When is enough enough?

I have just read a new report about and incident in London.

link

The police's comment at the end shows that they no longer regard stop and search as anti terrorist powers but part of every day policing. Searching people for no reason other than targets or the fact the officer feels like it is bad enough, but in this case the targets of the stop and search were children.

The spiralling abuse of these powers shows the result of what happens when you give people broad unregulated powers. The Labour government has already stated that it's policy is to wait till the horse has bolted before locking the stable door when the Home Secretary said that they would regulated the abuse of the police car tracking system (using every cctv camera in the country) when it happened. With little concern for the fact that it it has already happened by that point.

This attitude has been prevalent with the current government, providing more and more power with little or no regulation.

The Magistrates Association is up in arms at government plans to give police the power to give instant fines (3 points and a criminal conviction on you record) for 'Dangerous Driving' allowing them to be both jury and sentencer. What constitutes dangerous driving can vary widely, and be effected by the mood and attitude. This will have 2 side effects, more fines will be given out as it saves the police the time and paperwork of going to court and people will end up with a criminal conviction with out realising it. In court you can get as much as a £5000 fine and 9 points, so for the worst cases they will be too lenient, and for milder cases they will be too strict.

Link

The government has plans for another 21 offences to be dealt with in this way, but they have been delayed for further consultation - something the government has a habit of ignoring anyway if it goes against their plans.

Paul Holmes the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman pointed out that

"The police have been given wide-ranging powers without adequate debate."

Note that it is the Liberal Democrats commenting not the Conservatives, who them selves have been frequently known to increase police power rather than curtail it.

This is becoming a serious issue as Britain becomes more and more a police state, we can only hope that the Liberal Democrats are successful enough at the next election to have some say in fixing the situation.

Can good behaviour contracts curb unruly under-10s?

This is an extension of a post I made on the BBC have your say site. I couldn't say all I wanted in 500 letters.

The government is looking at ways to curb children's miss behaviour, their current plan is Good Behaviour Contracts for the under 10's. Supposedly this will ban them from abusing their neighbours and going to certain parts of their estates . . . .

This follows the failure of ASBO's on teenagers (who in some areas see them as an award, not as something bad).

Unfortunately our government is behaving like a bad Dr, and pumping all it's resources in to trying to fix the symptom not the cause - and even then prescribing the wrong treatment. Who at 10 understand the meaning of a contact, let alone has the self control to follow one, certainly not the demographic they are targeted at.
One of the problems is that Children are not being allowed to be children any more. With schools always going after targets kids are seen as machines for reaching these rather that developing people. The Association of Teachers has asked the government to do a study in to why our children are so unhappy, this is part of the reason why.

Our children are moved from pillar to post, with no where to go - if they go in to town there are machines set for the frequency's they hear to help make them move on, if they hang round the local streets they are seen as a threat, and most parks these days are aimed at little kids and end up moving on the older ones.
After school clubs are almost non existent, certainly in rural areas where there is no money for them. As a result we have the play station generation, why are they developing - because they have nothing else they can do.
If they try and do anything slightly risky or exciting they are told off and barriers are put up because its too dangerous.
We have taken away the things for them to do, and the places for them to go and we wonder why they are unhappy.

To add insult to injury schools have become more and more based on government targets in certain areas, so they are limited to what they can study there as well. School has just become about qualifications, they seem to have forgotten that school is also where kids learn how to behave socially and be good citizens. Please do not take that comment to mean that I like the citizenship classes the government has introduced - I am talking about learning naturally from interaction with others and following the example of older people.
Citizenship classes are just another stress, and more prove to the children that they are not part of our society and that we don't really want them. Though this is not true, it is the image we give off.

So far I have just stated all the bad stuff, so here come the other side - how do we fix it.

Fixing it isn't as hard as it sounds, though it will take time - we have had this situation for several generations, and it will take one of two for it to fully fix.

The first thing we need to do is to ease back on our expectations of children, and let them be children. Focusing towards exams and targets is ok at 14, but whilst they are younger let them play.
Bring back after school clubs, and not ones where the teachers are supposed to work for free, but properly organised ones, with a wide range of subjects (schools have lots of facilities that are only used during the day). That way Children can spend time doing what they enjoy and are talented at even if they don't have the resources at home. Art, Drama, Mechanics, Woodwork are just a few examples. Debate society's for the more socially motivated.
Make punishments real, not 5 minute time outs, but loss of something that they value - having these clubs provides something, if they miss behave, then they are not allowed to go. They will soon learn that there are consequences for misbehaving. It will also help create something that they are proud to be part of, so they don't want people to be disappointed in them. Give some power back to teachers and the Police, neither get the respect they deserve any more because from a young age children are given no reason to.
Mix the clubs for kids with clubs with adults, so that they can get advice from elders and learn to interact more socially, make them an active valued part of our society, rather than one tossed from pillar to post with nothing to do.

Kids misbehave because they are bored, they hang round the streets because they have no where else to go - both of these problems can be fixed in one easy step - and by letting them find and work on their talents we end up with people with better skills when they grow up.

But this needs to be funded, the government squeezes more money out of us every year - and with higher fuel bills the cost of travel to the clubs becomes an issue let alone the cost of the clubs. Funded car pools and free places for family's with below average incomes (and I mean the government average here of £22,000 ish not their definition of low income households) It might cost at the start, but the lower costs of less crime, drug use and vandalism should help make up the shortfall in time.

The government is spending 218 million on their family intervention project - that is a whole lot of clubs . . . . .

These are just my ideas, I am sure with others the problem can be solved - unfortunately it needs more than the complete lack of any kind of imagination our government has.

Lets stop trying to treat kids like adults, and let them be the children they are!