Caught hanging around

One of the strange things I remember from my time at university in Bradford was that the toilets at the Interchange (the train and bus station) were lit using blue lights. This was supposedly to stop junkies from using the lavatories to shoot up—the idea being that the blue lighting made it difficult for them to find their veins—although apparently most regular heroin addicts could get a hit with their eyes closed.

The same idea is being used by Layton Burroughs Residents’ Association in Mansfield, except it’s pink light they’ve installed in a subway and their target is young people not drug users. Pink lights are used by beauticians to highlight skin blotches, and the idea is that highlighting young people’s acne makes it less desirable to hang around at that spot.

I’m glad to see the National Youth Agency appears to have criticised this, although their statement isn’t particularly strong. But it follows the Children’s Commissioner’s attacks on mosquitoes (the audio devices used to stop young people hanging around) and it’s good to see agencies that should be promoting young people’s rights publicly defending them.

I was at an RSA event in Hertfordshire last year, discussing young people and anti-social behaviour with several members of the local police force. One the frustrations a police officer said he had was that too often they were called by residents who wanted the police to do something before any crime had been committed. Media and politicians have helped fuel a perception among the public that young people are a threat if they hang around, and that hanging around is a crime.

Undoubtedly young people hanging around can be a nuisance, and their presence can make other residents feel vulnerable. But that doesn’t make it wrong or illegal. And simply introducing a device designed to make it uncomfortable for them won’t solve the problem.

At my local supermarket there are often young people hanging around outside the entrance, particularly if you go there on a Friday or Saturday night. One night recently I witnessed some young people giving the security guard some agro, which provoked the guard to react and chase one of the teenagers until he caught him. As soon as he’d grabbed him the security guard didn’t know quite what to do (he could hardly beat him up in the middle of a Tesco car-park, and equally he couldn’t hold on to him because he hadn’t committed any crime), but what I found more interesting was the reaction of the young person he’d caught. From laddish bravedo, as soon as he was caught he turned into a petrified child screaming not to be hurt and begging for forgiveness.

That incident reveals one of the key reasons young people choose to hang around the places they do. Because they feel safe. Because there are people to watch over them. Because aged 14-15, you want the independence of meeting outside of the family home, but still with the protection that adults can give.

And if we started considering that when trying to deal with the “problem” of anti-social young people, we might finally start getting somewhere.

Images courtesy of dieselbug2007. Used under licence.