anti-social behaviour

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Wednesday June 13, 2007 00:03 by jim travers jimtravers at eircom dot net

who do we blame?

is youth the key to the spiralling increase in anti-social behaviour or has the youth of today just taken example from their peers and enhanced the problem to a modern 21st century process in destabilising society. Does the problem go back further than what we are prepared to accept and have we now come to a stage where we need to re-evaluate the way we cherish freedom and human rights.
We see AIDS as being a threat to human existence. We now see ASB as a threat to the stability of our society and subsequently human existence in itself.

On RTE news there was a brief report on the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders recently put into effect in Ireland to legally punish young people for non-criminal acts. ASBO's will supposedly be a “last resort” for 12-18 year old's who “act out in an anti-social way” and could result in fines of up to €800 if not complied with. But an ASBO is just one and only one solution to the problems associated with of anti-social behaviour. Society has allowed this situation develop over many years and society is now looking for answers to something it promoted and developed itself. Some say the freedoms and activities of our young people have got out of hand and are now beyond corrective solutions, but this does not account for the rising incidents of anti-social behaviour among the older adult population in our society. It appears that ASB is spread right across society with various types of ASB being associated with various different age groups. We all hear about the youth who was assaulted by other youths in a street brawl, but we often fail to hear about the pub brawls or the neighbourhood brawls that take place on a regular basic throughout the country. If we recognise that children are not born bad but are influenced by their parents and the environment in which they grow up in. we can safely say that the environment which influences their development is also governed by the way in which our society is governed and controlled.

We therefore must say that this problem is not and cannot be exclusively directed towards young people at their lack of respect or responsibility that has ASB at an all time high and our society in turmoil. Their parents and unfortunately their parents before them are responsible for the problems of anti-social behaviour we see today. There again, this looks a very simplistic way of directing blame at people who were allowed a level of un-responsible freedom and who ran amok at this new found freedom. The cause of all the problems we see today are hidden behind a smoke screen of human rights and the excessive use of the words “human rights”.It all started with a minority of what I would call do-gooders back in the late 70’s, up to and including today, who spend most of their time fighting for the rights of the guilty while at the same time extinguishing the very existence and rights of the victims of ASB. Politicians crumbled under the pressure of political correctiveness and pressure from small insignificant groups, who forced political hands at the expense of the security and welfare of the vast majority of the people.Great emphasis was placed on individual human rights and all the wrong things that came within its neat little package, as criminals found themselves more legally represented in the courts while supporters of their human rights demonstrated their support outside. The victims walked away insulted as the so-called justice system dished out short jail term holidays and excuses such as “socially deprived” as their reasoning behind peanut fines and sentences.

In today’s Irish society we see a gradual decline in law and order and a slow progressive move towards Americanisation. We hail America as the land of the free, when in fact American society is one of the most controlled and big daddy society's on the planet. Law and order is determined by the time of day you are out and if you are quick enough to draw your gun before someone else does it before you.Everybody hates rules and regulations and everybody hates rules that impose severe conditions and penalties on those who break them. Once again everybody wants rules and regulations to apply to everybody else except themselves.

People feel secure once they adapt to rules and regulations and people respond in a more socially acceptable manner once everybody is conditioned to obeying the rules or face the consequences for their actions.People see severe rules and regulations as a form of dictatorship and a threat to their freedoms or the democratic way. Once again, tell that to the child lying in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children,survival relying on a life support machine because some thick muppet decided to drive too fast, drank in excess or just did not give a shit for anybody but himself or herself.

And what do we see in our newspapers, solicitors pleading for their clients as judges take into consideration the fact that this was a first offence for the guilty party. A young man is kicked to death and the judge defers his judgement so the perpetrator of the crime can go on a family holiday.A Garda is shot at point blank range and the DPP accepts a plea of manslaughter.Oh grant me patience, our society is crumbling beneath our feet because people who once shouted “enough is enough” are now being hounded into the ground and labelled as dictatorship supporters,racists and basher’s of the socially deprived.
I want to walk the cities and towns of this country safely. I want my children, young men and women and elderly people to be free to walk our footpaths without having to look over their shoulders. I want our criminal justice system to treat those who violated other citizens freedom and security to be shown the similar lack mercy they showed to others.In other words lets go back to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth idea of justice for the perpetrators of crime and justice for the victims. I do not mean kill or torture people, I mean deliver a sentence that fits the crime.

People are afraid to walk our streets at night because they feel they have a far greater chance today of being mugger, assaulted or left for dead.The Gardai are fighting an uphill battle as politicians make Garda efforts to control or reduce crime far more difficult because politicians constantly introduce legislation that has a more effective chance of benefiting the politician rather than enhancing the Garda efforts in fighting crime. If anything politicians complicate the situation even further due to their lack of cognitive logical thinking.

So where do we go from here?

Well Ireland signed up to all these human rights rules and regulation which in turn brought us chaos, confusion and a progressively lawless society.Remember the days when you knocked on a hall door and the local Garda caught you and frightened you so much about prison that you never knocked on a door again, all gone. Now youths look for the nearest vehicle to see if they can park the car in your back garden via your front sitting room.We place great emphasis on bad driving and we spend millions advertising the dangers of bad driving, as cyclist fail to observe the very basic rules of the road and pedestrians play chicken with motor vehicles day in and day out in our city. And not a single Garda can show a rules of the road violation in his notebook by a cyclist . Talking about going back to basics. We are allowing people to become the road ragers and bad drivers of motor vehicles in the future.We are not training people to be responsible and we are not enforcing regulation with meaningful fines and restrictions that force people to change their ways and habits.
Anti-social behaviour is not just about joe bloggs crimes and indiscretions, its about the way in which we protect out society through effective and meaningful policing that is supported by effective and meaningful legislation that works.

Its time to hang out our dirty washing and it is time we stood back and asked ourselves ‘what kind of Ireland do we want to leave for the next generation to enjoy’. Ireland has played by international rules and obligations and Ireland has suffered at the hands of the same rules and obligations that has seen the people of our country being led down a road to chaos, in the name of progress.Don’t blame young people for the rise in ASB, let us try and convince them that the mistakes which were made in the past by their peers, now require their help and assistance in order to undo the mistakes of handing out freedoms without tying responsibility and accountability as part of those freedoms.
There is a time for change, that time is now.