When I wrote about the launch of Operation Blunt 2, an "in your face" police tactic launched with Mayor Johnson's encouragement in an attempt to tackle knife crime, I accepted its political expediency but expressed doubts that it would produce great results. A reader called Rob took me to task: "This post smacks of a need to be seen to be Saying Something, when simply reporting the Met's new crackdown...would have done fine on its own."
Maybe he had a point. Let me clarify. I think there's something to be said for demonstrations of intent and accept that there may too be something to be said for an "in your face" stop-and-search strategy, if it's "intelligence-led", to use Brian Paddick's term. But I can't see this as anything more than a small part of the solution to a social problem with deep and tangled roots. In this, I find I'm in agreement with Shaun Bailey, the Tory PPC for Hammersmith.
On last Sunday's Politics Show - which you can still watch it again - he said he thought Johnson was right to "send a message" about crime and ASB, but warned that much more would be required especially among the young: "To suggest to people that we're going to take charge is very important." He went on to emphasise prevention: "At the end of the day the amount of crime a society suffers from is not affected much by the police...the people who get involved are not scared of the police." Which is sort of what I was driving at, Rob. We'll have to see what difference Ray Lewis and others can make. Plenty, I hope.
As I have said before, there is tendency at the moment by some Ken supporters, to regard the last Mayoralty as a constant rerun of KEN, THE GOLDEN AGE.
However, surely it is reasonable to point out that Ken Livingstone should partly carry the can for the dreadful rise in knife crime among our London youth? surely he has been negligent at the very least?
During the Mayoral election, Ken declared that this election would be fought on green issues. He identified this as his main issue and scoffed at anyone who did not agree that green issues were the priority, not crime. He betrayed an unattractive smugness in talking about crime, oh yes, crime statistics showed that crime was falling and if we didn't feel safe, we were just imagining danger, which was being whipped up for political purposes by the bad right wingers.
He banded with Sian Berry, whose policy on drugs included making ecstasy legal and establishing Dutch style coffee shops which would sell cannabis, so if Ken had actualy managed to win another term, no doubt half London would be high as kites by now or too out of their heads on ecstasy to notice what the crime figures were.
This misreading of the situation demonstrated how out of touch and insulated Ken had become (I remember reading he planned to build a beach on the bank of the Thames(!)) when this huge problem of youth crime was staring everyone in the face and crying out to be dealt with.
I truly hope, as you say, that all of London, including Ken's supporters, will get behind Ray Lewis in praying that he does a good job and makes an inroad into what has been a deeply neglected situation.
Posted by: angela | May 27, 2008 at 01:34 PM
Hi Dave... As you directed that post partly at my previous comment on your blog, I should say thank you for the clarification - I find myself in complete agreement with what you've written here.
Posted by: Rob | May 27, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Dear old Jules is right behind Operation Blunt 2, if this week's Hackney Toady is to be believed. Not that it stops a barrage of statistics that prove criminals in Hackney are not only putting a life of crime behind them, but strewing rose petals in the paths of old ladies who wish to cross the road (a road, I might add, that has seen significantly fewer accidents under a Labour council than was seen under the bad old days of.... etc etc).
And not a word of credit for Boris. Oh well.
Posted by: Ben | May 28, 2008 at 09:22 PM