Government accused of ‘silence’ and ‘inaction’ as teenager’s killers locked up

The Government has been accused of “silence” and “inaction” by the family of a 15-year-old machete murder victim as his killers were locked up.

Transcript

00:01Dijon Campbell cried out, I'm 15, don't let me die, after he was ambushed in Woolwich

00:07on the 22nd of September last year.

00:12His friend, aspiring rapper 14-year-old Kaelin Bacasa, featured in a YouTube video in which

00:18he was seen crouching beside a floral tribute to Dijon.

00:23Then on the 7th of January, Kaelin was also fatally stabbed by two 16-year-old boys with

00:30machetes on a bus in Woolwich.

00:33Although unrelated, both boys' killings have been linked to street gang culture in London.

00:40The court heard how Dijon was targeted for a so-called gang check when he was spotted near

00:49a house the defendants were visiting.

00:53As he was attacked, he screamed for help and threw a large knife, which hit a metal fence

01:00and broke apart.

01:02Dijon fell to his knees in the street, having suffered two stab wounds and six superficial

01:08cuts.

01:09Jurors heard the motive for the killing was unclear, but that Dijon had been carrying money and drugs,

01:18possibly crack cocaine.

01:21Dijon was robbed of his entire future, yet the perpetrators still have one.

01:26One of them, the driver, walks free.

01:29He has been home for months.

01:30He sits at home surrounded by warmth and laughter, while I sit surrounded by silence and ashes.

01:36He gets to hold his family.

01:38I hold my son's memory.

01:40If that is justice, then justice itself is dead.

01:45The devastation left behind can't be contained in a courtroom or captured in a statement.

01:52The authorities knew who those boys were.

01:55They always do.

01:56They had a chance to act and didn't.

01:59The system keeps giving second chances to those who destroy lives and no chances to lives

02:04they destroy.

02:06So no, the system hasn't failed us, it has abandoned us.

02:11Until it learns to protect the innocent before it comforts the guilty, more mothers will stand

02:16where I stand.

02:18And more names like Dijon's will be carved into stone long before their time.

02:23Those who choose violence are given chances.

02:26Those who choose love are given graves.