Two infamous city gangs have been banned from making YouTube rap videos about shooting each other in a landmark ruling made today.
Britain’s biggest ever gang injunction will hit 18 members of bitter rivals the ‘Burger Bar Boys’ and the ‘Johnson Crew’ – 12 of whom are already in jail for violence and drugs offences.
The men, all aged between 19 and 29, are banned from YouTube and have been barred from large areas of Birmingham and must also stay apart in prison.
It includes Reial Phillips, Ashai Gray and Ishmail Lee who are all in jail for their part in a gangland turf war which saw eight people shot in just over a year.
Phillips was sentenced to 27 years last year for shooting Johnson Crew rivals and dealing Class A drugs while he ‘gloried in the shootings’ by posting his own rap videos online to ‘ramp up tension between the two gangs.’
Britain’s biggest ever gang injunction has hit 1 8 members of the rival ‘Burger Bar Boys’ and the ‘Johnson Crew’ in Birmingham – 12 of whom are already in jail for violence and drugs offences. Top row: Naasir Francis, Akeem Ivey-Foster, Ravelle Hutchinson, Lawrence Morgan, Jerome Jones, Jerome Christie; Middle row: Tesfa Bernard-Wheeler, Rayani Sutherland, Omarni Bernard-Sewell, Ushane Jeffers, Kayne Robinson, Ashai Grey; Bottom row: Jacob Brown, Cash Wallace, Ishmail Lee, Isaac Duffus, Baboucarr Huma, Reial Phillips.
Reial Phillips (pictured) was sentenced to 27 years last year for shooting Johnson Crew rivals and dealing Class A drugs while he ‘gloried in the shootings’ by posting his own rap videos online to ‘ramp up tension between the two gangs’
The two gangs were formed by two best friends in the 1980s and remained on friendly terms as they fought together with right-wing racists and Jamaican ‘yardie’ gangs in Birmingham.
Both groups took their names after their regular meeting spots, the Burger Bar on Soho Road and Johnson’s café on Heathfield Road in Lozells.
But in the 1990s they fell into a turf war as they started dealing drugs and brought extreme gang violence to the city for the first time since the now world-famous Peaky Blinders battled with the Sloggers in late 19th and early 20th century.
The rivalry between the ‘Burger Bar Boys’ and the ‘Johnson Crew’ culminated in the shooting dead of innocent friends Letisha Shakespeare, 17 and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis during crossfire at a New Year’s Eve party in 2003 in a crime that shocked Britain.
Both gangs took their names after their regular meeting spots, the Burger Bar on Soho Road and Johnson’s café on Heathfield Road in Lozells and brought severe gang violence to the city for the first time since the now world-famous Peaky Blinders from the later 19th and early 20th century.
After today’s court orders mean the 18 men will be barred from mixing with each other inside and outside prison after West Midlands Police and council chiefs secured the biggest gang injunction ever issued in the UK.
The gang members face up to two years behind bars if they are caught flouting the restrictions secured by police and the city council.
The orders, aimed at disrupting gun and drug crime, will include restrictions on the cars the men can drive and even the mobile phones they can use.
They are also banned from making music videos that ‘have the effect of promoting gang-related violence or drug dealing’.
Twelve of the gang members are currently in prison.
The gang injunctions were first applied in response to dozens of shootings that first gripped the city in 2015 and continued into 2016.
The court action was launched by West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council in a joint attempt to crackdown on gang members.
The men, all aged between 19 and 29, are now banned from associating with each other and entering certain areas of Birmingham, including the city centre, Handsworth, Newtown, Winson Green, Lozells and the Jewellery Quarter.
This is the exclusion zone for eighteen men from two Birmingham crime gangs served with injunctions banning them from entering large parts of the city in an attempt to end decades of violence
Hooded members of the Burger Bar Boys holding weapons the gang had when friends Letisha Shakespeare, 17 and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis were murdered during crossfire at a New Year’s Eve party in 2003
The two-year gang injunctions were granted for 17 men last month after more than 80 witnesses from the Home Office and police gave evidence at Birmingham Crown Court.
Tesfa Bernard Wheeler, 21, was hit with a civil injunction, which includes the same terms as the gang injunction.
Today police officers were out in force this morning to serve the orders on some of the men.
Others were issued on men who are already in prison, serving lengthy sentences for other criminal offences.
The orders include a power of arrest, meaning the gang members face up to two years behind bars if they are caught flouting the restrictions.
The order means they can no longer make music videos promoting violence or crime – as carried out by rapper Reial Phillips before he was jailed.
Detective Sergeant Ian Comfort, from the Force CID Prevent Team, said: ‘We set out to disrupt and curtail gang activity following around 20 firearm offences involving Birmingham gangs during the summer of 2015 and into the start of 2016.
‘We secured interim injunctions to reduce the violence and ensure the community had on-going respite from the incidents. We also dealt swiftly with a number of subsequent breaches.
‘This is relatively new legislation and we believe that securing final full injunctions on such a large number of gang members is a UK first.
‘The injunctions are applied for in the civil court in addition to sentences handed out by the criminal court for offences. They are an additional measure to help control the offenders and keep the community safe.
‘We have been working closely with Birmingham City Council and other agencies to secure these injunctions and we will continue to work with these men if they wish to turn their back on a gang lifestyle.’
Police are knocking on doors in Newtown, Aston, and Handsworth serving injunctions on gang members barred from large parts of the city
Officers will be watching them but will also need the public’s help to enforce the new injunctions
Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police previously secured interim injunctions following a spate of shootings.
Superintendent Mat Shaer, the Neighbourhood Policing Superintendent for Birmingham, said: ‘These injunctions are not sought lightly and the police together with the local council and other voluntary groups and charities will have already made exhaustive efforts with these men and their families to try and steer them away from gang culture.
‘My officers will be responsible for enforcing the terms of the injunctions and if the men fail to adhere to the conditions they can and will be arrested.
‘These civil injunctions add to our armoury and do not replace criminal prosecutions or investigations.
‘These powers allow us to manage the men and restrict their movements. We can restrict their associations and where they are allowed to go.’
He added: ‘We would like to thank the people living in the area where these gangs operate for having the courage to come forward with information that has helped us secure the injunctions.
‘We now turn to our communities to act as our eyes and ears and inform us if they see these men associating with each other or if they see them in the exclusion zones.’
Councillor Tristan Chatfield, Cabinet Member for Transparency, Openness and Equality at Birmingham City Council, said: ‘These young men are dangerous and a menace to ordinary people. They must be stopped from behaving like thugs and terrorising hard working people.
‘In the autumn, I will also publish a plan which will set out how we intend to tackle the problem of gangs in the West Midlands’.