LegBarnes wrote:bigmick wrote:Andy and Conn make good points, and the reality is of course that a solution such as mine is probably 50 years away from coming to pass. I do think though that we run the risk of over analysing problems sometimes.
Yes I'm fully prepared to accept that the fact that these lads are brought up in down trodden circumstances, often from broken homes and with little or no hope in life has a direct impact on the direction they are going to take. There is no question that they have been dealt a bum hand, and that they seek position, notoriety, power and "respect" in the same sense that most post people do, only they go about it an entirely different way. Sociologists and acedmics though can knock themselves out all they like pontificating about the why's, the wherefores and the "do you mind if I don'ts", society has a duty to ALSO address the here and now problems.
On these estates, the vast majority of people are hard working, honest folk who wish to go about their normal business peaceably. Their children are potentially anything they desire to be given a break or two, and every parent has the right to dream of the best for their kids regardless of social background or group. When you have this cancerous element though swaggering around the place, infecting everyday life to the extent that people are afraid to go out of their homes, kids heads are turned away from more conventional means of earning money (going to school/work etc) and more onto drugs, gangsterism and the rest, something major has to be done.
Make absolutely no mistake about this, if the gangs were having an effect on kids in Chelsea, Kensington, Hampstead, the boys of Eton, Harrow and the like, something would be done and fecking sharpish. Because though it's the working class kids who are falling by the wayside, or kids from ethnic backgrounds, feck all is done about it. It's the people on the estates who have to put up with the grief, and have to put up with the fact that their kids have a significantly higher chance of going wrong than would otherwise be the case. Liberals jump up and down whenever solutions are muted, but they back the wrong horse I'm absolutely certain of that.
Nobody could pretend that the recent anti terrorism laws which have been rushed through are fair, they aren't. Nobody could pretend that they aren't open to abuse by the authorities, they are and the authorities make full use of the apportunity I should think. The ends though justify the means, and if it prevents a bunch of radicals from blowing up buses and trains, killing hundreds of innocent people then it's a price well worth paying. Yes you're occasionally going to get a horror story of some young bloke who came into the radar and was entirely innocent, but oce again it's unfortunate but entirely a price worth paying. It's the same thing with attacking the gangs head on, yes the "rule of law" as we know it may become more blurry than we have known or would like in an ideal situation, but the law-abiding decent people deserve a solution, and they deserve it now.
Socialologists have pontificated for years and Societies throughout the World have become more lawless not less. My argument is let them muse over the problems, the "roots' of crime, but in the meantime lets clear the streets of bad apples, before more innocent young kids are sucked into the whirlpool of wrongdoing.
A good example of what I'm talking about is when people talk about "prison not working". Well it works in the short term. Nobody to the best of my knowledge has ever molested a kid while they've been inside, or commited a rape (of someone of the opposite sex anyway) while they've been inside either. Acedemics and guardian readers have had the playing field to themselves on law and order for 30 years, it's high time we had some common sense I think.
Its all very well locking them all up but who is going to pay for that people moan about tax's as it is , if we was to lock up every one for every thing for ever we have a prision the size of texas.
More needs to be done grass roots of these areas programs to give kids options and shown that there is better was to feel good about the selfs then drugs and violence.
I grew up on a pretty bad area Alot of drugs , alot of violence no where to go or no where to gang out( well apart from the streets).
I used to go ut get drunk , do drugs and stuff when i was young but I never ever wanted to go out hurting people.
Yeah Of course I got in fights didn't we all ?
Thing is I remember more fights I got in when I was young more angry I got about people and more repect I wanted.
Now I could have gone 2 ways in my life I was lucky I had football and It kept me of streets once I hit 15 I started to give up those way and focused on training and travel.
But think of the lads who don't there lifes must feel like dead ends sometimes , they must feel this is all they are going to ever have.
Would drive a 35 year old man nuts let alone a 16-18 year old lad.
I think the biggest problem we have in this country is we treat our kids like idiots maybe if we showed them a little more trust and respect they might not go off killing people for it.
Because end of day you child turns out to be a killer you done something wrong as a parent IMO !