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They see themselves whenever possible as victims; and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it. Boris Johnson, 2004, re Hillsborough disaster
Richardson: I’ve just thought how we can avoid Liverpool.
Edmondson: That shouldn’t be difficult; central government have been doing it for years. Comic Strip Presents ... s3e2: Private Enterprise starring Adrian Edmondson & Peter Richardson & Rik Mayall & Dawn French & Nigel Planer et al, Channel 4 1986
This is Liverpool gangsta Curtis ‘Cocky’ Warren. He is the first and only drug trafficker to appear on the list of Britain’s richest people. Some estimate his fortune as high as £300 million. And Warren isn’t the only Liverpool villain to have made millions from crime. Britain’s Underworld: Liverpool, 2010
Showers was establishing himself as an armed robber. But he would go down in criminal history for a different reason ... By 1970 Showers was an armed robber with a growing sideline in Cannabis dealing. He was also an increasingly big figure in Toxteth and prepared to use violence to maintain his reputation ... By going to Africa and importing Cannabis direct he dramatically increased the supply of drugs. ibid.
Dock theft had a long history in Liverpool. In many ways it was the City’s signature crime. And it was a world away from cutting-edge bank jobs. ibid.
Charlie Seiga needed little encouragement. He began robbing the country houses of north Wales of their antiques. ibid.
On 3rd July 1981 the Toxteth district erupted into an orgy of violence. It was the worst public disorder Britain had witnessed that century. And young robber Stephen French was at the heart of it. For three days the authorities lost all control over Toxteth. Estimates suggest up to 1,000 police officers were injured. And as many as 140 buildings destroyed. ibid.
Yet the hard drugs revolution on Merseyside would not come from Toxteth but the other side of the Mersey. And it caught everyone by surprise ... Career villain Charlie Seiga watched many of his peers dive headlong into the gold-rush. One man who seized the opportunity was Tommy Comerford. The so-called mastermind of the Water Street Bank Robbery. Comerford starting importing a whole range of drugs from heroin to LSD, and became the first British criminal to forge links with most of the world’s drugs regions. It made him a fortune, but Comerford still lived in a council flat. ibid.
In the wake of the Toxteth riots Michael Showers turned himself into a community spokesman, meeting politicians and appearing on TV debates ... Showers was still importing drugs. In 1990 he was sentenced to 22 years for masterminding a £2 million heroin import. At the time Customs called Showers, ‘The most significant UK national arrested in the fight against heroin.’ ibid.
Curtis Warren: Warren’s rise is one of the most remarkable in British criminal history. He first made the news aged 16 when he mugged a 78-year-old woman on the steps of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral. 8 years later he was arrested in Switzerland trying to rob a shoe shop. By the early ’90s he had progressed to mid-level drug dealing. Mysteriously though Warren made a huge leap forwards. ibid.
The Liverpool mafia were white middle-aged criminals who worked on the docks. They were experts at smuggling contraband. They made a lot of money from armed robbery. And they were able to invest that in drugs shipments. Graham Johnson, author Powder Wars & the Devil
A ton is nothing. Michael Showers
What you see today, it’s a war zone compared with what it was. Michael Showers
Blowing a safe is easy. Charlie Seiga
I started to rob drug dealers. It’s called Taxation. Stephen French
We all felt we were behind their game because we didn’t have the availabilities to do surveillance, to gain evidence, and the forensic issues. Albert Kirby, retired detective
The lie was if you chase the dragon, which was smoking the heroin, the fumes and the silver foil, you can’t get addicted. And these people fell from it. And within months we had an epidemic. Mike Malloy, former Liverpool police detective
In December 2008 in Liverpool an eighteen-year-old youth Sean Mercer was sentenced to 22 years for the murder of Rhys Jones. Ross Kemp on Gangs s4e6: Liverpool, Sky 1 2009
In the north of the city lie the neighbouring suburbs of Norris Green and Croxteth – they’re united by a postcode: Liverpool 11. ibid.
A bitter local gang war between his Strand Crew and the Crocky Crew. ibid.
Nogzy Crew v Crocky Crew. ibid.
Matrix: A Force To Be Reckoned With: Targeting gun and drug crime. Between May 2007 and May 2008 there were a reported 48 shootings on Merseyside. ibid.
As far back as the late nineteenth century the tough streets around the docks were home to legendary gangs like the Cornermen. ibid.
Merseyside was left with a legacy of drugs and violence. ibid.
Stephen French became a master tax collector. ibid.
Gangs innit. Two fucking gangs. They both argue, know what I mean. It’s like that everywhere in the world, be honest. There’s two gangs always fighting. There won’t be an end unless everyone fucking dies. Liverpool gangsta
The most infamous was Curtis Warren, known as Cocky, a leading figure in the Liverpool mafia, and an international drug smuggling ring. Gangs of Britain II: Liverpool, CI 2013
The Cornermen plagued this city over a hundred years ago. ibid.
The massive influx of hard drugs into Britain – heroin and cocaine. ibid.
Curtis Warren’s masterstroke was to cut out the middlemen and deal directly with the suppliers. ibid.
180 kilos of pure heroin ... at the time this was the largest shipment ever captured in Britain. ibid.
Curtis Warren – he was Interpol’s target number one. ibid.
[Dutch] police confiscated 400 kilograms of cocaine, 60 kilos of heroin, 1,500 kilos of cannabis and 50 kilos of ecstasy. ibid.
In 2009 Curtis Warren was jailed once more. ibid.
I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool. Paul McCartney
A year ago, a chap called Adrian Hayward asked Paddy Power for a price on Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso scoring a goal during the forthcoming season from inside his own half. He was offered 125-1 and his £200 was turned into £25,000 when Alonso duly scored from improbable range against Luton in the third round of the FA Cup.
‘I watch Liverpool a lot and had seen Alonso try it before,’ he later reported. ‘Also, I’d had a dream about it and just couldn’t get it out of my head.’ Independent online article 19th August 2006
In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. Bill Shankly
I was only in the game for the love of football – and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool. Bill Shankly
If Everton were playing down the bottom of my garden, I’d draw the curtains. Bill Shankly
Both of the Villa scorers – Withe and Mortimer – were born in Liverpool as was the Villa manager Ron Saunders who was born in Birkenhead. David Coleman
There’s been a black community in Liverpool since the 1700s due largely to the shipping industry and the slave trade. David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History IV: The Homecoming, BBC 2016
‘If they [Militant] gain power, parliamentary democracy will disappear.’ TV Eye: Militant Labour, Terry McDonald, Thames TV 1981
Ted Grant is the founder of Militant, political editor of the weekly newspaper … ‘We stand for a peaceful transformation of society … abolishing the monarchy, abolishing the House of Lords by an enabling act and taking over 200 monopolies: we stand for complete democracy. ibid.
But do its followers share the aims of the Labour party or should the party expel them in the name of parliamentary democracy? ibid.
‘We want to see socialist managers of the local authority.’ ibid. Derek Hatton