Grounded by government

Living in South Leamington in a house which backs onto
The Jet pub, I have seen my fair share of anti-social
behaviour from youth gangs. They stand outside of
corner shops or by the park gates, shouting,
swearing and being generally aggressive to anyone
who walks by. Sometimes it gets worse and I have
been witness to a number of drunken scuffles and
bottle-fights between groups of teenagers younger than
myself. We are bombarded on a daily basis by shocking
stories involving the killings of innocent people
by youths, some as young as twelve. Gone are the
days when misbehaving youths could be given a
clip round the ear and a stern talking to by adults;
nowadays you are more likely to be knifed for doing
so. The truth is Britain is scared; the yobs have
the power, and we are forced to stand back and let
them do as they please.

The Tories think they may have a solution: they are
proposing a new system of ‘grounding’ troublemakers
for up to a month, forbidding them from leaving their
houses except to attend school. I am sure everyone
has fond memories of being grounded by their parents
as a young child perhaps for staying out a bit too
late or for stealing one or two penny sweets, but
under these proposals youngsters as old as
seventeen could be confined to their homes with the
threat of a custodial sentence should they decide
to disobey.

I for one think the Tories have got the right
idea. Instead of pussy-footing around these thugs
we should be – as my mum used to say – coming down
on them like a tonne of bricks. First we tried banning
those wearing hoodies from shopping malls which,
let’s face it, was never really going to mend broken
Britain. We then tried going the other way, showing them
a little tough love and ‘hugging a hoodie’.
Surprisingly, that did not work either. Most recently
we have had ASBOs, but these too have been rendered
meaningless with many yobs choosing to view them
as badges of honour. What is needed is an old-fashioned
tough approach and these new proposals by the Conservatives
are just that.

Police will also be able to take troublemaking teenagers
directly off of the streets, taking them into custody
until their parents arrive to collect them. The hope
is that by treating young troublemakers like children
and nipping their behaviour in the bud, they will change
their ways before their behaviour becomes increasingly
worse.

Some have argued that it should be the right of parents
to choose whether their children are grounded and that
the police cannot force parents to keep their children
inside. To me this view is ridiculous; often these youths
act like they do because of a lack of discipline at
home and if the parents refuse to do it, then
the government should be able to. We cannot continue
to be intimidated by gangs of misbehaving children
and we should not be afraid to stand up against them.
It may sound drastic, but that is the kind of action
that is needed if we are gong to tackle the growing
problem of youth crime, and finally go about mending
our broken society.