Jock's Place - How government policy killed Rhys Jones just as surely as any Croxteth "gangland" scrote. - Comments

You read my mind

Paulus — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:38:35 +0000

It is not only failed drugs policy but youth unemployment that has brought us to this shocking place. The unemployment rate among 16-17 year old boys is 31% and among 18 to 24 year old men it is 15% (compared with the agerage of 5.7%). Fertile ground for gang recruitment. I have analysed these and other telling figues at: http://www.thinkhard.org/2007/08/gunned-down.html

Thanks to Cameleon who

Jock — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:08:05 +0000

Thanks to Cameleon who highlighted this, whether with approbation or not I can't work out, in this week's Brit Blog round-up . My first mention I think in such a list!

Excellent article

Mountjoy — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:23:27 +0000

This is an excellent article, Jock, and I have already blogged today how the Government has failed to get a grip on teenage crime. Camila Batmanghelidjh provides some good insights and I agree with you that Government policy is responsible -- and they need to act now. I've put a link to your article as it is well worth reading.

More interference then?

Jock — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:32:51 +0000

More interference then? Like that's helped in the past. It's not so much about drugs per se as about the ease with which people can be dragged into organized crime. And the core of organized crime is drugs.

It is true that taking the criminality out of that market would probably push those sociopaths who do not want to operate in the legal economy into something else - protection rackets, gambling rackets, prostitution (though not so much as a great deal of prostitution is down to the drugs issue) - but these are less easy to recruit children to I'd suggest. Certainly not as easy as giving kids a handful of wraps or pills to sell to known customers. Yes, if you remove the core malaise that supports all this gang culture, one risks creating a vacuum in the absence of other things for those kids to do, but with a £18bn estimated annual "peace dividend" from ending the "war on drugs" that's a fair amount of support that can be paid for to help prevent something just as pernicious taking over.

I disagree

Gavin Whenman — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:32:13 +0000

I just disagree - I can't see how the legalisation of drugs will lead to a wonderful Utopia free of violence and gangs. I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that we, as a society, should accept that we can only ever contain to an acceptably low level gangs and their violent behaviour - that there is no panacea that will truly eradicate this problem once and for all. There should be a mature consensus between political parties that this is the case - and then we can move on to how to contain and control, rather than headline grabbing initiatives which are proposed as the final solution.

Thanks - I wish I could get

Jock — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:50:11 +0000

Thanks - I wish I could get "trackbacks" working on my site, and comments not filtered for spam! I just had to update the title and so on of my post after listening with growing anger to the panel on Any Questions trying to think of "decisive things to do" about this.

How government policy killed Rhys Jones just as surely as any Croxteth "gangland" scrote.

Jock — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 13:49:53 +0000

Everyone seems to be trying to analyze what caused the death of Rhys James, and what can be done about it. More police, punishment or reward for parents taking more responsibility, compulsory community service, blah, blah, blah. I can categorically state that none of this matters. Rhys was killed by government policy, particularly on drugs, that creates an ideal environment in which organized crime can flourish and drag into its sphere of influence vulnerable youngsters...

In the Independent today Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company provides some insight gleaned from her eleven years of working with dislocated children:

This is not what David Cameron refers to as anarchy; it is nihilism. It is an absence of values in which the notion of society, community and responsibility has been eradicated by violence. Every encounter with adults for these children has been toxic. Instead, the lives of these children and young people are about survival. They are, in their own words, "lone soldiers" who come into contact with those who will facilitate violence.

She goes on to describe how the lack of services and support is filled...

Who steps into this void? Imagine three concentric circles. In the first stands the drug dealer and gangster, a remote-control businessman who leads a criminal network. In the second stand our lone children. They are recruited by the dealer, initially by riding around on their bicycles providing information. In the third circle are children who imitate the violence.

And I might add, when a family has already been tainted with drug use and abuse and parental contact with authority is as a result become something to fear, lest one's relatively innocent personal habits turn one into a criminal, what reference point do these children have? I leave the solution up to you to discover. Take out the inner of those concentric circles Camilla talks about and the whole structure of criminal influence collapses...

To me, Rhys Jones died because of government and international policy which is not only failing to stop addiction (even if that were a valid aim of public policy - see "On LIberty"), but encouraging and subsidizing organized crime. Legalize now to stop these government sponsored deaths. Does any party have the true grit to deal with this, or are we going to be forced to accept intrusions like this horror or total breakdown like this in the vain attempt to fight a war that cannot be won?