The mother of a 15-year-old boy murdered in a gang feud accused the justice system of failing to tackle London’s knife crime epidemic, as her son’s killers were jailed.Daejaun Campbell was ambushed and stabbed with a machete as he walked along a path in Woolwich last September.
00:00Justice. There's no, you know what? There's no amount of time given to these perpetrators that can bring they build back. And with that timeline, is that the same time period I've got to piece my life back together, is that the same time period I get to build my family back. So no, justice wasn't served. It will never be.
00:24Our children no longer have the luxury of smart lives. As parents, we live and die in fear. Fear that our children, maybe next year, justice will once again look the other way.
00:43We're told to stay calm, to trust the system, to wait for change. But how many more children must be buried before this country finally admits it has failed them?
00:55How many more mothers must scream into pillows because the streets have become open graves. The system is not broken. It is functioning exactly as it was built. To protect itself, to preserve its appearance and to silence truth.
01:15Every time another child dies, we get the same rehearsed apology. The same reports, the same empty phrases. Lessons will be learnt. But no lessons ever are. Because no one in power pays the price.
01:31Yes. Dejan wasn't the first. And heartbreakingly, he won't be the last. They will sit in their offices, write new talking points, wait for our pain to fade from the headlines. It never does. It just moves home. From one grieving mother to another.
01:49And to those who led this country. And to those who led this country, Keir Starmer, Sadiq Khan, David Lammy, you speak of reform while our children die.
02:00You talk about unity while you're in action, tears families apart. You issue condolence and return to comfort. We live with the aftermath. Your words build nothing. Your silence buries everything.
02:18Dejan was robbed of his entire future. Yet the perpetrators still have one. One of them, the driver walks free. He has been home for months. He sits at home surrounded by warmth and laughter. While I sit surrounded by silence and ashes.
02:35He gets to hold his family. I hold my son's memory. If that is justice, then justice itself is dead. The devastation left behind can't be contained in a courtroom or captured in a statement.
02:50The authorities knew who those boys were. They always do. They had a chance to act and didn't. The system keeps giving second chances to those who destroy lives. And no chances to lives they destroy.
03:05So no. The system hasn't failed us. It has abandoned us. Until it learns to protect the innocent, before it comforts the guilty, more mothers will stand where I stand. And more names like Dejan's will be carved into stone long before their time.
03:21Those who choose violence are given chances. Those who choose love are given grace.
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