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Is this a good way to cut youth crime in the capital?
Evening Standard 30 Jan 2008
YES
SHAUN BAILEY Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith
CHANGING the rules on stop and search is a good idea because too many people are carrying knives in the knowledge that they are unlikely to be caught.
We need to say to people that it's OK to be stopped and searched, that it's no big deal, because it's needed to make our streets safer.
The real issue about stop and search is training the police to do it better and ensure that they stop the right people, black or white.
A lot of politicians and campaigners complain about stop and search, but I think the public has a different view because of the amount of knife crime.
I don't want more black people to be stopped unnecessarily because I will be one of them. But there are too many black people becoming victims - look at all the children who have been murdered - and we have to change things.
People are saying "enough". I don't know if it will be popular immediately but it will in the long term as the death toll goes down and people feel safer. It's about sending a message. People will only stop carrying knives and guns if they think they might be caught.
NO
RICHARD GARSIDE director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King's College
THE much greater proportion of black and ethnic people being stopped and searched used to be justified on grounds of their alleged greater criminality. That argument, with its racist overtones, has become harder to sustain, not least of all because of the notable lack of evidence that black people are more criminal than their white counterparts.
These days it is much more common to justify law and order clampdowns by appealing to the benefits for potential victims. Thus, David Cameron justifies removing important protections on the abuse of police power on the grounds that black and minority people will be the main beneficiaries through reduced crime and victimisation.
It would be unfair to suggest police officers cannot be trusted to deal with black people fairly. That said, black people are far more likely to be stopped and searched by police. Given that most are neither arrested nor charged, it is difficult to argue that greater police powers in this area will cut crime.
The most effective means of reducing crime and victimisation lie in policies that address the entrenched poverty and disadvantage that scars British society. More stops and searches are likely to antagonise black and minority ethnic people, not make them feel safer.
Reader views (1)
I am conducting research on youth violence and the gang culture. I feel that poverty does play a part in knife crime but several other factors are more prevalent. I feel that young kids are being 'drip fed' a mental diet of 'gangsta rap', violence in dvd games, the 'it's cool to be bad' attitude is today's youth culture unfortunately. A lack of general supervision in the home and an erosion of discipline in schools has allowed things to get to where we are now.
I feel 'stop and search should be carried out regardless of a person's colour or creed - some areas are predominantly black so s greater proportion of those stopped will be black. The same applies in areas where residents are predominantly white - colour should not impede - or prevent a police officer's judgement of 'reasonable suspicion'.
We have had this argument time and time again - that the police pick on ethnic and black people inferring that those cultures are more likely to commit crime. This is clearly not the case, crime is committed by people of all creeds and colours. The fact that the police are taking, and are being seen to take pro-active measures to reduce knife crime should be applauded and rise above all other arguments.
- John Marsden, England, 27/06/2008 23:36
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