More good news for Rose Hill
From tomorrow’s Oxford Mail:
A teenager has been banned from most of Oxford’s Rose Hill estate after a string of complaints about him drinking and abusing and harassing residents.
Ricky Byles, 17, from Barton, has been given an antisocial behaviour order, which bans him from the area for two years.
He must keep out of most of the estate until January 12, 2009, after the police and Oxford City Council secured the Asbo against him.
Well done to Graham Pink, our neighbourhood sergeant, and his team and to the CANAcT team at the City Council.
Update: there’s more detail in today’s full report, including a photo.
Antonia, I love your blog and agree with almost everything you say on it - indeed it has been pretty formative to my views on various things.
But… are you sure that this is the most positive thing to post about? I agree that in many instances ASBOs are necessary in ensuring that people’s communities aren’t violated by appalling behaviour, and disagree with liberals who cry about them, but isn’t ‘naming and shaming’ an unhelpful and degrading thing, happier in the tabloids than on a blog that usually discusses issues with such intelligence and sensitivity.
Rob,
Thanks for your kind words about the blog.
The two biggest problems on Rose Hill are antisocial behaviour and appalling housing. I’ve posted about the ASB frequently (just look through the Being a councillor category), and about mine and Ed’s efforts to get more things to do for young people on the estate.
Over the last few months when I’ve been a councillor, I’ve had my eyes opened to the sheer grinding everyday extent of the misery inflicted on shopkeepers, residents and people who work on the estate. I’m sick of car windscreens being smashed; I’m sick of alcohol being stolen from the shop by underage kids; I’m sick of spitting and swearing and intimidation; I’m sick of those bloody tags on every surface, going up as fast as we can get them removed; I’m sick of walls being kncoked down; I’m sick of cars being twocked and driven across the rec and into the pavilion or torched; I’m sick of foreign students and elderly people and streetwardens being abused; I’m sick of bricks being thrown through windows; I’m sick of car tyres being slashed.
I’m sick of a minority of scallies making life a genuine misery for most of the residents of the estate. Naming and making public photographs of those given ASBOs is important: don’t make any mistake, those of us who live on Rose Hill already knwo what this young man looks like, but exclusion from an area only works if residents are vigilant and help enforce it, and if they have confidence in it. There is no reason for this young man to be on the estate: he doesn’t live here any more. This ASBO will bring him to the attention of the youth offending team, who will help him stay out of trouble in the future, and help him get a steady job. I can’t apologise for being pleased that we’re being to see effective action against ASB on the estate.
These seems completely reasonable. I would be interested, on a purely theoretical level, in you expanding upon the last few comments regarding the youth offending team and getting a job. It seems to me that ASBOs are in lots of instances a necessary evil that contribute to the security and civility that neighbourhoods need, but in a wider sense I am concerned, as I’m sure we all are, that people are singled out for specific behaviour and that the function of ASBOs isn’t to create a new criminal class, identified from a young age who find it more, rather than less difficult to re-integrate back into the community they are clearly so alienated from that they treat it so badly.
Please do not misconceive this as crypto-liberal squeemishness, but a genuine concern that, as progressives we maintain a healthy belief in rehabilitation, as you clearly indicate, rather than a crude utilitarianism, which seems to be the trap that many a good person falls into when discussing the ‘rights and responsibilities’ line on crime.
I DONT AGREE AT ALL!!!!!!! RICKY BYLES IS JUST FINE THE WAY HE IS !!
rude-boii ricky iz A jokaA….:) lol…
hes so0o0o funni nd he duznt need 2 change attall….. these asbo fingyz are jus dum my bros got 1 2….. AND ITS FUCKIN STUPID!!!!!….
it dont change anyfin anii waii… so watz da fukin poinT!!!…. its all bullshit nd i fink dey shudnt av a ASBO…….!!