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Asbos as a last resort
• I AM dismayed to hear our new borough commander say in a public meeting he thought monitoring such excessive Asbo numbers in Camden would be impossible.
In the same meeting our executive member for community safety cautions certain young people will consider an Asbo as a “badge of honour” and apparently we need to avoid this.
Badges of honour are only honourable if a society accepts they are. I feel we are in danger of stoking this particular fire and we must not allow ourselves to be blackmailed in this way.
Implying that it is impossible to monitor over 300 people with live Asbos in Camden is simply misinformation. Most of them are no longer active because they have achieved their objectives and offenders have been rehabilitated back into society. Out of the remaining live Asbos most are drugs related, leaving only a handful of youths with active Asbos. And if they behave they would have joined the statistics of success stories.
There are silly blunders being made by people in very responsible positions I suspect to justify a subtle move away from using Asbos. I agree we must not abuse this legislation and stories to the contrary in Camden’s case are simply untrue. Camden Council will use this power only as a last resort and the process is very long and thorough.
If it were not for this legislation giving our residents the benefit of hearsay evidence and anonymity, our estate would still have flats used as drug dens three years on and be overrun by drug dealers, and unruly youths would still have terrorised our residents. So stereotyping Asbos as a failure is yet another misinformation campaign, in my view, designed to eventually scrap them perhaps because they just don’t fit libertarian viewpoints.
Perhaps the opposite viewpoint is that there is nothing wrong with a society demanding zero tolerance when it comes to people causing us alarm and distress and we must not be apologetic about it. We need the help and unconditional reassurance of our police and council that wherever appropriate they will not shy away from using Asbos.
Meric Apak
Chair of Artisan Dwellings Tenants Association and Cantelowes Safer Neighbourhoods Panel, NW1
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