The misery that is 'anti-social behaviour'

There’ll be more shock horror headlines in tomorrows papers over this dreadful story. No doubt the tabloids will terrorise their readers and probably throw the names of poor Garry Newlove, David Morley, Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca amongst others into the mix. But the really sad part of the story will be that the headlines will be right, we as a nation are still putting up with the rubbish behaviour that takes these unfortunate victims to premature deaths.

Why is it that successive government, irrespective of political persuasion, simply can’t get to grips with anti-social behaviour? Over 30 years ago I was visiting residents in certain parts of Wrexham who were living in fear of evenings and weekends when their lives were rendered intolerable by gangs of youths who haunted the streets of their estates. Then we had 18 years of Tory waffle, describing themselves as the ‘party of law and order’ and nothing changed in the anti-social behaviour world. It hasn’t changed since 1997 either, despite ASBOs, CRASBOs, PCSOs and the farcical yellow card system.

No one should have to endure someone else’s bullying behaviour to the point where they suffer in their own homes. It really is time to say enough is enough and get to grips with the problem with sentences that spell it out loud and clear. The longer it is put off, the harder it becomes to overcome. The overwhelming majority of citizens in our country have had a bellyful and deserve better.


nick