'Anti-teen' device - Anti-youth prejudice

[BobKKKindle$]

Call to scrap 'anti-teen' device


A high-pitched device used to disperse teenagers is being challenged by campaigners, who say it is not a fair way to treat young people.

There are estimated to be 3,500 of the devices, known as the mosquito, in use across the country.


Their sound causes discomfort to young ears - but their frequency is above the normal hearing range of people over 25.


The Children's Commissioner for England says they should be scrapped as they infringe the rights of young people.


Negative views
The devices have proved popular with councils and police who use them to disperse groups of youths engaged in anti-social behaviour.


But a new campaign called "Buzz off", led by the Children's Commissioner for England and backed by groups including civil liberties group Liberty, is calling for them to be scrapped.


The organisations want to highlight what they call the "increasingly negative" way society views and deals with children and young people.
Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for England, said he had spoken to many young people who had been "deeply affected" by the deterrents.


He said: "These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving.




"The use of measures such as these are simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old."


He also argued that such an approach was "not addressing the root cause" of anti-social behaviour.


Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti said the device had no place in a country which values its children.


"What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids," she said.


The mosquito's inventor, Howard Stapleton, previously told the BBC the device was proven to be effective.


He said: "As a father I realise the majority of young people are fun-loving and law abiding.


"I find it sad that a system is needed to combat lawlessness, but its proven effectiveness shows how much it is needed to improve our communities."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7240180.stm

I feel that Socialists don't pay enough attention to problems affecting young people. The measure described above is a good indication of the way society perceives young people - we are seen as criminals who are always planning to create problems for others and to prevent adults from enjoying public spaces, allegedly because we get a thrill out of annoying the police. Although it is true that some youths do commit violent acts, these problems often arise because they simply have nothing else to do, due to the failure of the state to provide adequate facilities that meet young people's needs, or because they seek the sense of collective identity and strength which comes with membership of a gang. Above all, youths belonging to ethnic minorities are targeted and attempts are made to link the activities of a few deviants to underlying cultural values- black youths are said to have a "gang culture" derived from an African "tribal" heritage. This system of double oppression - on the basis of age and "race" - must be stopped.

We need to confront the pervasive prejudice against young people!

[jake williams]

Woot! I can't hear shit! I'm totally free!

On topic though - yeah, young people are horribly oppressed, it's one of the last almost universally accepted forms of discrimination - partly because it's not without an iota of legitimacy.

[spartan]

The reason that these youths face this kind of oppression is because the Bourgeois and their mainstream media have successfully silenced the real reasons behind this explosion in crime and bad behaviour which is mostly economic related.

Urban kids are highly unlikely to find any sort of meaningful employment, so they turn to crime and drugs so that they can earn a decent amount of money and get the partial enjoyment out of a boring life.

Look at where a lot of these kids live, in run down tower blocks and council houses, where there are no job opportunities anywhere in sight.

Economic reasons are the real reason for all this youth crime, but the Bourgeois apparatus has successfully covered up this fact to most people to stop discussion about class, which could lead them to understanding the nature of their oppression, and to make people turn to Fascistic reasoning to stop this worrying trend (Like when you hear people say bring back national service as punishment).

I personally feel that it isnt simply a coincidence that all this trouble with youth crime started when Thatcher and Blair destroyed Britains economic base via privatization.

There used to be a time, when you became an adult, that you already had a job to walk into and work for the rest of your working life.

How times have changed.

[Ismail]

I feel that Socialists don't pay enough attention to problems affecting young people.

I feel the exact opposite. The proletariat leads the revolution, not the students. This was a mistake that Mao made. The issue of youth crime is directly related to the issues that the proletariat faces. The proletarian male goes to work in a poor area, has below-average pay, and his wife/partner is expected to either stay at home or prostitute herself in extreme situations due to misogynist prejudices. Meanwhile the teenager is subject to harmful elements of the lumpen-proletariat culture that often permeates in these situations. The proletarian is directly involved with the means of production in day-to-day life and is under wage labor. Ergo they are much more responsive to Communism if they are able to learn of it.

In these poor areas however the teenager is subject to much more life experience than the children of the petty-bourgeois or more lucky proletarians. This makes them support Communism more if they stay with it, but they still follow the proletariat.

The move from capitalism into socialism will end much of this, and the arrival of a Communist society will end it once and for all. Until then however we must make the proletariat, and in turn the youth conscious of their situation and show them the history of the world via historical materialism.

[Colonello Buendia]

I've not had the mosquito used on me but a number of Friends have, it treats teens as dogs which is ridiculous. this is a good example of state oppression and demeaning tactics of the police

[benpuk]

Mrdie / spartan:

What would be a good method of dealing with the problem? I'm not convinced that groups of youths will disappear if there were economic changes. (Maybe if someone could explain this ).

Additionally, assuming that the issue lies with kids having no job prospects, why should shopkeepers be punished for the situation?

[Jack Ruby]

Speaking as someone who lives opposite both a council estate and a licensed newsagents, my opinion is somewhat split on this issue. I see gangs of youths gathering everyday causing trouble and making other people's lives a misery.

Spartan raises some key points but I think with opportunity will come ambition. Too many kids these days aren't interested in the world that exists outside their suberb. They seem happy to do enough to get by and I don't believe that is healthy.

[Dystisis]

I agree that youth aren't all revolutionary comrades, however I disagree with this device obviously. It is always better to attack the source of the problem than the outcome.

[jake williams]

Partly the kids are the problem, sure. But when a similar issue came up in class the other day, about a sign saying something to the effect of "No more than 4 students/young people in the store at once", I said, and I stand by it, "What if there were a sign saying 'no more than four black people in the store at once'?" That would not be okay, that would be illegal I think actually. And it's obviously nonsense, but I think to some degree it follows the same principle - I'm sure there are areas where black people are disproportionately likely to, say, rob a store, for pretty simple reasons we needn't be deluded about. I do think I can safely say that the reasons that actually occurs is different than it is that young people steal things. There are relations, sure, but it requires a more complex solution I think. But you don't discriminate against individuals on the basis of a correlation.

[Holden Caulfield]

did my head in today when i was getting some smokes,
plus morrisons wont serve you if your mate you are with in the que has no form of ID on them, they were 18 as well he was getting some crisps and a twirl, i was only getting 6 bottles of corona as well, fascists