Crime
The 21st Century has witnessed a notable rise in criminal activity in line with growing levels of disparity, especially since the 2008 economic crash. A quantifiable comparison that has been maintained since a Scotland Yard investigation into Crime in London during the 19th Century; this report illustrated a direct relation between crime and poverty, though it must also be accepted the negative ensuance of the Lisbon Treaty’s Schengen zone. This would encourage a further increase in crime with an influx of false migrancy that would form various eastern European gangs competing for status around Britain.
But moreso high profile the growth of county lines and other youth gangs due to their use of children to sell drugs, though further committing murder, as an initiation through the forced early belief of a lack of opportunities in adult life. This is a multifaceted problem or a melange of issues that has in part been politicised with the statements of ethnic minority disparity, generated by a radical left movement.
However, in reality these problems have been living and growing throughout the population regardless of colour for more than 15 years, though many crimes are in fact opportunistic and even petty in there nature, but all contributing factors to a society in decent.
The issues pertaining to this decay are far reaching in our society and all ensue individual, banded and accumulative consequences these including:
• A failing Education system
• A depleted National Police forces
• Regional poverty relating to the unresolved scars of redundant industry
• Mass immigration without investment since 1997
• A lack of housing or affordable housing
• Accumulative and unsustainable debt
• Low paying service economies
• Foreign ownership of utilities and public transport charging high prices of usage
• The high price of low quality food
• The lack of jobs and the lack of non graduate roles at a reasonable wage
• A widening of graduate only preference roles in white collar Administration.
The post industrial regions of the four nations have never recovered from the closure of industry and for the most part has been neglected in the past 30 years, only replaced with an expansion of the service industries Retail & Hospitality. Though successive Governments and labour councils have done little to improve the lives of people, with a history of financial scandals that include Liverpool in the 1980’s and Nottingham 2020-2021, but it must be mentioned the conduct of the Labour council in Lambeth in the 1980s also.
Labour have long since parted ways with their traditional working class representative policy and readily blame Conservatives for a lack of funding in conjunction with a Northern history of local corruption. These are just simply scenes of cheap theatrics with taxpayers footing the bill.
Boris Johnson has promised to invest in the North, which has always lagged behind the South East in Jobs and living standards. Though it must be stated that the working class in London earn little more than those in the North, but do pay higher living costs, despite this the greatest lack of opportunities and facilities that result in poverty are witnessed most in the Midlands and beyond.
But do hope that these writings resonate with our family in those areas and will spark support for the intentions of this grass roots movement.
It must also be understood though that with the ensuing plague of Corona virus investment projects will be slowed. In retrospect, what this pandemic has allowed is a freeze frame of situations that were unravelling and now giving a clearer view of changes that need to be made. If the Government are to make a heavy investment in deprived areas, then there are issues that require immediate attention and a future of these regions cannot prosper without addressing these.
You have to understand a thing before you can destroy a thing!
In an effort to resolve these social issues having an understanding of the psychology of how these situations manifest is not enough, there must be detailed investigation into the factors that have led to previously mentioned behaviours at a local level, to be comprised nationally and in the union as a whole, so that we can better and more quickly put an end to otherwise unnecessary survivalist and then nihilistic & pathological behaviours representative of a broken society.
As previously discussed many crimes that plague our society today are opportunistic in nature and could have only been repeated with such frequency due to a lack of Police presence and further with the substitution of the false economy of community protection officers.
In response to the currently depleted constabularies the Prime Minister has pledged to recruit new 20,000 officers; however, in truth the domestic safety of our nation is as much to do with our belief and participation in that ideal as it is for the Government to facilitate.
Further there are factors that are unchanged that contribute societies disparity and are obvious at first glance of when comprising an overall picture that do include such negative consequence as Alcohol and Drug addition. With the urgency of this crisis in our communities we advocate and would like your support in the petitioning of measures that would act as a broad instruments with the following:
1. Firstly a detailed investigation into County lines and other youth gangs in Cities, with further emphasis on their reach into schools
2. An inquiry in schools to understand recruitment and the causes of youth involvement into gang culture.
3. The establishment of outreach programmes or better funding for outreach programmes in communities or town centres to further investigate the crisis and to give young people believable role models; although, ultimately to try and deprogramme compromised individuals & dissuade youth culture that often glamourises crime as a justifiable lifestyle.
4. Greater Investment into education of addiction and rehabilitation.
5. The development of new economies and work programmes to regenerate communities.
6. Accessible relevant free adult education that is provided in a safe and non intimidating environment.
7. Better funding for communities centres & adult education centres with more community based activities and accessible sports facilities locally.
8. An Olympic sponsored development programme to refocus and create ambition for future sports people and better adjusted adults.
9. The removal of Asbos that have further contributed to bad behaviour in the community and better sentencing for repeat offending with the option of military service and hard labour to repay more serious offences.
10. Finally deportation for individuals that have been found to come to these shores for the purpose of spreading misery and death in the name of profit.
Though there are other measures that could be taken and some measures may have greater relevance in some regions and not others, we feel that these are those that are most widely needed and have been missing in our communities.
For far too long now the punishment has not appropriately fitted the crime.
As a nation we place too much faith in the current Prison and Correction system, where young people and adults can find themselves sentenced to prison for repeat offences. In the US, Prison is seen often as the de facto punishment and where longer sentences are prevalent, there are millions of people serving prison sentences and prisons are full.
It must be iterated there are those that are a danger to society and their incarceration supports the safety of the innocent public; notwithstanding, when imprisoning repeat offenders of lesser and non violent crimes this has led to a quantifiable history of career crime. The way we view crime & punishment must be reevaluated as we cannot keep building new prisons and where inadequate spending in the correction system is simply becomes a cost to the public financially or personally in society.
Crime must have consequential and appropriate punishments, but without mandatory education and rehabilitation those maladjusted & poorly skilled individuals that enter the prison systems will return to society just as ill equipped or as better criminals. These simply become a continued or greater burden to society and further still where some more violent criminals complete sentences only to commit violent crimes again.
Copyright © Written by Stephen Pryor 2021
The Two Way Mirror 