Friday 9 May 2008

Indicators of Efficacy

A stumbling block for any project or initiative is working out what your success criteria are going to be. How will you know you are on the right track..?

Well, with some initiatives, that's easy. You measure success by the amount of screaming, shouting and wailing produced by lefties and 'hug-a-hoodie' social workers it produces. If it's a high level, you are on to something worthwhile.

On those criteria, 'Operation Leopard' is an astounding success as it has produced Defcon 4 levels of outrage. Leading the charge is AllyF for 'Comment is Free' (a man who must surely be a contender for 'Author Image Most Likely To Scare Small Children', along with Rupa Huq...).

'Operation Leopard' is an initiative from Basildon, whereby a team of police officers supported by photographers were deployed to bring some order back to a council estate plagued by low level anti social behavior by known thugs.
Burglaries, criminal damage and car crime on the estate dropped to zero during the period. Residents were delighted.
Good, no...? No:
Anyone who has talked to or worked with persistent young offenders will describe some recurring common attitudes. Anger at the world is normal, as is a sense of persecution and injustice. There is a nihilistic indifference to their own fate and a belief that, whatever they do, life will inevitably kick them in the teeth - all of which combines to make self-destructive, antisocial behaviour and criminality a no-brainer. It is just impossible to believe that any young person going through an intense experience of state harassment would emerge on the other side a more rounded, responsible individual, committed to a law-abiding future.
You see, it shouldn't be used because, well, the anti social young thugs will feel that people are picking on them....

As I pointed out on the thread, the leopard is the most widespread and adaptable of all the big cats. Here's hoping its namesake quickly becomes as widespread.

3 comments:

DJ said...

Yep, it's a real mystery how these kids got their enormous sense of entitlement. Possibly one of their twenty or so social workers could shed some light on it ?

Anonymous said...

Lol! Indeed...

Anonymous said...

Personally, I don't care two hoots whether the young thugs "emerge on the other side a more rounded, responsible individual, committed to a law-abiding future" ...so long as they stop their thuggery.

They can sit in the corner and feel persecuted for as long as they want. After all, that's pretty well what they inflicted on the rest of us when they were feeling good.

And, of course, if they come to think that the machinery of government is trying to watch their every move and catch them out at every opportunity, I'd say that makes them normal UK citizens....