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Inner city tales

innercitytales

About Me

.."black"
Inner city tales has been set up to raise awareness through poetry, images and video of the serious issues effecting people living in the inner city communities of St Paul’s and Easton Bristol, as well as other communities that suffer from the same negligence and abuse from the authorities.
As well as Bristol other major cities in England have communities like St Paul's and Easton that have been designated as unoficial tolerance zones for Prostitution, Drugs and Associated crime.
As these are unoficial tolerance zones the authorities deny responsibility.
As you will read and see there are things happening that no one in modern day Britain should have to witness or tolerate, least of all children.
What do you see when you walk through your community?
I wonder if its the same as we see day in, day out.
Prostitutes soliciting outside Primary Schools and Nurseries.
Drug Addicts loitering leaving their used needles places were Children play.
Paedophiles housed in an Approved Premises (Bail Hostel) that over looks a Nursery playground.
Systematic deconstruction of communities
The question i would like you, to ask yourself is WHY ?
After you have had a look, post us a comment to let us know what you think
Image below shows a prostitute being supplied drugs outside Millpond Primary School, Easton, Bristol.

The sign directly above their heads reads Millpond Primary School while the one to the right reads Police Warning Kerb crawlers will be arrested and has been in place since 2002.
Image below shows a prostitute soliciting under School warning sign as children walk home from School.
Due to the tolerance shown by Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council towards Prostitution in Easton associated crime is able to flourish within the community.
The most common crime associated with prostitution is drug abuse. Due to many, if not all the prostitutes being addicted to Crack Cocaine or Heroin as well as their partners or pimp that they support, the amount of debris left within the community from their drug use is alarming.
Image below shows a young girl injecting herself with heroin in the Kango building. The Kango building is located 25 metres from St Paul's Day Nursery
Image below shows drug taking tools that have been discarded after use in the Kango building.

Further to this the situation is made worse in St Pauls by the Government housing Paedophiles at Brigstocke Road Approved Premises (Bail Hostel).
Brigstocke Road Approved Premises is a high risk approved probation hostel which has 28 places and houses paedophiles
Jumoke Nursery has approx. 30 places for children aged 2-5 years old.
The back rooms of Brigstocke Road Approved Premises look directly into the Nurseries playground
Image below shows the view from a room at the back of Brigstocke Road Approved Premises into the nursery playground
Image below shows the front of 1 of the 5 adjoining properties that make up Brigstocke Road Approved Premises.
Image below shows Brigstocke Road Action Group demonstrating against Schedule 1 Sex Offenders which includes Paedophiles being housed at Brigstocke Road Approved Premises.
To highlight the cause further with this Labour Government who promised to stop admitting Paedophiles to all approved premises within such close Proximity to areas where children play or are taught - there are 16 schools and nurseries which are within 1/2 a mile of Brigstocke Road approved premises -
Jumoke Day Nursery Directly behind
Candle Play-group Next door
Andalusia Academy
Bristol Gateway School
Cabot Primary School
Colston Primary School
Colston Girls' School
Cotham School
Easton Church of England Primary School
Millpond Primary School
Rosemary Nursery School and Family unit
St Barnabas C of E Primary School
St James & St Agnes Nursery School
St Michael on the Mount Church of England Primary School
St Paul’s Day Nursery
St Werburgh's Primary School
All Distances are taken from Ofsted web site. www.ofsted.gov.uk/report
HOW CAN THIS BE RIGHT???
After a successful campaign and due to the criminal negligence of Avon and Somerset Probation Service, Brigstocke Road Approved Premises will no longer house Paedophiles.
I would like to thank every body on behalf of St Paul's for their support.
The latest abuse by the authorities has been the seizure of social housing properties in St Paul's.
This has come in the form of the authorities failing to maintain properties and protect tenants from anti social behavior. Which has resulted in many people moving away from St Paul's and when their property has become empty the housing authorities leave them empty.
Over the last 10 years St Paul's has lost many members of the community due to the lack of care by Avon and Somerset Police, Bristol City Council, Bristol Churches Housing Association and Knightstone Housing Association.
Through out this time many of the properties became drug dens and squats. This increased the fear felt within the community and more people moved away.
The reason for clearing St Paul's of as much social housing as possible is the Broadmead development scheme. This is a £500 million redevelopment of a part of Bristol's City Centre which boarders St Paul's. Attached to this is another £300 million development which will come into the heart of St Paul's.
Bristol City Council and the Housing Association's have plenty to gain in relocating the community.


Some people were offered sums of up to £4000
to move out of St Paul's as they had not been scared into moving.
Some of these people were registered drug addicts.
What do you think they spent their money on ?
One member of the community who had lived in St Paul's for over 30 year's and suffered with mental health problems had a member of Knighstone Housing Association get him to sign away his tenancy so they could sell his house while he was sectioned.
When he comes out he will of lost the home he has known for the best part of his life.
How can they justify their actions?

These are just a few of the issues facing the communities of St Paul's and Easton, Bristol.
Your comments will be appreciated

"Lawrence feels we have an opportunity to do this. Take him up on this challenge."I urge you to embrace this moment, to open your mind and have the confidence to delve into the depth of history that will take you on a journey of understanding and enlightenment, a journey of pain and ultimately healing."By doing this you get to the crux of the psyche of a second-generation black Bristolian, displaced in history by slavery’s handmaiden (racism); born from a dual melody of cultural entwining."An exhibition of his material is due to open, inviting people to hear what he calls Hoostory."What I've seen through this year with Abolition is that the history of that period is being written - books are being produced so maybe in 50 year's time that will be the history of these events,"History is just one man's version of events so I want to put anther version of the events and a different perspective to the slave trade," said Lawrence.History is history, Hoostory is mine.

Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor

My Interests

Movies:


LIFE ON THE STREET

ITV West documentry by Sherie Eugene on Inner city tales
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SCHOOL FENCE:
© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poem
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LOST INNOCENCE
© Lawrence Hoo
Interview with a Prostitute outside Millpond Primary School, Easton, Bristol

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KANGO
© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poetry

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CRACK INTERVIEW
St Paul's, Bristol

© Lawrence Hoo
The harsh realities of drug addiction explained by two addicts
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TEMPTATION
© Lawrence Hoo

Spoken Word/Poem
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ITS NOT MY FAULT

Public Meeting held at Malcom X Centre, St Paul's, Bristol which was attended by Jill Cotsgrove, Assistant Chief Officer, Avon and Somerset Probation Service and Jackie Roberts Assistant Chief Constable, Avon and Somerset Police.
© Lawrence Hoo
QUESTION

If Paedophiles are being housed at Brigstocke Road Approved Premises on Sex Offender Prevention Orders that state they must not be near Schools, Nurseries, Parks or Children's play areas:
are the Paedophiles in breach of their Sex Offenders Prevention Orders by staying at Brigstocke Road Approved Premises ?
QUESTION

If so who is responsible ?
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DIRECT ACTION
Home Secretary Dr John Reid
being presented petition against Paedophiles being housed at Brigstocke Road Approved Premises St Paul's, Bristol
© Lawrence Hoo
WATCH AND SEE THE RESPONSE

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VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE

Brigstocke Road Approved Premises, St Paul's, Bristol has been down graded and will no longer house Paedophiles and serious sex offenders.

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SQUATTERS MANSIONS
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© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poem
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EXPANSION
© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poem
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M32
© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poem
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UNITE
© Lawrence Hoo
Spoken Word/Poem
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THINK ?
© Lawrence Hoo
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Books:


ON SALE NOW
Aspire to inspire and be inspired. That's my motto it has been for 25 years and it hasn't let me down yet. I want the phrase to work in Inner City Tales too, which I am proud to be a part of.
Lawrence and I grew up together from the age of 5. We shared the same city, the same community, moved among the same people although our paths never crossed to my knowledge. Not even once. As teenagers we went in different directions, made different choices and consequently had different outcomes.
Years later we met for the first time in our late 30's.
Lawrence and I actually met for the first time at the launch of an event in Bristol called Different Pasts, Shared Futures. The funny thing was I bumped into a good friend of his Michael, a few weeks before who told me of Lawrence and his passion for a clean environment and youth development. Little did I know that this thought provoking, intelligent and tenacious individual would introduce himself at this event completely out of the blue!
After a brief introduction I was inspired to meet him again. At the time I was working on a Series of items for ITV West News called Life on the Street. We arranged to meet at St Paul's learning centre for a quick chat. 3 hours later we were still chatting and a news feature was born.
I was struck by Lawrence's determination to see justice in his community. I mean real justice. Coming from someone who had lived and seen life for what it was, his experience was not to be envied.
His troubled upbringing has much to bear. For example, his battle with family life as a child, and going into care. His feeling of displacement and coping with rejection. Not to mention his unenviable life on the street. Lawrence described himself as a product of his environment and confessed in his own words he was a ..nightmare'.
I paint a generic picture of an unsettled childhood, but things took a dramatic change for the worst when Lawrence was diagnosed with cancer. His challenge now was to live. By now he was in his 20's and with the fear of his life ebbing away his resolve went from bad to worse and drug abuse took hold. Bring on a whole new life existence. I was compelled to hear his story and he told me much more than I feel able to share.
By now a televisual story was unfolding in my mind. I thought for a long time of how I would tell his story in 3 minutes and which bits I should edit, because it was all tell able. Really a documentary was the answer.
Not that he's opinionated, more passionate. Of the many issues expressed, he spoke of a hostel housing paedophiles close to where children go to school and live, of a drugs den, which after a struggle with various authority figures managed to get closed down. He spoke of prostitution and drug dealing in full view of young children and their parents, and how all this was allowed to happen. And why
His whole emphasis was based on child protection; drawing from his own experience he's qualified to PhD level in why children should grow up as children and not corrupted little people.
Lawrence's poetry captures the mood perfectly. It’s clear, precise and cutting. When you read this book you will get the point. Lawrence cannot sit back and allow environmental cancer to claim our children.
He cannot relax knowing that prostitution and drug dealing operate hand in hand outside the school gates. He cannot sit on the fence knowing that his children, yours and mine are exposed to social decay at best and destruction and death at worst.
And his searching enquiring eyes ask the question's, ..Why is this allowed to happen? Who is in control? Who is in charge? And who is to blame?'
Lawrence has penetrated the system and is making waves, making connections and has already begun to make changes. The change comes from within first of course and that is the catalyst of reform here I think.
The ultimate aim is for this change to have the desired effect on our children of today and tomorrow. This change should bring about true caring authorities, resulting in positive responsive communities, flourishing schools and teachers and as a result bright, motivated, confident and able children. Wouldn't that be great?
In summing up, I would like to draw from Lawrence's own words that were transmitted at the end of my news piece. He said 'A lot of people sometimes look at the kids from certain inner city communities and wonder why they frown, why they are quite angry. Well if they witnessed what the children witnessed on a daily basis, then they'd find it very hard to smile.'
Read this book and be inspired to inspire and join with Lawrence in making a difference in our community for the benefit of our communities and our children.
Sherrie Eugene
Broadcaster

To contact Lawrence Hoo email: [email protected]
Inner city tales is available from:
Click on Waterstone's logo to order
Waterstone's Booksellers
11a Union Gallery
Bristol
BS1 3XD
0117 925 2274
Waterstone's Booksellers
27-29 College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TB
0117 925 0511
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol
BS1 4QA
0117 917 2304
Email [email protected]
1-2 Perry Road
Bristol
0117 922 1566
Email [email protected]
Web www.wonderfulworkshop.com
226 Stapleton Rd
Bristol
BS5 0NX
0117 935 5764

Heroes:



Bob Marley

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Gil-Scott Heron

Marvin Gaye

Curtis Mayfield

Gil-Scott Heron

My Blog

Abolition 200

Abolition 200 the bicentenary of when the slave trade endedThis is just another example of how the truth can be bendedBended in a way to alter the true history of the tradeSo people would be able to d...
Posted by Inner city tales on Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:29:00 PST

Bury a friend

A group of youths are gathered its late at nightBut then an argument starts and two begin to fightThrough the mayhem a girl is hurtSome of the youths look around then they splurtThe girl's people get ...
Posted by Inner city tales on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:27:00 PST

Jail Time

I hear the authorities say they want to increase jail timeDo they honestly believe that is the answer to inner city crime?The authorities say they carry weapons to look hardHave they ever thought thei...
Posted by Inner city tales on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:25:00 PST

Consequences

As we watch the children growThey start observing and thinking they knowBut what does a child know about consequence from its action?To some it will look exciting but we know it's a deadly distraction...
Posted by Inner city tales on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:51:00 PST

Life

To all the people shopping at the mallGoing to purchase something big or smallDo you really know about our life?Growing up were drugs and vice are rifeLet me open your eyes to the life we liveDon't wo...
Posted by Inner city tales on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:43:00 PST