TB's Gun Speech

[speedymama]

Mr Blair gave a speech in Cardiff yesterday regarding gun crime in the black community, here . As black person, I'm cynical about his motivation for this.

As far as I know, the black community have been denouncing what has been happening and there is a lot of community based work going on to address the problems and steer vulnerable youngsters (black, white, Asian) away from gangs and crime. I don't know anybody who is burying their head in the sand and pretending it is not going on.

He probably feels the need to appeal to Mr and Mrs Outrage who read the Daily Hate.

I quite agree with you that there is a lot of community work going on to try to keep young people away from gangs and crime. I'm white and cynical about politicians passing the buck to "communities". Do communities really have the power to keep individuals on the straight and narrow?

Well if not the communities - including the immediate family of course - then who else? Why should the Government be responsible for keeping the youth in check and how on earth could they impliment it?

LaBoheme - do you see yourself as a member of a "community"? If so, how does it exert any influence on your actions or anyone else's? I'm not point scoring, just interested. I can see that families have a considerable influence (but that not all problem teenagers result from bad parents - they do have free will, after all).

I think the Government does have more power to deal with underlying social problems. If young people can't see any hope for themselves through the education system or work, they will look elsewhere.

Well, tbh now I have moved out of London I do find that I (we) have more of a community spirit in my area. Granted, I don't know how influential this will be in terms of my child, other than there are now people around that she likes and respects, and can interact with. Weather this will stop her from getting into trouble I honestly don't know - time will tell. But I truly believe that the family is where it all starts - where respect for others and moral values are first learnt in the early, formative years.
I also feel that it is normal to break away from the family at some point when finding one's identity as a teenager, and possibly this is when some are left vulnerable to gangs and bad influences.....

LaBoheme, I'm glad to hear you're having a better time now you've left London - I'm still there and likely to remain for some time. I do agree with you over the role of the family, but I think there is implicit racism in holding "the black community" responsible for the behaviour of "their" young people. Try putting the word "white" in place of "black" in the above - it doesn't look right, does it?

I think the answer to the question in your first post is "the criminal justice system". It's a bit of a blunt instrument though.

What/Who exactly is/are the 'Black Cummunity'.

I don't understand his approach at all.

Agree Hallegarda. In the 50s and 60s when the Krays ruled by killing with guns etc, nobody said anything about the "white community" having to sort out their errant young people. What about the stabbings that use to happen between Mods, Rockers, Teddy Boys and Skin heads in the 50s & 60s. They were mostly white. Also, what about football hooliganism when it was at its height in the 70s & 80s. Again, most of the perpetrators were white but it was never mentioned because it was irrelevant.

I would like to ask TB if he, as a member of the white community, should do more to stop middle age white men who make up the majority of convicted paedophiles in this country?

speedy - as a numero uno TB hater i think practically anything that comes out of that man's mouth is cynical shite, esp. now that he is nearly out.

good point re. middle aged, white men as he is one of those ! i would like to know why he is such a dick head and what are his wife and family going to do about it ??

on the more serious side, i agree with LaBoheme that FAMILY is key - everything starts in the family - Black, White, Chinese, Irish, Asian. etc. all our communities are being let down by lack of family values and respect for the lives of others in schools, playgrounds, at work, etc.

Agree Yellowrose. Strong family ties, respect for self and others - these are all being undermined.

Agree - I honestly don't see it as a race issue at all, moral values begin in the family as does respect for others and oneself, this transcends all racial and class distinctions. I don't see how the Government (bar the criminal Justice system which obviously kicks in after it's too late) are meant to realistically take responsibility or promote positive values (staying in school, keeping out of trouble etc.) to young people.
As for TB, well, with the kind of twattery going on with his family, I don't think he has the right to preach or advise ANYONE on how to take responibility for their actions. The man makes me feel physically sick, he is so out of touch it's untrue..well I could go on for pages about what a hypocrite he is.

Saw a child playing with toy gun.Maybe if parents stopped and thought and then taught Dc's that guns are not toys then would help problem more.
Sorry but haven't quite worked out when guns became so easy to get hold of

singing - i absolutley agree - ds at 3 yo is categorically NOT allowed to watch any form of violence on tv (cbeebies is all he gets !) not even cartoon violence, no toy guns, machine guns, swords, knives, etc.
the worse thing i ever saw was a boy of 7 or 8 dressed top to toe in black leather/plastic gear, playing hide and seek with his mum in the playground, but it involved "shooting" mum with a large gun when he found her what the feck is wrong with ordinary hide and seek where you don't shoot the person you find ?

another time i saw another family with 4 of their children in a playground and another boy who kept going up to one of the toddlers and pointing a plastic gun at him. The father actually turned round and said "young man, please put that away, my son doesn't like guns". Luckily the boy with a gun had a grandfather who had fallen asleep on the bench, otherwise i am sure words would have passed between the parents

yellow I managed to persuade my Dc's that instead of shooting dead they could stun the bad guy and put him in prison so that he could go to court etc.Am trek fan so that helped.
I is so easy to explain this to Dc's cannot understand need for constant killing games with children.

singing - what a fab idea - will have to get ds to do that when he is old enough - stun the shoulder like mr spock ! very effective and doesn't involve guns what i am worried about is when he goes to school, i hope he doesn't come home demanding plastic guns and knives one day, not sure how to deal with that though hope he will be old enough by then to understand there are more interesting things to play with...?