Yesterday (Wednesday) lunchtime, the whole of the Highbury Quadrant Estate, off Catherall Road, was put on lockdown by police in response to a gang of yobs terrorising residents.
People on the estate have been victimised by thugs driving stolen mopeds, burning the bikes, taking drugs and breaking into homes. A pizza delivery boy has been stabbed, Christmas trees torched and teenagers regularly run from police helicopters in the chaos that’s blighted the lives of residents.
Now under the dispersal order, which expires tomorrow (Friday) lunchtime police can ask anyone to leave the area if they are even suspected of harassing or intimidating people on the estate, or causing any kind crime and disorder.Hurrah! Right?
Oh.
But Cllr Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor for Highbury East ward which covers the estate, says the answer isn’t as simple as locking up the offenders or kicking them out.Really? Well, have we tried it yet?
She said: “It’s incredibly complicated - ever since I first got elected I have been contacted by people concerned with motorbikes being burnt out, being intimidated, minor break-ins and so on.
“The situation had clearly got out of control.
“But I have huge misgivings about evictions, just kicking people out.
“These are kids at the end of the day and we need to help them, offer them support and give them things to engage them - we are working on more activities for young people in the area.
“These kids have been rampaging around the estate causing mayhem and destruction.
“People are at their wit’s end - they’ve had enough.
“But on the whole the are incredibly sympathetic to the situation. We can’t just wash our hands of them.
“We have to work towards their future and help them live a purposeful life - stay in education, find employment and be constructive members of society.”But maybe they never will be. What then?
H/T: wiggia via email
Lockdown? They should have put the place on burn down.
ReplyDeleteWell then offer them support:-
ReplyDeleteBoard & lodgings in one of Her Majesty's guest houses with compulsory training in something useful, and no remission or release until a certain standard has been reached.
Hear, hear. Well said, that should be precisely why we have the places.
DeleteDouse the whole area in napalm and VX nerve gas. Of course the innocent will suffer but we'll get the ploppies as well.
ReplyDeleteStop calling them kids or children or little ones. If they have pubic hair they is grown up.
ReplyDeleteOr as far grown up as they will ever be.
Let's have a curfew. Anyone out after 6pm will disappear from the sight of men.
ReplyDeleteFrom the comments at Islington Gazette:
ReplyDeleteDear cllr Russell, I believe there is an empty flat in my block of Highbury Quadrant. Why don't you move into it for a week? You will then see how useless your platitudes are to the people who live in the middle of this mess
Brava!
It's easy to forget the large number of decent people who are consigned to live on these estates; many elderly and vulnerable in some way - others just want to try and get on but are affected by the actions of these scum as well as tarred with the same brush. Social housing needs to be more strictly and rigorously supervised and policed (in every sense of the word). What do we do with the hardcore scum - Scotland is empty, send them to camps for all I care. I'm fucking tired of it all!
ReplyDeleteI'll wager the greenie doesn't live in the middle of the estate.
ReplyDelete"Lockdown? They should have put the place on burn down."
ReplyDeleteHeh!
"Stop calling them kids or children or little ones."
It's rather like when you see the term 'vulnerable' now, there's a 50/50 chance they are the culprit, not the victim!
"I'll wager the greenie doesn't live in the middle of the estate."
Or even anywhere near it...