New 'Yob' Targets to be Unveiled

[Guest Lottie]

Fifty new areas getting special help to fight anti-social behaviour in England and Wales will be named on Thursday.

Ten areas have already had access to special prosecutors and local experts and the government is now expanding the crackdown to more towns and cities.

Details of how many anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) were used in the last year are also being published.

Labour sees nuisance behaviour as a key election issue but critics claim the record is at best patchy.

A year ago, ministers launched their anti-social behaviour plan and Thursday's figures offer a progress check.

They will say that in the past year more than 2,600 anti-social behaviour orders were issued by the courts - more than double the total used in the previous four years.

Police have also closed 150 crack houses and issued more than 400 dispersal orders, breaking up groups of youths in public places.

The 50 new pilot areas to get special attention will also receive extra government funding. Exeter and Cardiff are among cities who have voiced interest in being involved.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is also expected to announce new measures to strengthen the use of Asbos and fixed penalty notices.

There are still concerns that some areas of the country are not using the powers properly.

Support officers working?

He is expected to say that the new figures were heartening but he would not rest until similar action was taken in all areas of the country where it was needed.

"We have not defeated this problem by any means, but shown together what can be done," he will say.

Mr Blair this week defended the shake-up of the licensing laws, saying it was right to focus on troublemakers rather than treating everybody as a potential drunken nuisance.

Ministers also boast of record police numbers and are speeding up plans to put in place 25,000 community support officers (CSOs).

But researchers from Leeds University warned that CSOs could undermine traditional bonds between police officers and communities.

More work needed to be done on clarifying the role of different agencies and how they linked together before CSOs, they argued in a the study.

Critics of the government say it has announced more than 20 initiatives to tackle nuisance behaviour when the real focus should be on good policing.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears also revealed this week that "about a third" of Asbos were breached - with some people jailed and others not.

Source

[Talon]

I here a bullet through the head works too

[vimjams]

Recently there have been several documentaries showing violent yobs and drunks spilling out of the drinking 'dens' and nightclubs that are now sprouting up in the High Streets of every British town and city. Multiply this by the number of towns and cities we have, and there is actually a serious future problem arising. Even in the small town just three miles from where I live there are no less than five late-night clubs churning out this disgusting and often very abusive and violent dross. In the village I live, young people in baseball caps and much the worse for drink, wander seemingly aimless and totally adverse to going home…They just sit around the bus shelters and cemetery staring at people and making strange drooling animal noises. Jeez...I'm telling you, if it were not for the fact that I look like a mugger I would be worried about going out after 10 or 11 PM.

The New Labour government's answer to this growing problem is to introduce a bill that would clear the way for 24 hour drinking...Are they insane?

Vimjams

[Talon]

This isn't a Neq Labour thing, this is a problem of all our governments, Labour ot Tory. We need a more sane approach, one which would increase the liberal rights of the people, but come down so hard on the criminals they'll just... die.

[NightMoon]

It doesn't matter what we say or put up with or deicide, the problem is goping to get worse. There are no police on the streets yet they always turn up over ridiculous cases. I think the best solution is to hide.

[Talon]

Its because our modern system is a joke, its just a way for Laywers to make money, not about defending the people and punishing the guilty, if it was we wouldn't have cases were murders get out after 2 years and victims of crime have to pay the criminal money for any injuries for any injuries they inflict on the scum in self defense.

We need a more authoritarian stance on crime that sperates Capitalist corruption from the courts.