The Government's decision to "crack down" on knife crime is more window dressing. The Nats have no idea how to deal with violent crime, and if they think youths will stop carrying knives just because they'll get punished more heavily for it, they're dreaming.
Anyone who knows anything about what makes young people tick knows that kids won't take any notice. The young people carrying the weapons are unlikely to read the paper or watch the news, so probably won't even know the law is changing. Even if they do know, what difference will it make to their behaviour? Since when has making something more risky for young people prevented them from doing it?
And how will making knives harder to buy (never mind how exactly that would work) make a difference? If someone wants a knife they can usually get one from any kitchen they happen to be in. Knives are everywhere.
The Nats' policy on law and order has nothing to do with making our streets safer. It's about presenting an image of youths out of control, and then "cracking down". This satisfies the conservative rump of our populace, who conveniently forget that many of us did stupid things when we were kids. The theme is reinforced by constant media stories about kids in trouble, disrespecting police and drinking to excess. Police reality shows depict our brave boys having to deal with mouthy kids who deserve a smack but who can't be touched because of pantywaist liberal laws.
The debate on youth drinking is another example of trying to deal with a problem the wrong way. We have a terrible booze culture in this country, but the latest measures proposed sound like simple wowserism and are unlikely to make much difference to the problem of alcohol. If you want to understand why kids don't listen to our warnings on alcohol, it's because they don't have to go very far to see adults on the piss making disgraces of themselves. Why should kids listen to the warnings their hypocritical elders give them? Young people have always had ready access to liquor, and nothing will change under the new measures proposed.
Politicians have understood for generations that it's often easier to vilify a group of people than look for solutions to complex social problems. The news media don't do nuance and are more than happy to be fed the news by lobby groups like the Sensible Sentencing Trust. And they don't even seem to bother questioning the half-truths spoken by politicians any more. For example, there is no epidemic of knife violence in this country, and knife violence rates have remained steady*. When politicians talk about a rise in knife crime, they mean a rise in rates of apprehension for carrying knives - not for using them.
But that's not a popular story. It's much easier to get furious at young people and blame them for everything.
* See this Ministry of Justice Report, which shows violence rates have remained steady
Monday, July 5, 2010
2 comments:
I welcome comments, but I ask commenters to follow a few simple rules:
1. I delete anonymous comments. Please use either a name or moniker. I am not asking anyone to reveal their secret identity. Just don't call yourself "Anonymous".
2. Please don't abuse or defame others.
3. Moronic or nonsensical comments may be deleted.
4. I don't often exercise the heavy hand of censorship, but I do reserve the right to delete any comment I don't like, for any reason.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There is (or was) however apparently a knife crime "epidemic" in the United Kingdom, heavily reported last year in the British press. And just as if the mother country has an expenses scandal then so must we, then if the Kingdom United by CCTV has a knife epidemic then, ipso facto, so must we.
ReplyDeleteWhite, male, middle aged intolerance of anything that they don't do drips from Simon Powers (and Geoffrey Palmers) comments over licencing hours. He and his middle aged boozing mates are not out about the town at 4am, and therefore no one else should be. In particular this applies to the young, who in the sixty years since they were entrusted with flying in pitch darkness and bad weather Lancaster bombers overloaded with high explosives over a nation of fanatical fascists thirsting to kill them with all the weapons modern science could put at their disposal have apparently rregressed to the point they can no longer be trusted with even setting their own bedtime.
In our youth obsessed times it is easy for aging men (and women) to dislike the effortless energy, beauty and foolishness of youth. But let's call it what it is. Envy and jealousy from self-centred baby boomers. Instead of protecting our young people from the booze barons whilst at the same time giving them the scope to make their mistakes, our baby boomer leaders project their fear of getting old, their envy and their jealousy onto young people whilst failing to guard them from the rapacious liquor companies. It is an utter failure of guardianship at every level, and yet Simon Power and Geoffrey Palmer and all the rest of the hypocritical, aging male authoritarians presume to lecture youth on responsibility.
It is predatory and disgusting.
NZ should be for baby boomers only. All young people should be shipped off to Australia! oh no wait! They already leave voluntarily in droves. The only problem is what to do with the ones that remain - I know! Demonise them, criminalise them and then throw them all in jail! And don't let them out until they are middle aged!
ReplyDelete