British Organized Crime

British Organized Crime has been apparent in Britain for many years. Iconic British Organized Crime figures such as The Kray Twins made British Organized Crime known around the world.

Birmingham
The 1980s saw gang culture grow in Birmingham, which came about mainly in the late 1970s. Most of the gangs in Birmingham are ethnic gangs which came about to protect their communities against far-right parties such as the National Front, but as multiculturalism in the city grew rapidly and far-right parties subsided the gangs turned to crime and deviance. Although the Birmingham gangs have a history dating back to the 1970s, most were not brought to the public's attention until New Years Eve, 2003, when a high-profile drive-by shooting in the Birchfield area (in the Aston ward of Birmingham) claimed the lives of two teenage girls, Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis.

The violent crime rate in Birmingham has risen dramatically in recent years to the growth of gangs in the city, in 2006 six out of the ten most gun crime affected area's in the UK were in Birmingham.

The riot in the Lozells area of Birmingham October 2005 saw black and Asian gangs clash on a large scale. This was due to an unfounded rumor that several Asian men had gang raped a black girl which sparked the violence. The violent clashes in the volatile area of Lozells claimed three lives and scores of injuries, the riots brought about alliances between gangs of the same ethnicity which were previously unthinkable, such as the alliance between the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew. Also

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