Not Just A Bit Of ‘Wacky-Baccy’ by Les May

IT SEEMS that the chickens are finally coming home to roost for some Rochdale councillors. Perhaps now they will take seriously the threat of gangsterism in parts of the town.

Last autumn in a series of articles I drew attention to an attack by a hastily assembled gang in the Newbold area which left one young man with life changing injuries when his hand was hacked off by an axe wielding individual who, along with three compatriots, was later sent to prison.

I also published an open letter which had been sent individually to all Rochdale councillors asking them to publicly condemn the attack which, although clearly a case of gangsterism, had racial overtones.

Only a few councillors were courteous enough to reply. All were happy to reassure me that they were not ‘racist’, but none were willing to go on record and condemn this attack and the gangsterism it entailed. This led me to conclude that it was reasonable to describe Rochdale Council as institutionally racist.

Ten months later we have a report that three people, two men and a woman, were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. These are considered to be the most harmful and include heroin, methadone, cocaine (including crack cocaine), ecstasy, magic mushrooms and ‘crystal meth’. The arrests took place at addresses in Newbold and Deeplish.

As the estimated ‘street value’ of these drugs isn’t far from one million pounds, we are clearly not talking about a bit of ‘wacky-backy’ in a roll up under the canal bridge. A haul valued at £900,000 points to organised crime, and organised crime points to the involvement of a gang or gangs. With this kind of money involved it makes a mockery of the idea that one can blame the problems of these areas on ‘deprivation’.

If these arrests result in convictions I don’t think it is too much to ask that on this occasion councillors of all political stripes begin to take the problem of gangsterism seriously and say so.