by Amy Walters
Are violent music videos causing knife crimes? Well, YouTube seems to think so after it has removed thirty music videos from UK artist Drill, but are they doing the right thing?
There has been a significant increase in the amount of violent knife related crimes throughout London, which has resulted in 37 people being fatally stabbed, and since the beginning of 2018, there have been 62 people killed in London due to knife crime.
Statistics from last year show an increase of 23%, in the amount of knife related crimes in the capital. However, what is the reason for this? The Metropolitan police believe that ‘violent’ music videos, that are posted on streaming sites such as YouTube, have fueled this increase significantly.
Due to this, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, has asked YouTube to delete any content which glamorizes violence, and so far, 30 videos have been removed.
https://twitter.com/Dazed/status/1001416315243024384
Drill music has also been to blame, and artist, Chief Keef, who sang ‘I Don’t Like’ is the genre’s most notable artist.
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Is UK Drill music fuelling violence in London?
YouTube says it has deleted more than half of the videos of the hip-hop genre that the Met Police asked them to take down. Former gang member and Street Girl author Nequela Whittaker, says the link is not an exaggeration. #r4today pic.twitter.com/iEKw6EiPS1— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) May 29, 2018
According to the BBC, drill music’s lyrics “often detail vivid accounts of taking drugs and violence”, and policeman, Mike West, said that in these videos, it appears that the use of hand signals, to suggest pulling the trigger of a gun is often seen and could be implied as a threat to other people that the artists are calling out, therefore resulting in real life violence amongst the two individuals and their group of friends. He also suggested that not removing these videos, allows for more violent videos to be uploaded, resulting in further deaths.
https://twitter.com/deepxweb/status/1001413068763615232
However, not everybody agrees with this, and feels like the genre of music has never been the problem.
Drill music has never been the problem.. fix up
— CB (@stillwoodycb) May 26, 2018
I can't lie deleting drill music off youtube is the last thing they need to be doing ????????♂️
— Edo Boy ???????? (@B_Selecta) May 29, 2018
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https://twitter.com/waay4n/status/1001434548666884096
However, it is unclear whether there is a link, and this is just a cautionary step that the Metropolitan Police are taking to try to combat this issue.
What do you think? Do you feel like violent music videos influence people in the real world? Are the police trying to find something to blame? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
