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Superintendent Paul Morris |
‘What can I do?’ That is the question we need to hear more
While all of us are rightfully concerned about stabbings and youth crime, we all have a role to play by supporting young people, writes Superintendent Paul Morris
WE all seem to be consumed by the debate about youth violence and, in particular, the unnecessary loss of young people’s lives as a result of the propensity of young adults to use knives.
There is the perception that the local and national press have disproportionately reported this wave of violence. Yet without the volume of incidents there would not be the substance to fuel the continued coverage.
The fact that in reality the levels of serious youth crime have reduced does little to negate the need and urgency to evaluate the problem and seek sustainable solutions.
It is interesting that we all seem to understand and have a desire to articulate an opinion of what needs to be done to address the problem and by whom: the government, the council, the faith leaders and so the list goes on.
We all are opinionated about what is lacking: tougher sentences, resources, employment, effective education, investment in social housing, more police on the street, more youth clubs open for longer hours, parental support, readily available employment, diversion, prevention and even international and national policies. None of these suggestions is without merit, yet they are all intrinsically linked to being someone else’s responsibility and often resource intensive and dependent on prevailing economic, political or social priorities.
What I am particularly struck by in the present debate is the absence of the question: “What can I do?”
Young people themselves have taken to the streets in many boroughs in the capital to demonstrate their personal disassociation with knife crime and by doing so imploring their peers to reconsider the path of violence that they may be journeying upon.
The impact this approach is having is difficult to assess in the short term, but I have great respect and admiration for these young people for the leadership and commitment they are demonstrating.
Remember, these are young people living in the same London communities as the offenders.
They know the difficulties and challenges faced by their contemporaries; they know about the peer pressure, the glamorisation and the easy options the gang association offers – still they make informed decisions like the vast majority of teenagers to avoid that temptation. The important point is they have asked: “What can I do?” and responded in a positive way.
Parenting is never easy, regardless of our personal circumstances, and experts seeking the definitive answers redefine their message each generation. Bob Dylan surely captured the dilemma in his song The Times They Are A Changin’.
Speaking from a local perspective, I am concerned when parents of offenders, when confronted with their child’s wrongdoing, are apparently genuinely shocked and often in denial about the circumstances facing them.
They have this denial despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that they have been unaware or uninterested in their 15-year-old son or daughter’s whereabouts at 3am in the morning. These parents may be confronted with a simple choice of the first steps when asking what they can do.
We all hear the call that we should “invest in young people”. However, that often translates into more money and more services. Perhaps we could all invest in young people in other ways. Invest in providing realistic aspirations, invest in the time necessary to get to know them, whether as family, neighbours or members of the community. Invest in supporting parents struggling for whatever reason, invest in the time it takes to raise concerns if we see a negative change in their behaviour. Invest in a collective approach, no matter how small the contribution. Invest in an understanding of cultural differences that enables us to find common goals, values and respect.
This may be viewed as a shift of responsibility from the principal agencies. It is not. Government – national and local – and, indeed, the police, will continue to have a statutory responsibility to work towards solutions and processes to manage the problems.
As experience has shown, they will not achieve it without true community engagement in change. For example, the Metropolitan Police Service has for several months prioritised knife crime and serious youth violence through Operation Blunt 2.
The community have broadly supported this initiative as it has provided a reassurance that action is being taken and the positive results are starting to have an impact.
Whilst this is a policing initiative, it would not be sustainable without community consensus or support.
For a couple of decades the argument about climate change was in the academic and the political domains.
Only when we as individuals took responsibility for our own re-cycling, making informed decisions about energy savings and travel did we start to mainstream change. Different circumstances, but the same principle.
We all have a right to demand a response from our statutory agencies in dealing with knife crime and youth violence. We have a right to ask “What they are doing about it?”.
We have an equal obligation to consider our own role as individuals, as parents, as young people as part of the community to ask “What can I do?”
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