Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick asked for any music videos that appear to glamorise violence – singling out ‘drill music’ as what a particularly dangerous genre. The style of trap music originated in Chicago, before growing in the UK and London’s hip-hop scene over the last decade.
With over 30 deleted so far, some videos were blamed for a rise in violent crime in London.
“The gangs try to outrival each other with the filming and content – what looks like a music video can actually contain explicit language with gangs threatening each other,” Mike West from Metropolitan Police told the BBC. “There are gestures of violence, with hand signals suggesting they are firing weapons and graphic descriptions of what they would do to each other.
WARNING THE FOLLOWING VIDEO MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES.
Police targeting drill music videos in controversial crackdown http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/drill-music-stabbings-london-youtube-violence-police-knife-crime-gangs-a8373241.html
Some drill music tracks still available online feature groups associated with the postcode war that led to the murder of 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne, who was shot dead in Tottenham last month.
London’s murder rate has surged by 44 per cent in a year, with more than 60 people killed so far in 2018 amid a nationwide surge in knife crime.
Detective Superintendent Mike West said the number of videos that “incite violence” have been increasing since late 2015.
“The gangs try to outrival each other with the filming and content – what looks like a music video can actually contain explicit language with gangs threatening each other,” he added. “There are gestures of violence, with hand signals suggesting they are firing weapons and graphic descriptions of what they would do to each other.”
Scotland Yard has compiled a central database of more than 1,400 indexed videos that are used to gather intelligence.
Yemi Abiade, Editor of Dummy Magazine, told the Independent: “Ignoring these problems breed contempt, giving birth to more violence. Regardless of London’s murder rate, drill will continue to offer a voice to those without one because, for many of them, it’s all they have to survive.”
“We have developed policies specifically to help tackle videos related to knife crime in the UK and are continuing to work constructively with experts on this issue,” they said. “We work with the Metropolitan Police, the Mayor’s office for policing and crime, the Home Office, and community groups to understand this issue and ensure we are able to take action on gang-related content that infringe our community guidelines or break the law.http://www.nme.com/news/music/youtube-deletes-half-violent-music-videos-drill-music-2327260#aJhkeUhiCBWzEyWX.99
“We have a dedicated process for the police to flag videos directly to our teams because we often need specialist context from law enforcement to identify real life threats.
They added: “Along with others in the UK, we share the deep concern about this issue and do not want our platform used to incite violence.” SOURCE: http://www.nme.com/news/music/youtube-deletes-half-violent-music-videos-drill-music-2327260#aJhkeUhiCBWzEyWX.99
