yet another teenage murder on the safe streets of Hackney. Expect Diane Abbott up here for a publicity stunt in the near future.

UPDATE 2: The murdered teenager has been named as Devoe Roach. Two other teenagers were murdered on the same day - one elsewhere in London, the other in Birmingham. More details here.

Note: I’ve posted the other camera-phone photos I took on Hackney Lookout.

Two of my must-read local bloggers, Dave Hill and Cllr Luke Akehurst, have both put in a good word for this article by Hackney’s elected mayor, Jules Pipe.

Pipe’s piece boils down to three main elements.

1. Collectively, crime in Hackney is going down.
2. Violent crime is going up.
3. Something must be done about violent crime.

I’ll take his word for the first point; the evidence of my own eyes convinces me of the second; and, of course, violent crime needs to be tackled vigorously.

So far so good. So how do we tackle it?

Dave draws attention to this part of Pipe’s article:

This is a problem that society finds hard to debate intelligently. The pendulum tends to swing between crass demonisation of young people on the one hand and helpless hand wringing on the other. Both stances are equally short on answers.

Yes, absolutely. But what no-one has asked yet is this: “Jules, how can we find some answers?”

Pipe continues:

While young people feel excluded from the growing prosperity of this city, gang culture will continue to flourish. It is not enough to provide more youth clubs. The only way this cycle can be broken is for the minority of marginalised young people to see a positive future for themselves in which they can believe.

Again, I’m with him all the way. So what next?

This is a job not just for politicians and the police, but for schools, employers, faith groups, communities, and most importantly for families and parents. A Labour government and Labour councils must continue to give those families the support that they need to achieve this.

Oh dear. So the logic is this:

1. Violent crime can be most effectively tackled by helping families to help their children see a positive future for themselves.
3. A Labour government and Labour councils are giving those families the support they need to achieve this.
4. Violent crime is on the rise.
5. A Labour government and Labour councils must continue to give those families the same support as they do now.

So violent crime, presumably will - er - continue to rise?

It seems a bit strange for a politician to berate others for being short on answers, whilst offering none himself. As it stands, we’ve got kids wandering around with knives and wearing body armour and - for more than a few of them - any family intervention would be too late to be of the slightest use.

So yes, let’s see the council working with others to help tackle the immediate crisis, as well as preventing young people from getting involved with the gangs in the first place. But, Jules, can we please learn more about how you’re going to do it other than by carrying on as before?