Brit News - Complete lose of Perspective (imho)

[davewitley]

Steve wrote:

> 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?

I heard about this at the time but I wasn't able to follow it very 
closely.

Before going off the deep end, one wants to know a few basic facts:  
were the items banned absolutely, or just particular ways of wearing 
them, e.g. is a hoodie with the hood down acceptable?

That said, there was a somewhat sarcastic reaction here - both 
journalists and members of the public wanted to know if Bluewater 
was going to ban the *sale* of these items, too.  Others suggested 
that the over-50s should take to wearing them, on the grounds that 
this would render them instantly unfashionable, thus causing 
teenagers to find some other dress.

Oddly enough for a government supposedly obsessed with spin and 
presentation, Blair has a bit of a reputation for shooting from the 
hip on these social issues.  He at one point suggested that police 
should be able to administer on-the-spot fines to youths by marching 
them to cashpoint machines (ATMs), a suggestion that caused much 
anguished backpedalling and general thrashing about among officials 
who hadn't heard of the suggestion until he mentioned it.

Hoodies are pretty much standard wear for kids here - both my boys 
have them and wear them.  It means nothing.

As far as symptoms are concerned, as somebody mentioned, the problem 
is not that these youths are necessarily behaving badly - it's just 
that their presence in groups is intimidating.  I find it quite 
believable that the sort of person who feels intimidated by a group 
of teenagers will be influenced by the clothes they wear, as this is 
all about perception of difference, particularly class difference.  
If these kids are made to *seem* middle class, then the middle aged 
middle class people whose opinions and spending power drive policy 
will *feel* safer.  This really does matter, in a society in which 
the crimes that people fear are rare, particularly among the groups 
that fear them most.

David