In previous communications here, I have lamented the waste…both of victims, and criminals…when our young men maim, terrorize, and even kill each other and, sadly, other “innocent” by-standers alike. And that such modern-day realities of life and living, thus, begged the question…what is happening to us, and where do we go from here?
I suggested the breeding, nurturing and otherwise fostering of the criminal behaviours we see becoming the norm these days – that is, of angry young men with guns – could be traced to the scourge of youth gangs, and all of the factors related to same. There we must focus our attentions.
In the absence of upholding the laws supporting the resort to Capital punishment by the State, often cited as “aiding and abetting” this level of criminality escalating out of control in our society, our ability to, truly, “cut off the head of the snake” is severely restricted.
Recently, however there have been greater acceptances of “enhanced policing methods” – so to speak – to address the issues. I say this approach has many down-sides … and few redeeming qualifiers. That is, if left alone, and to its own devices.
That is, as if the problems in our society are a policing (or lack thereof, depending with whom you discuss same). Clearly it is NOT.
Policing has its place and roles to play…but policing, in and of itself, is not our savior….
Today, criminals do not see “a life for a life” as a possible consequence of their actions…..and that philosophy-of-life has nothing to do with the police.
And everything to do with the social and economic, and non-sustainable lifestyles these segments of our society must exist within.
“Zero tolerance” policing methodologies – not a response to socio/economic crises
The aftermath of the British riots that stunned England’s politicians, embarrassed police forces and stung the civilian populace, also brought stark focus on the simmering underlying social and economic inequalities too-long ignored and/or suppressed. There are messages here for The Bahamas with respect to the marginalized and disenfranchised amongst us.
We have, and are, conveniently stepping around these real issues of our Bahamian-born descendents of illegal immigrants. England should be looked at as a “heads up.” We need to deal with it…as priority.
Successive British governments, and generations of politicians, alike, share responsibility for the underlying British “explosion”…but it’s up to the present government to do something about the crises-situations so inherited. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk responses by political leadership speak of “kill the messenger!”-like responses, and “blame the victim”-type rhetoric in public and private/civic discourses, only further inflame the situation….in my opinion.
The UK and the US have a long history of sharing policing techniques, particularly of marginalised communities, but as is the case throughout the world – in the U.S., England, Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere – no matter how sophisticated or tough the strategy, states cannot police their way out of social and economic crisis.
For example the British Prime Minister’s reaction to recent uprisings of the marginalised and disenfranchised in England has been to declare “all-out war on gangs and gang culture” and has called for widening the use of U.S. suppression models of policing. This includes actually importing so-called “super-cop” William Bratton himself. Known for his police chief duties in the U.S. cities of New York, Boston and Los Angeles, Bratton has been a central character in the development and implementation of “zero-tolerance” policing in the U.S. While politicians in England have apparently nixed the possibility of Bratton actually heading up London’s Metropolitan Police Service, Bratton is poised still to play a significant advisory role in UK policing.
On the table seems to be a widening of zero-tolerance policies, as well as the expansion of controversial civil gang injunctions and concomitant “gang-enhanced” punishments.
U.S.-style policing results in huge prison populations In the U.S., the flashpoint of the prison explosion has been policing. One of the starkest results of Bratton’s model of policing (zero-tolerance, expanded surveillance, complex gang databases, anti-gang task forces, along with the so-called war on drugs) is the tripling of the U.S. prison population from the late 1980s into the early 2000s.
Currently, 2.3 million people, or 1 in 100 adults, are imprisoned in the U.S.
This doesn’t include those locked in youth facilities (93,000) or immigrant detention centres (400,000). The majority of people in U.S. prisons are people of colour, and the vast majority are poor.
In addition to the 2.3 million people in prison, five million U.S. residents are on probation and parole.
This is significant because people who have been to prison are often denied access to or are faced with significant obstacles to housing, jobs, education, and voting rights.
The conditions of parole and probation are usually exacerbated by gang member labels. Using a zero tolerance approach, thousands of small “quality of life” infractions were policed as full-fledged crimes where more and more people were thrown in jail for longer and longer periods of time.
The successes of zero tolerance policing has been largely debunked by criminologists and has been decried by civil rights and community organisations for their use of racial profiling.
War against gangs,
U.S. policing has militarized quality of life policing into something that looks strikingly similar to counter-insurgency warfare, with state of the art military hardware, surveillance technology, and strategists. Mandatory sentencing guidelines and gang-enhancement sentencing has landed many behind bars for decades, if not for life.
In California, committing three felony offences – including small theft – can land some in prison for the rest of their life. Zero tolerance offers little-to-no flexibility in police or judiciary discretion, and over the years, anti-gang policing has been further and further integrated into Homeland Security and immigration enforcement apparatuses.
Overview – War on Gangs
Along with zero tolerance there has been much talk in England recently of using civil gang injunctions. While proponents in the U.S. often attempt to distinguish gang injunctions from the highly-militaristic methods of other anti-gang policing, injunctions are clearly situated in the legacy of zero-tolerance, suppression policing. Similar to the UK’s anti-social behaviour ordinances, gang injunctions in the U.S. use civil courts to restrict the movement, and activity, of alleged gang members within a given geographic area. Often the “activity” can include wearing a certain colour, being out in public after a certain hous, or congregating in groups larger than two people.
Gentrification of our “Ghettos” While proponents argue that gang injunctions disrupt the criminal activity of gangs on their so-called turf, numerous studies have shown that gang injunctions further institutionalise racial profiling by the police who enforce them; have no significant effect on violence in the given or surrounding area; are often part and parcel to gentrification schemes in surrounding areas; and severely limit the capacity of community-based organisations to do anti-violence work – work that has been proven highly successful.
Once again, despite Bratton’s particular media and political work to convince people that suppression policing is not, in accordance with U.S. law, race-based, it is abundantly clear who is being policed, how they’re being policed, and to what end. Again, such tactics, and modus operandi of our policing strategies should speak volumes to us.
What has all, or any, of this have to do with us, in the Bahamas? The recent uprisings in England are most definitely political-based implicitly, and explicitly, on the further denial of resources to those already marginalised and disenfranchised.
While the politicos, and heads of government departments, religious and quasi-religious bodies and “programs” might clamour on crudely about “moral fabric,” and lawlessness, theirs is also a political response to economic and social crisis. Unfortunately, it was a spark (note – police action) that ignited the conflagration.
What will it take to set ours off? We need an end to the socio/economic devastation of vulnerable sectors of our society. Ostensibly, the same communities targeted by zero tolerance policing. Only that way can we hope to “break the back’ of the gang-culture that underlie many of our social/criminal ills.
What’s your take? Presented, as always, in the best interest of the Bahamas. Freemanwthurston4907@hotmail.com
By Freeman Thurston
