Gordon calls for crack down on “yob” culture.
Gordon Henderson has repeated his call for more police to patrol the streets of Sittingbourne and Sheppey and for a crack down on yobbish behaviour. Gordon’s call comes in the week in which a Home Office survey revealed that 25% of boys aged 10 to17 are “serious or prolific” offenders.
Gordon said:
‘Ministers tried to put a positive spin on the crime statistics, however, the figures are so shocking they are difficult to hide. The Government says things are improving, yet those of us who actually live in the real world know that things are getting worse by the day.
‘If everything is so wonderful why was All Saints Church, in Eastchurch, forced this week to start locking its doors during the day to protect itself from vandalism?
‘If crime really is being brought under control why are elderly people on the Quinton Estate still frightened to open their doors at night.
‘Government ministers tell us that many youth offences are “low grade”; tell that to the organisers of village halls and community centres who regularly find their properties vandalised and have to raise thousands of pounds to repair the damage.
‘The Government proclaims that its policy of community support officers and anti social behaviour orders has made a big impact on youth crime, if that is the case, why do I meet so many people who complain about being abused and threatened by gangs of youths on their estates?
‘There is only one real answer to the present level of crime; we need a real crackdown on “yob culture”; we need more policemen to catch the yobs who are making life a misery for so many people in our community.
‘We need courts willing to impose on yobs sentences that actually have an impact; we need more prisons to house those convicted of crimes; we need to make the regimes in our prisons tougher, so that incarceration becomes a real deterrent; and we need the political will to face down the liberal establishment that continues to tell us that “prison does not work”.
‘Prison does work. When
habitual offenders are put in prison, the crime rate in the areas from which
they come reduces significantly. Prisoners do not like the thought of tougher
prisons, but I do and I’m sure the vast majority of law abiding citizens in my
local community agree with me.’
…ends…
More Police: Cleaner Hospitals:
Lower Taxes: School Discipline: Controlled Immigration.