Fourthwrite .......................Issue No. 9

Who are the Hoods now?

by Siobhan O'Dwyer

In the past few weeks there have been a plethora of stories and headlines regarding the “explosion” in youth crime with David Blunkett, British Home Secretary, promising ever more draconian measures to deal with the problem.  The policy is dressed up in the language of social inclusion and social responsibility and strikes a chord with many adults who prefer to forget about their own so called anti-social behaviour when they were young.  Now any group of young people hanging about on street corners are looked on with suspicion and fear by many adults and are subject to a new legislative framework to control their behaviour. Despite a reduction in overall crime, people believe there is a rise in crime, even though they have had no such direct experience themselves or in their neighbourhoods. 

In England, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, introduced a range of new orders to be used by youth courts when dealing with young people’s behaviour.  Young people on very minor charges, can now be subject to curfew orders, community behaviour orders, Intensive surveillance programmes, reparation  and anti-social behaviour orders.  The state has spent billions forming multi-disciplinary teams made up of social and youth workers, teachers, police officers and health workers to oversee the behaviour of young people in each local authority area. 

The British state are consciously using social and youth workers to enforce the new laws as a way of infiltrating neighbourhoods where traditionally the police would have had difficulty in operating.  The same methods will be used in Northern Ireland, particularly now that Sinn Fein are part of the state apparatus and have to look to different ways of enforcing the new political and legal realities in their strongholds.  At present, Sinn Fein are still reluctant to admit that the new order means that the laws of the British state will have to be upheld and that the old ways of subverting state power wherever possible, are no longer tenable.  However, as with the enforcement of TV and dog licenses, the politicians will eventually have to back up their new state in matters of law and order as regards the behaviour of their young. 

At present, so-called “hoods” are dealt with by thugs who profess still to be part of the Provisional IRA and who believe they have the right to enforce standards of behaviour in their own neighbourhoods.  They are the judge and jury and the communities they operate in support to some extent, their brutal behaviour, because the community still want to believe in the myth that the war isn’t really over and that the state is still not to be trusted or co-operated with.  The truth is that their political leaders are now part of the British state and they are the ones implementing British rule and law in Northern Ireland at the same time as having a quasi-military style police force of their own. The use of the name of the Provisional IRA in justifying punishment beatings and shootings is degrading and demeaning for all those who fought for Irish Freedom and is a gift to those who always believed that the PIRA were mindless thugs.

Fear and distrust of young people is a diversion away from the reality that the old order is gone and that the British state is now the only rule of law in Northern Ireland.   Sinn Fein and their new friends, Labour, will use fear of crime to criminalise the next generations and to ensure that the real problems of poverty, poor education and unemployment in working class areas are not on the agenda.  Sinn Fein have no will to address any of the real issues affecting their old neighbourhoods and as in their implementation of unfair health and education policies, they will also lead the way in criminalising young people. 

The youth of today are the adults of tomorrow and to demean and disregard their contribution to society is a mistake and is not a policy that should be welcomed by republicans.  Let’s hear what young people have to say about the society in which they are growing up and lets instil them with some hope and belief in the future.  The future is in the hands of our young people and I would prefer them to be involved in building that future rather than criminalised, brutalised and disabled.