Better the devil you know
Girding myself to endure the stigma attached to backing anything Conservative leader David Cameron comes up with, I have to agree with his call to bring back the infamous 'sus' laws.
I'm tired of the spate of violence blighting the nation and, although stats would suggest that as a black male, I'm more likely to be stopped and searched than most, I am prepared to endure that.
I grew up in the 1980s, seeing and experiencing the climate of fear and suspicion of police in the streets, but such is the threat of knife and gun crime, needs must. I don't want some cop busy filling out forms in the nick when he/ she could be shaking down some tooled-up assailant hell-bent on threatening life and limb.
It's a cliché but if you're not guilty of criminal intention, we should have nothing to fear. That said, I'm well aware of the possibility that overzealous cops might target unfairly particular types of people, but desperate times call for desperate measures - I do like a cliché don't I!
That admiration does not extend to David Cameron in the main - but on this occasion it does to his train of thought.
(4) comments so far add yours here
Share:
Older/Newer
4 Comments
Leave a comment
Keep up to date
Technorati
Authors
Read Veron Graham, telling it like it is.
Good on you Veron for knowing this makes sense. Yes, there are more blacks stopped and searched, but only because more blacks carry knives and guns. I some areas of Britain, in some inner cities, more whites are stopped... becuase in some areas more whites carry weapons. eg Portsmouth. This guy makes sense
Hi Phil,
Phil, thanks for your post.
I'm not sure anyone can safely say which community has more people carrying weaponry, neither do I think it wise to say that.
It's important that we all work together for the common good.
At the end of the day, race plays little role in whether someone decides to tool-up or not, it's about that person's mindset. Hopefully stop and search can run alongside a conscious effort to tackle these mindsets that will make the streets safer for everyone, whatever their background.
Veron
If you really do think that you can't say which community carries more weaponry you need to tell the fellow running Operation Trident against black gun crime in London that he's wasting a lot of time and money not to mention 'labelling' and 'criminalising' a large 'vibrant' section of the 'rich culture'.
To be fair to you, at least you haven't also identified the root of the problem as a lack of musical acadamies to develop and showcase black musical talent.
Thanks for your post, 'Anonymous.'
You see here, race is a side issue which doesn't really matter. The only thing that it leads to is blame. The effort spent on drawing up racial profiles of offenders should be spent on preventing them re/offending.
Crime has been linked to race as inequality has, as if by default, if a person doesn't have much and is from a certain background they have no other option to commit crime.
That just drives me right up the wall!
Criminals are not all poor, ethnic, etc, but in the main are all people who've taken a conscious decision to offend.
What do you mean re the musical academies, Anonymous? (Please stick your name down next time!) Is that what Operation Trident are pushing?