By Dave Woodhall.
The recent introduction of what has been dubbed ‘gang ASBOs’ has been hailed as another weapon in helping the police crack down on crime. However, I do wonder whether yet again, we’re being governed on the basis of what might look good in a Daily Mail editorial.
Giving the police powers to prevent suspected gang members from entering certain areas or wearing a particular type of clothing may on the surface seem a good idea but as with many proposals over the years, it risks alienating a section of society.
Taken to its logical conclusion, anyone wearing a Blues shirt could be arrested for walking the streets of Aston or Perry Barr when Villa are at home. That may be a bit extreme, but where does common sense end and the letter of the law begin?
Let’s be honest. This law will, in Birmingham, be used predominantly against young black and Asian males. If you’re a fine, upstanding citizen, the chances are that it won’t affect you. The aforementioned black (or Asian) male might be walking down the street with a scarf wrapped round his face. I might be walking down the same street, at the same time, doing exactly the same thing. The young male is likely to be stopped, maybe searched and threatened with arrest. The middle-aged white man will be allowed to pass by without hindrance. And the young man who is about to be arrested is entitled to wonder why he’s being stopped for something I’m allowed to do without a problem.
And that IS a problem, because the law only works when it applies equally to all of us. The young man might have a lengthy criminal record. He might have the intention of later committing a crime. But there’s a much greater chance that he’s walking down that street minding his own business, perfectly peacefully and has a scarf covering his face for the same reason I have – because it’s February and he’s cold.
It’s fair to say that there are probably more laws now than there have ever been, certainly in peacetime. We don’t need more, we need the ones that currently exist to be applied better and without fear or favour. This isn’t the idealised views of a PC liberal do-gooder who has no contact with what’s sneeringly called the ‘real world,’ it’s a lesson from history. We’ve seen internment in Northern Ireland during the seventies, the subsequent harassment of the Irish population on the mainland and the stop & search programme that so alienated the black population during the following decade. None of these moves solved the problems they were intended for; the first two exacerbated the Troubles while the third was a major factor in the inner-city riots that claimed several lives.
To treat one section of society differently to another because of their age, race or colour is to risk their alienation, and that’s hardly likely to lead them to respect the law.
You don’t reduce crime by criminalising the innocent.
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