Croxteth 'gang' video

The soundtrack is hardcore rap, the lyrics tell of gang warfare and guns in one of the largest urban housing projects in America, but the sign says Croxteth, City of Liverpool.

What follows is a montage of footage that purports to depict the lives of a Croxteth gang that has terrorised that suburb of Liverpool.

It was uploaded to the video-sharing site YouTube three months ago, by a user who claims to have no links with the gang. It is a life of dogfights, quad bikes and guns, shot in local parks and on streets of squat semi- detached houses from the back of a gleaming black Mitsubishi Evo. The car number plate is N999 EVO.

A teenager overtakes the car on a scramble bike, pulling a wheelie. Another in a grey hoody rides away on the back wheel of a BMX.

Two ride quad bikes in formation, performing skidding revolutions in parks and in the middle of roads. One biker rides his scramble bike over a grassy hump and careers into the air to crash on to the grass.

Then there are the guns, displayed like trophies, or shown being loaded with bullets.

It is a childlike vision of teenage boys — there is not one girl to be seen — with their stunts, their car, their guns and their dogs: teenagers who compare their lives in Liverpool to those of the gangs of New York that are celebrated in “Thug Muzik”, their film’s jangling soundtrack.

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