Michael Henderson suggests

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More handwringing

Tuesday, 12th February 2008

There's a wonderul caricature of a Guardian piece on Comment is Free. I'd have a good laugh, except that it seems to be meant to be taken seriously. Writing about the Mosquito - a device that emits a buzz which can only be heard by people under 25 and which is so annoying that it stops them hanging around where it's working - Rowenna Davis argues:

What really matters here is the psychological effect of this policy; what kind of message does it deliver to our young people about society's relationship with them? For me, it says that you are a pest that needs to be got rid of, not worth talking to or engaging with about community problems - simply something that should be swept away. If we want to improve kids' antisocial behaviour, we need to engage in a dialogue with them, not shoo them away.

Ah, the poor dears. All they want to do is have a dialogue. That's why they hang around in the streets, hoods up, drinking and swearing and glowering threateningly at passers by. That's no doubt why, on Saturday, a group of them slashed my car tyre in broad daylight after I refused to bow to their threatening behaviour and buy them cigarettes. (More on this to follow in another post.)

If they behave like pests - I'd say thugs, but let's not squabble over definitions - then the only way to treat them is as pests.