@DaftFader 494797 wrote:
The thing is, like you say, self justice, BUT I feel that if people didn’t have to escape “the system”, there would be no need for it. After all we are talking about some people pissed off at life, lashing out at whoever doesn’t agree with them. If we were to get taught tolerance and acceptance and basic survival as a human without corporate “help” as our main focus in life, rather then “one upman ship” then things would be different.
@Elektrik Muffin 494783 wrote:
Too right mate. I live in Preston, Lancs and its frickin chav central. I mostly wear jeans or brightly coloured shorts as apposed to their preferred black or grey trackies. This coupled with my skate shoes and long hair is usually enough to provoke a verbally aggressive if not physically violent reaction pretty much in area of my own home town! They’re weak cowardice individuals who thrive only in a pack. Im gonna shut up now before this becomes a 3 page rant but basically chavs suck ass!!
I feel even limited style grudging tolerance of drugs (as in NL) and toleration of a managed night time economy in well lit, monitored streets would put a stop to a great deal of sketchy violence. For one thing if there are night time venues for all the youth sub cultures to have their own space and party the bulk of them will exhaust their energies there and be less willing to fight when their paths cross. Also more psychotic/argumentative types would come to notice of security staff in the venues and thus can be watched or banned (being denied peer approval and an audience still works, its after all what some aspects of prison are about).
Decrim won’t miraculously make users better people or better behaved (it stops some weekend violence but push incidents into midweek when comedowns happen) but will make younger people less wary and mistrusting of the Police and other authorities, and more likely to co-operate with them when needed, particularly if the Police concentrate their resources on catching genuine thugs and thieves and not simply profiling groups.
Also “soft” security like well lit streets friendly to cyclists and pedestrians 24/7 on top of open and honest deployment of CCTV means that there is always a deterrent to opportunist criminals as there are witnesses everywhere.
Out of curiosity I was watching some training videos for the Dutch Police and if for instance they see three lads squaring up to one another they are far quicker to go in and break it up with two officers (without throwing their own weight around) than UK cops who will call for a serial full of backup and then steam in with 10 cops against 3 and make everyone watching think they are the bullies. OK they have pistols (and cops in NL (and generally anyone in authority) tends to be very tall big scary looking blokes) but criminals use knifes and guns as regularly in NL as the UK..
Also I’ve noticed that in spite of criminal penalties in North Europe seemingly being “lenient”, there isn’t a massive epidemic of crime – they somehow manage to create a society where by and large people are set boundaries and adhere to them (the whole “dat mag niet” culture which isn’t quite as restrictive as it seems but does remind folk they are being watched by their peers..)
