[HPFGU-OTChatter] Brit News - Complete lose of Perspective (imho)

[Kathryn]

Steve/bboyminn
It seems in a misguided effort to improve the behavior of teens in the
Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, the shopping center is banning
wearing Hoodies (hooded sweatshirts) and baseball caps. All this in
order to crack down on bad behaviour and stop kids frightening other
shoppers.
 
Tell me now, isn't this a classic case of fighting the symptom while
ignoring the problems. Aren't the same trouble-making kids going to go
to the same shopping mall and cause the same problems only wearing
different closes?
 
Are they really attempting to fix the problem, or are they simply
trying to appease the troubled masses?
 
K

Apparently the reasoning is not the (somewhat) logical reason that these
clothing items can be used to help obscure identities when kids are caught
on cctv while misbehaving but rather because other shoppers (ie middle-class
Daily Mail readers) find groups of kids wearing hoodies to be frightening
*whether they are doing anything wrong or not*. So the shopping centre and
now Blair are condoning the idea that you can tell someone is a troublemaker
just by their appearance. So what happens when the shopping centre realises
that the same group of people find groups of people wearing muslim dress
threatening - would they still think that banning certain clothing items is
a good idea?

The stupid thing is I've been to Blue Water and frankly it is overendowed
with cctv and security guards. If they want to get rid of the specific kids
causing trouble I think they could, but this is the sort of idea that will
get them publicity and make them popular with the tabloids so this is the
route they choose, not to mention of course it's probably a lot less work
for them than actually trying to solve the problem. My point is somewhat
backed up by the fact that either the Express or the Mirror (my dad buys
both, one for the crossword and one to put down for the dog to mess on) is
now starting a campaign to ban hoodies from High Streets everywhere.

It's enough to make me want to go out and buy one!

K

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