Former gang member shares his thoughts the frightening rise is violence among teens

BY Max Kleinen via Unsplash

By Pamela Brunton

Paul Smith is no stranger to the lingering aftereffects of incidents of teen violence. The author of ‘From Gangs to Gourmet’ talks openly about horrifying acts of violence both perpetrated by him and to him from a young age, while he roamed the streets of Cumbernauld as a teen.

In his book, Paul talks about his struggles with PTSD, becoming a professional chef, and the lasting impact his life of crime as a youngster has had on his ability to function in the real world as an adult.

The issue has been raised in parliament now and is even being dubbed by newspapers as a ‘crisis’. 

Paul thinks the problem seems to be getting worse. 

“I'd say peer pressure is a big thing, but also a lot of it was boredom.” 

Paul, who has been stabbed several times, assaulted with various blunt weapons, slashed on the face and head, and even shot, considers himself a miracle to be still alive and refers to his body as a “road map of Britain”. 

He thinks the youth are offending the way he used to. Paul said:

“You know, you're young. You’re looking for something to do. Friday night, Saturday night's brilliant. But the other five nights of the week are just standing about doing nothing, so you're looking for your next kick, your next laugh, something to beat the boredom. Then you see people in stolen cars, and that looks brilliant, it breaks up the monotony."

And when asked why he thinks so many youngsters are armed with weapons these days, he said:

"It's completely driven by fear. The young ones will tell you that in their way, they'll say that the knife is for protection. Well, you're only needing protection because you're feeling fear.”

If they're all feeling fear, then unless we start getting them talking about it, we're never going to get anywhere, you know it's just going to be the same story generation after generation." 

So, what goes through the mind of a 14-year-old boy after committing such acts. Paul said:

"When you're young, you're that reckless, you don't care if you take somebody's life. I know for a fact that when it came to the point where we were potentially getting charged with their murder...that it was horrifying, you know."

And violence is not restricted to the weekend. More action has been called for by parents, ministers, and teachers who are being subjected to abuse, sometimes physical, in the classroom. 

The Daily Record has recently backed youth campaigners in a campaign called ‘Our kids, our future’ after the death of 16-year-old Kory McCrimmon who was stabbed through the heart last year by a rival gang member.

Paul was involved in a similar incident 17 years ago, which saw him narrowly avoid a life sentence after the victim survived the attack. Paul was jailed for 6 years. 

"I was in a gang fight in a scheme in Cumbernauld called Greenfaulds. It was a big brawl in the middle of the street. As we were fighting, this guy who had nothing to do with it decided to walk right through the middle of it, and I was involved in that boy getting stabbed nine times. Somebody else slashed him.”

“I found out later he had nothing to do with it. I carry that cross to this day.”

It seems the consequences of such acts of violence don’t even occur to these youngsters until after the fact.

"When we were put in (jail), I'm sitting thinking to myself, that guy's dead because of an argument I had with him. And, you know, I was horrified. That messed with me mentally badly. And it was just a pure mistake."

Nobody wants to be looked at as the one that's got the guts to walk away, yet I would argue as an adult that's the strongest one in the pack because we can all follow a pack, no problem. 

If you've got the guts to stand against it and have your own beliefs, then that's real strength, but you say that to a 14-year-old, they won’t understand. “

Their brains aren't wired the same way. They will understand some time, the ones that are lucky enough to get out, but not everybody gets out, that's the problem."

Paul had run-ins with the law on many occasions during his younger years; however, he now works with officers in an initiative run by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), where the aim is to educate potential young offenders via talks arranged in local schools. 

Various agencies, including the police, social work, Medics Against Violence (MAV) and ex-prisoners share their experiences with pupils in the hope of influencing the youngsters to make better decisions.  

"You don't understand the implications at the time. As a teenager, you're selfish; it's all about me, me, me. You've got no responsibility, you don't know what you're doing, so instead of bettering society, you become a stain on society - and then of course, you wonder why the police start harassing you, but they are just doing their job."

When Paul was a teenager, the local police knew his character so well that they would lock him up for petty crimes on weekends to ensure others' safety in and around the local community. 

"They used to jail me on a Friday for nothing. And they would say, well, we're jailing you now, so somebody doesn't get stabbed later on."

 "I'd sit there raging, I'd be kept in a police station all weekend, but when I got older, I understood, of course."

“They were doing me a favour because they stopped me from getting potentially stabbed to death and they stopped me from getting a life sentence for doing it to somebody else."

He believes some of the issues with his behaviour may have stemmed from having dyslexia as a child, which caused him to act out in a classroom environment because he felt stupid. Because of this, he would ditch classes a lot. 

Believing his teachers were relieved when he was absent due to his unruly behaviour, Paul feels that if more time had been taken to understand the ramifications of dyslexia and how it affects pupil behaviour, things may have turned out differently. 

Paul felt let down by his teachers as he believed they had more time for those he dubbed the ‘academic kids’, as opposed to pupils with learning difficulties like him. 

"They label them disruptive and whatnot, so straight away, all that kid is getting taught is that the system's already given up on you. So, what are you going to do? You're going to fight against that because nobody wants to feel abandoned. 

And that's what people don't realise, that these kids will start to feel abandoned, so they'll start to thicken their skin and look for love and acceptance elsewhere. 

And usually what we find is that we get it within a gang."

A 2021 report “Dyslexia in the Education and Criminal Justice Systems,” by The Centre for Social Justice found that 30-50% of inmates in juvenile offending institutions were diagnosed with Dyslexia. 

Jackie Hewitt-Main OBE, is an author and advocate for dyslexia awareness. She has extensively studied dyslexia among prisoners, and conducted her own study as part of her dissertation in 2014.

She found that of the 2,029 prisoners studied, 53% were found to be dyslexic in comparison with 10% of the general population; 79% had literacy skills below average 12 year old and 48% left school with no qualifications. 

This study does seem to show that Paul's theory as to why he misbehaved in school may have some weight to it. Once he was locked up for his crimes, he was finally able to see the light and begin to understand the implications of his actions. 

“I’d been on remand for about seven months, seven months away from your pals, drink, drugs, or chaos in the street. After seven months, you get in your thoughts, and suddenly the penny starts to drop."

During his time in Barlinnie, Paul picked up some cooking skills from a former prison officer who was involved in running cooking lessons for the prisoners. 

"They did bring in someone who's now a friend of mine, Stuart McPherson. He would come in once a month. He was an ex-prison officer. He was also a professional chef and gave cooking lessons, a lot like I do today. 

That was a good one because he would show you were worth something and a lot of people, a lot of young men, they feel worthless... 

they think, ‘Why should I stop messing up? No one cares anyway,’ you know..."

After serving six years, the adolescent who had entered the prison system emerged now as an adult. 

Paul decided to change his life and become a professional chef. He met his partner, Stacey, after being released from prison. Stacey gave Paul an ultimatum to change his ways or lose her, and Paul chose to settle down instead of returning to a life of crime.

"If I never met Stacey, I'd have been in a pine box or a concrete box.” He says, “I would have 1,000% returned to custody, or I would have died. You can't keep rolling the dice and expect to always just be injured. 

“I would eventually be killed.

"It took discipline, but it also took a lot of courage because I had to tell my old pals, I'm sorry, but if you are all doing that, then I don't want to be involved anymore."

Paul, who has a 17-year-old son of his own now, thinks about his past and how he would feel if his son were involved in the kind of criminal life he was as a youngster.  

"I believe we all need to pay karma. We all pay for our sins one way or another, and I pray to God that I don't get that phone call one day."

Paul has this advice for youngsters currently involved in gang violence: 

"Too many people tell lies to young ones. I mean, I used to honestly think that I wasn't a real man until I'd done a bit of time. I thought that was like a rite of passage, and it's complete nonsense."

"Stop being a sheep, show real backbone, show real courage, and if you want to walk away, walk away.” 

"If you're a mother and a father who drink or take drugs, you've got to remember you are doing major psychological damage to them. (your kids) And they're going to seek the love, attention, and respect that they think they're lacking on the streets."

 You can read more about Paul’s story in his book ‘From Gangs to Gourmet’, which is available on Amazon to buy now.