Party Vibe

I’ve been monitoring crime levels and reporting for about 10 years, as an offshoot of scrutinising the policing of the rave scene and the alternative communities.

The less hysterical media point out that the reality is that crime levels have fallen overall, but there are more violent crimes particularly those where “younger” people (aged around 11-40) are both victims and perpetrators of the crime

Also what has happened is that consumer society has made new tellies/hi fis etc so cheap its not worth criminals robbing them from houses, so instead they rob more expensive portable personal electronics such as MP3 players and mobile phones which of course less people had 10 years ago

And there is a lot of hate and envy about plus increased social and racial tension following 9/11, the Iraq war and 7/7..

I understand the concerns of people in our age group because it is actually rough on the streets at the moment; but arming ourselves is no different from just forming another gang – yet at the same time when we clamour for the cops/establishment to “do something about it” there’s the old saying “be careful what you wish for in case you get it..”

The “red tape” and “political correctness” that (sometimes) “holds back” the Police is the same human rights/equality legislation people fought in the 70s/80s to get and stop the cops just searching anyone below the age of 40 found on the streets after dark like what they used to do in the 80s/90s..

The “slow moving bureaucracy” and “lenient courts” was the same way that clued up ravers and recreational drug users stole a march on “the system” and set up the rave scene and alternative lifestyles.

The Courts can’t do much about real violent criminals until they stop filling HMP up with small time drug users, but many small time drug users seem not to be able to control their use so they don’t start theiving or acting like idiots and getting caught..

The Establishment could do a lot more and could have done this years ago, but it would result in a massive scaling down of the personal freedoms of British people that were enhanced in the late 80s (not that long ago!) and have been hitherto taken for granted…

I think jail should be reserved for when the bad driving has resulted in an RTC where people were hurt and killed, it costs a lot of money to put someone in jail and if they aren’t psychos they could still be doing another job

in a case of someone persistently breaking the road laws but where no one has been hurt, a long driving ban, retest and the confiscation and re-sale of the vehicle involved (if it hasn’t already been crashed) with the funds going to a road safety organisation would be a better punishment – I reckon it would hurt a gary boy a lot more to lose his car than his liberty!

IMO a lot of crimes like vandalism, theft etc should be dealt with by restorative justice -for instance those who trash fences/bus shelters end up being made to repaint one for the council with no pay other than basic food/drink (but maybe the chance to compete for a job in maintenance if they turn out to have useful skills)

if people get caught robbing from the Co-Op in some areas they have a scheme where rather than go to Court/YOI they have to clean up the store each day and they also get shown the figures about how their theft pushes up the prices for everyone…

I also wonder if its the backlash against “80s political correctness” which is causing these problems?

in the 80s/90s, the “do-gooders” were actually left alone to do some good (however hated they may have been), today their budgets are slashed and their projects cancelled halfway through almost as a matter of spite…

Also racism and sexism was definitely uncool back then, and if you did drugs you were encouraged to be positive when you were high rather than act in the usual townie manner.

I always felt the “90s” rave scene wasn’t a “hippy” thing as much (although it did have hippy influences) nor the American PLUR ethos, but was a uniquely British subculture – people bucked the system but at the same time did it in such a way as not to provoke such a backlash from those who didn’t want to participate…

Also kids/teenagers were in schools that abandoned the last bits of “progressive 70s education” in the 80s and went full on into turning schools back into ruthlessly competitive exam factories (they did this right in the middle of my high school education from what I remember of it) – by creating winners and losers sometimes those who feel they are “losers” from an early age decide to fight back and make everyone else lose..

What this country forgets is if we ape SE/East Asia is the communities in the Eastern countries have strong families and also support networks so if a kid doesn’t get all their exams they can still at least become a plumber or work in the computer factory – here we’ve wrecked our trades / public utilities / manufactuiring companies for short term shareholder gain..