Reducing the number of police officers and knee jerk proposals to Anti Social Behaviour Orders, are the work of a Government completely out of touch with what is happening in England. Ask a pensioner who has suffered repeated acts of anti social behaviour or the mother who has lost a son because of knife crime what they think of the Con-Dem coalition’s plans, and the answer will not be very complimentary.

However it is the victims of anti social behaviour and crime in general the Government should be asking. For too long Home Office officials have remained aloof from the real troubles of this country, protected at the taxpayers expense in their luxurious ivory towers tucked away from the problems on the ground.  Needless to say, when funding is issued for Policing, it is likely the diplomatic protection budget will not be cut, whilst the funding for community policing, or what could be called a community protection budget will be slashed. So much for living in an ‘equal society’.

Last September there were 141,480 police officers, which is just over 2,500 less than the year before. The Government is demanding that police forces cut their budgets by 20 per cent for 2014-15 with over 10,000 officers being cut in the next few years. This includes experienced and highly motivated officers.

Police Federation Chairman Paul Mc.Keever is quoted as saying: "The reality of the consequences of such harsh cuts to the front line is finally hitting home. We have in the past been accused of scaremongering when we voiced our very real concerns. We were not. Such harsh cuts to policing will result in a change for the worst which could compromise public safety."

Through these cutbacks the Con-Dem coalition is offering an open invitation to the criminal classes of this country, and to overseas gangsters who will take advantage of our open EU borders and labour market  to engage in criminal activity here in England.

The fact that only 11% of officers are currently visible to the public is a disgraceful factor which demonstrates the complete mismanagement of our police force by the British Government. Some people refer to CPSO’s as the ‘plastic police’, as their main role is to simply provide a visible uniformed presence on the streets rather than dealing with crime. However it seems 89% of the regular force could be referred to as the ‘pen pusher police’ due to the large number that sit behind desks, hardly venturing onto the streets where real policing should take place.

The rebranding of ASBO’s is another area where the Government is demonstrating a complete lack of judgement. It has been documented that some offenders regarded an ASBO as a badge of honour. Therefore for this element it did not prove to be a worthy deterrent. Figures show 1,266 ASBO’s were breached in 2008, giving a breach rate of over 50%. In total, more than 9,247 of the 16,999 issued were breached.

However, some of the proposals included in its replacement are completely comical. Included in the new ‘Criminal Behaviour Order’ is the confiscation of offender’s mobile phones and iPods. Again this shows how completely out of touch the Government is, as many of these items are likely to have been stolen or bought from the proceeds of illicit gains. Therefore rather than decreasing crime, this measure is likely to see it escalate.

The lack of investment is job creation and securing jobs for the people of England will undoubtedly lead to a lack of honest aspirations and an increase in criminality. Lack of support for community and youth ventures will increase anti social behaviour. One thing is for certain, fewer police + less employment + fewer facilities for young people = more crime and anti social behaviour. Unfortunately when adding up the figures for cutbacks this is one equation the Government has chosen to ignore.

In reality it seems the British Government is showing more concern for the problems of the citizens of Cairo and Kabul than Croydon and Keighley.  Unfortunately this is the record of successive British Government’s concentrating on international policies instead of national priorities.

The English Radical Alliance (ERA) believes national priorities should come first, and in the case of crime and anti social behaviour, it is often the poorest and most vulnerable in society that are the victims. We often hear of human rights being mentioned in far off lands, yet in reality if you are a disabled person in England under attack from gangs of yobs on a nightly basis, your human rights are being abused. This is why we in ERA will always make a point of defending the human rights of the vulnerable and oppressed in this country.

We believe it is wrong that only 11% of police officers are visible to the public, but at the same time we feel it is wrong to reduce the numbers of officers on the frontline. Police officers should be there for policing not paperwork.  Policing should be about dealing with real crime, protecting the public and not hassling people distributing leaflets against the cutbacks. Our vision is for a ‘peoples’ police force, accountable to local people, prioritising where the local people feel it is required, and not under the direction of an ivory tower unaccountable bureaucrat.

Tackling crime on the whole however, requires more than a decent police force. It needs a multi pronged approach. If you do not tackle the root causes of crime, regardless of how many officers are sent to patrol our streets, many people will still turn towards crime and lawlessness. This is why as well as punishments, education, training, job creation, job security and facilities for the community and young people are required to stem the flow towards criminality.

Looking at anti social behaviour, the Government‘s Criminal Behaviour Order states that ‘local agencies will be compelled to take action if five people from five different residences in the same neighbourhood have complained and no action has been taken, or the behaviour in question has been reported to the authorities by an individual three times, and no action has been taken’.

We in the English Radical Alliance ask ‘Why so many times?’ If there is no action after the first report surely that demonstrates that duties (of which are funded by the taxpayer) are being ignored.

Punishment is another area where the people have been let down. All too often it is reported that a vicious thug or habitual criminal receives a lenient sentence, whilst a lesser offender faces a term in jail. Our judicial system requires a complete overhaul, imprisoning those that pose a threat to society and non custodial sentences for those that do not. These should include the use of hard labour and eductaion. Regarding the lack of prisons, we currently have two aircraft-less carriers which will ply the seas of the world or be moth-balled at the taxpayers expense. These vessels could be converted into prison ships, thus ‘defending’ the people of England against crime. In a practical sense, they would probably serve the country better as prison ships than as part of some international operation off the coast of Somalia.

The English Radical Alliance believes the people have suffered enough through neglect and mismanagement of our police force and judiciary. As we have demonstrated, as well as a reduction in the number of officers, cutbacks in other areas such as job creation will lead to an increase in crime. It is time for ushering in of some new, radical thinking, before society as we know it descends into complete chaos and lawlessness.
 


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