Gangs and the government

Police in Norfolk have gone to considerable expense to publish advice to parents on how to see if their child is in a gang. This is despite one officer claiming later in the article, “Whilst gang culture can be an issue in large cities and urban areas, it is not a  problem in Norfolk” this begs one to ask the questions why write about it. Nevertheless, with this revelation that the Norfolk police are now clamping down on gang crime (even though there aren’t any gangs), i thought id investigate what the government does to clamp down on gang crime and found this “insightful” page on the governments website listing the things to look out for if you think your child is in a gang.

• Is there a sudden loss of interest in school, or have they stopped attending school?

• Has their school work suddenly started to get worse – for example have they had worse grades or bad reports?

• Has the school or college reported worrying changes in behaviour?

• Has your child dropped out of after school clubs?

• have they started to use new slang words?

• Do they suddenly have unexplained money or possessions?

• Have they started to stay out late without giving a reason, or are they vague about who they are out with?

• Do they have a new nickname?

• Is there a new person in their life who they appear to be influenced or led by?

• Have they lost touch with old friends and just hang around with one group?

• Do they have aggressive or intimidating views towards other young people – even old friends?

• Do you think they might be using or dealing drugs?

Obviously the government is trying to do something good here, and is clearly concerned about the problems gangs can cause on communities around the country, however, this list is beyond ridiculous and shows how embarrassingly out of touch the government really is. 

Now I was never in a gang (that I knew of anyway) but I certainly bunked school on many occasions, was angry at school, got into the odd fight, used “slang” words, had a nickname, used drugs, failed exams, stayed out late and so on. By most accounts I was about as normal a kid as you can get. This is what kids do when their young, thats the whole fun of it and thats why adults wish they could be kids again, so they can do the stuff your not meant to do when your an adult. If this is how parents are meant to see if their kids are in a gang, well, then most of the young people in the country are probably in gang. As the Daily Mail would have us believe “we’re all doomed! Britain is broken! so lets all bugger off to our tax haven in  the Bahamas.”

Obviously in reality, gangs do exist in poor, inner-city areas and pose serious problems for their local community. However, the media panic thats been whipped up so that everyone now crosses the road when they see a “hoody” is a joke. Everyone has a “hoody”, including my parents and probably most Daily Mail journalists too, and if the writers at the Daily Mail hadn’t noticed, in rains a hell-of-a-lot in the UK and therefore people wear their hood so they dont get wet. The idea that the whole country is are plagued by gangs of hoodys is so far fetched, its beyond a joke.  

Whats gone wrong here. A few decades ago, gangs were cool. Anyone remember, the fantastic four, they were a gang, the mods, the rockers, i suppose they were gangs too. In my personal view, the whole definition of gangs is meaningless. The government defines them being “a group of people who may be involved in crime and violence. Many young people will not realise they are in a gang, they will just think they are in a group of friends. Being in a gang is not illegal - only the criminal offences committed are illegal”. To me that definition doesn’t actually mean anything apart from that people hang around together and sometimes break the law. They could just as well be describing the police, government or anything else. Great! Thats really helped!

My simple solution is for the government to actually tackle social inequality in inner-city areas. Voila! Its really not that complicated an idea. Rant over...