Bandana ban on city teens

May 21 2008 By Chris Henwood

FOUR Birmingham teenagers who police claimed were part of a notorious gang have been banned from wearing bandanas in the colours of the city's Slash Crew.

They were given two year ASBOs after the gang carried out a string of robberies on school-children across the city and attacked bystanders at Star City in a six-month reign of terror.

Micah Bailey, 17, of Porchester Drive, Newtown, Neon Stewart, 16, of Hawkesyard Road, Erdington and Remaine Dixon, 15, of Bennetts Street, Lozells, appeared at Birmingham Magistrates' Court yesterday.

They were told they couldn't wear a mask or other garment that held "street currency".

District Judge Neil Davison, also ordered them, along with the absent Anthony Harris, 17, of Wheeler Street, Newtown, not to meet in public or commit further anti-social behaviour acts.

At a hearing in January, PC Gary Ellis said: "It is believed they are part of the B19 Slash gang, which is a sub-section of the Slash Crew - a large organisation supported by groups of gangs that also associate themselves with the notorious Johnson Crew."

But only Dixon was ruled to have been a gang member by the judge at a hearing in April in which an interim ASBO, with the same conditions, was handed out to the four youths.

Judge Davison, speaking yesterday, said: "In each case there's a history involving robbery to some degree."

He also said each youth "had shown a willingness to use violence".

A fourth and final term in the ASBOs, which last until May 19, 2010, and were applied for by the city council, was a prohibition stopping the youths entering parts of the city.

Bailey was told to stay out of areas in Frankley and Chelmsley Wood, Stewart from parts of Frankley, Dixon parts of Frankley, Chelmsley Wood, Lozells and Newtown, and Harris parts of Newtown.

The council and West Midlands Police aim to target gang activity using civil orders to control the behaviour of individuals and also help them turn their back on crime.