Thousands of children arrested in Devon and Cornwall last year

Thousands of children arrested in Devon and Cornwall last year

www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Almost 250,000 children aged 10-17 were arrested in 2009, including almost 28,000 under 14, but only 81,500 were sentenced by a court and 5,176 were jailed.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said the figures showed “an excessive and inappropriate use of arrest for children”.

In Devon and Cornwall 4,132 children were arrested last year.

The Howard League warned the situation could deteriorate if police and crime commissioners, which will be elected to oversee forces for the first time next year, see children as an easy and popular target to boost arrests.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Disgusting...

I bet many of these kids were minding their own business when some power hungry copper comes up to them and starts intimidating them.

That happened to me once.. luckily I got the coppers number and had the verbal skills to fend him off without getting nicked.. But i did have him for pinning me up against a shop window...

Children seem to be 'easy meat' for the police.. It greatly improves the number of arrests they need to make. It is, of course, far easier to arrest a child full of fear than it is to arrest an adult who is able to eloquently stand their ground.. or outrun them..

A police commissioner would find it more electorally enticing to run a campaign aimed at the easy arrest and detention of children rather than devoting resources to crimes that appeal less to the local media or populace.

Anything to appear popular and in control of your seat of power in order to get a bonus and keep sitting on said seat..

I wonder if the DNA is still collected for every arrest? This would be one of the easiest forms of building a DNA database to control these youngsters as they turn to adulthood. The ID systems that could be garnered from this may be quite extensive.

There is something inherently wrong with this system...not the citizens.. The system needs to change in order for the citizens to have a bit more respect, honor and pride in themselves and for others.. Perhaps, then, our kids will grow up to be better educated and not get arrested.

What with the recent news of a lot of police officers being made redundant, and in a report I hard on the radio, are being re-employed as volunteers with no pay, the entire police system is getting a bit thin.. The Blue line seems to be fading out..

They even want to give you spot fines for dangerous driving now instead of hauling your butt through the judicial system..

I see Judge Dredd from Mega city 1 encroaching onto our streets more and more every day.. I just wonder when they will become executioners too?

www.thisisplymouth.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Police departments shouldnt be concerned with "boosting" their arrest numbers.

The sign of a safe neighborhood is fewer arrest. Not more arrests.

But I guess the best way to convince tax-payers you need more money is with more arrests.

Its highly likely they are doing this to get the DNA of these children. That seems to be the big one for the European's these days. They need to fill all those databases. Now the real question is why in the #ing world do they want kid's DNA, besides the typical bull# we're fed such as " To have it in the database encase they become criminals."

How many disappeared to become sacrafices in rituals?

reply to post by Extralien


Wtf?! Arresting that many children? Wtf is all I got, seriously. Are children a threat?

reply to post by Swills


Not yet.

But being raised in a hostile police state, they'll grow up learning to hate authority and eventually strike back.

We're seeing that now in the US in some areas that are heavily populated by minorities that grew up under heavy-handed police (inner city areas, for example). The ones now are actually surveilling the cops.

Kind of sucks when the tables are turned back on the oppressors, but oh well.

reply to post by Extralien


Im not usualy for police intervention in the lives of the citizens of our nation, but speaking as a person who is used to seeing packs of bolshy, rude, and vandalistic youths hanging around the streets, I kind of wish our police force here in Essex was a little more proactive as well.

Life is hard when you are young these days,sure... I was young, I remember. Lots of peer presure, to carry knives, to bully people, to be scum. I refused and suffered for it, and to be honest, if a crackdown on the sheer attitude of some kids could be made, it would perhaps be benificial. An outright end to the false impression given to the sort of youths we are talking about, that they can get away with anything would be a great start to improving our society.

We need to learn to care for one another. If that is to happen we must learn VERY early, the difference between right and wrong, and make the lines between as stark and bold as they can be, and ENFORCE the rules which make those lines clear.

I am well aware that things have gotten even worse since I was a child. At least now when a kid gets stomped on by a group of five other kids, or an intimidating group of kids is standing about making a scene in the street, the cops WILL get involved. Back when I was a child, I could be walking home bleeding from my face after getting a gang of kids dance on my head, and if a copper asked me what happened and I explained who did it, nothing would be done. If this increased activity on the part of law enforcement means that a kid will be able to get justice when they are attacked, and old ladies can have kids moved on or cautioned when they are causing a row outside thier house, then I for one support it.

Have any of you met a kid from the UK? They are little fooking savages these days. It's like Lord of the Flies over here.

I say lock more of these savages up. I'd feel safer in down town Mogadishu Wareing a US Army T-shirt, than walking the streets of my own town.

reply to post by FanarFanar


It ain't much better here,what you have to look at is what's the cause..it was well stated above.... oppression by tptb only makes it worse..as to fixing it,your guess is as good,if not better,than mine

reply to post by gary714


The cause is that this namby pamby state gave kids more rights than the adults. They know that adults are powerless against them, so they run around acting like animals, doing as they please. It has nothing to do with the "Poor Kids" being repressed by TPTB. It's quite the opposite. Kids have the run of the place, while the adults rights to rein them in are repressed.

reply to post by FanarFanar


On careful consideration I must bow to superior logic...you are absolutely right
Any ideas on how to correct it..seems like it's gone too far already....peaceYa'll
just joking parents are the ones in control,but are they exercising it or just their complainers

reply to post by FanarFanar


Your absolutely terrible spelling aside, I do hope you are kidding?

Oh wait, I remember reading an article in National Geographic (wish I could find it to link it), "Britain's Savage Feral Youth." As I remember the article said something about young people chasing down and eating the elderly and cats. Apparently they were caught drinking, smoking and "hanging about in crowds of 2 or more." Shocking! Hmm, may have been the Daily Mail (Motto: Representing right wing pensioners for 300 years) now I think of it

How about this, we stop criminalising our young people by accepting that they are YOUNG. They will mess around with drugs, booze, being general dickheads but they are OUR children and they are not doing anything we didn't do! Now tell me, was your youth without its dodgy moments?

Originally posted by gary714
oppression by tptb only makes it worse..

Definitely.

Any kid who could be "scared straight" will more than likely grow out of bad behavior.

But once you attach a record to a kid and a criminal stigma and acclimate him to detainment and police encounters you're just creating a violent criminal adult with no chance of ever landing a stable job or education.

Coming down hard on hard case kids just makes for hard criminal adults.

You certainly cant ignore them, you cant just let them run amok, but you cant go around locking them up and treating them like criminals and expect them to become decent civil people either.

Seems we're always using no hand or way too much hand in rearing.

It didnt used to be this way. What changed?

reply to post by Bonified Ween


BINGO!! what better way to get DNA. I must admit that some of the kids around here are little scroats and certainly need a beating every now and then .

I have met some of these 'kids' and believe me when I say I am glad I am not a cop, I am sure when the Police refer to patients they certainly don't mean the kind that I would end up lol

Us adults have mostly, probably have been right wankers when growing up, but back in my day 30 odd years back parents and schools could discipline children for crossing the line, we kids knew it and the adults knew it so if I got caught doing anything wrong I knew I was going to be punished and accepted the fact, if I didn't get caught then that was the thrill of it.........but always you knew that you had to take the rough with the smooth.

Nowadays as mentioned the young'uns seem to have free reign without fear of punishment, I for one would advocate if caught they got three choices......Army / Navy / Airforce and off they would be packed to a military school or if old enough straight into one of the armed forces..........I don't think you would need any other deterrant such as asbo's that have never worked at all.

Wolfie

reply to post by PW229


I cannot speak for anyone else, but when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was get educated and help get my family out of the appalling mess we were in financialy. Me and my sister thought that a slap up meal consisted of cheese with our beans on toast, thats how skint we were. My mother raised me basicaly single handed, and my sister too, even though my father was around. He was a cold and distant piece of crap, and as it turned out was as bad a husband to my mother, as he was a father to me and my sister, left the family home when I was fifteen. I say this not as a sob story , but to illustrate that I had far from an idyllic life as a child.

At school, aged about five onward until I left school, I was the beating post for every gang of scum that ever walked on two legs. Simply speaking, other kids , for some reason wanted to make my life miserable. Group beatings every day , assaults on my character also daily, threats, thefts, basicaly every kind of abuse you could think of except sexual. No teacher ever made a difference to that situation, or ever investigated the violence enacted on me, leave alone actualy sanctioning an individual in any way on my behalf .The school was failing, and the severity and regular nature of the assaults on me would have had the place closed. My mother was on anti depressive medication at the time, and was incapable of fighting my corner in those early years, and my father thought that his only role was to work and get payed and did nothing to help. I had arrived for my first day at school with interests in science, books, art, poetry, and music. By the time I left primary school I didnt much care wether I lived or died, as long as I didnt have to put up with thier crap any more.

I chose to go to a senior school a little further from me than I could have chosen, figured it would be an idea to get a fresh start. It was fresh, it was all new. It was worse. Within a year I was one of a small minority of kids who did not take a knife everywhere but the playing feild. I learned more about self defense that first year, than I had learned about any of my interests. I never wanted to have to hurt people. I loved my neighbour. None the less, I had to learn to strike out in defense of my life, or I would have been mush.

None the less, I retained a sense of right and wrong. Of what is decent, and what is not. It is utterly impossible that EVERY child who ever caused me grief, or fought me out of spite and pride, and a desire to look good for thier mates, was raised by coke heads and lager louts. I happen to know that some of the least approachable scumbags I had to deal with on a regular basis were from affluent backgrounds, wanted for nothing, and had deeply attentive parents ( you learn alot at parent and teacher evenings,by simply paying attention).

The reason I have said all this , is to illustrate that the problems that cause this symptom, this ragged and brutal attitude in the youth of today , has NOTHING to do with quality of home life, and nothing to do with wether or not a child has had a hard time of it when young. It is that most kids havent developed enough decency and respect for thier families and society, because they know they cannot be stopped until they are taller, and stronger, and they figure that means they need NEVER stop being scum.That is the function of the mindset of the people causing the problems.

The answer is very simple. Education. We let kids know where the lines in the sand are, and when they are crossed, they must be properly dealt with, rather than being coddled, and insulated from responsibility for thier actions. Only proper expirience of cause and effect can possibly change the current trend in the youth, to be feral .

Here is what i wanted to show you. I was going to send you a message to the link but it seems fitting to post it here.

Police service or Police force? These 3 videos let you know your rights and how to deal with the police.

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

Hope this helps!

Is this about Chavs?

A chav (pronounced /ˈtʃæv/ chav) is a stereotype of certain people in the United Kingdom. Also known as a charver in Yorkshire and North East England[1] "chavs" are said to be aggressive teenagers, of working class background, who repeatedly engage in anti-social behaviour such as street drinking, drug abuse and rowdiness, or other forms of juvenile delinquency.

wikipedia/ chav

David Grouchy

Originally posted by PW229
How about this, we stop criminalising our young people by accepting that they are YOUNG. They will mess around with drugs, booze, being general dickheads but they are OUR children and they are not doing anything we didn't do! Now tell me, was your youth without its dodgy moments?

Excellent.

How about you go to the gang of youths, 13-15 years old, drinking 2 litre bottle of cider outside your property and say, "Hi guys - I know you're only kids but would you mind not doing that please?" And give them your warmest smile.

I'd love to see how you feel and look after that.

Unless you live here in the UK, unless you've had run ins with some of the little s**ts here, you don't know what it's like.

It's JUST as Fanarfanar said - the kids have more rights than us adults and they know it. An ASBO is a right of passage, a badge of honour. They know nothing will happen to them so they walk about with impunity. It really is that bad in some places and sure, not ALL kids are like that - but the ones who are arrested are the ones hanging around street corners past 9pm causing anti-social issues.