How dare they.
How do they even categorise 'crime' in the first place? Do they record every incident of tax evasion, police brutality, war crime, exploitation, racist/homophobic/sexist oppression, deportation, empty property, over-crowded state school, crimes against the environment and the such like? Do they eckers like...
These maps only show where poverty and deprivation are at it's worst. Where kids can't get a job coz they are the wrong colour or refuse to work for £2.50. Where schools and housing are so run down that the councils sell them off to private developers for yet another flat-pack high street of Starbigbucks, Costa-lot-coffee and Mc-bloody-Donalds.
With the police under ever increasing targets to book or arrest a certain number per day, it's no wonder that there is growing resentment to the governments policies of 'getting tough on crime'.
I know many police officers and ex-officers (my Dad for one) who join the police because they want to help the community. But who soon realise (see the bottom paragraph of this link) that they are not there to solve problems in society but to protect the rich. I have encountered many police who, after years in an innercity area, become more and more racist because all they see is poverty and somehow make the link that minorites are to blame rather than blame the system.
How do they even categorise 'crime' in the first place? Do they record every incident of tax evasion, police brutality, war crime, exploitation, racist/homophobic/sexist oppression, deportation, empty property, over-crowded state school, crimes against the environment and the such like? Do they eckers like...
These maps only show where poverty and deprivation are at it's worst. Where kids can't get a job coz they are the wrong colour or refuse to work for £2.50. Where schools and housing are so run down that the councils sell them off to private developers for yet another flat-pack high street of Starbigbucks, Costa-lot-coffee and Mc-bloody-Donalds.
With the police under ever increasing targets to book or arrest a certain number per day, it's no wonder that there is growing resentment to the governments policies of 'getting tough on crime'.
I know many police officers and ex-officers (my Dad for one) who join the police because they want to help the community. But who soon realise (see the bottom paragraph of this link) that they are not there to solve problems in society but to protect the rich. I have encountered many police who, after years in an innercity area, become more and more racist because all they see is poverty and somehow make the link that minorites are to blame rather than blame the system.
1 comment:
Hooray! My borough is orange!
Those of us that live in Southwark or Hackney can all be perversely proud like those kids that go around boasting about their ASBOs.
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