Thursday, September 9, 2010
Meeting violence with LOVE
The executive director of Leave Out ViolencE responds to the latest swarmings
Posted by Sarah MacLaren on Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 5:37 PM
Six thoughts on the recent rash of attacks on the streets of Halifax.
1) If you believe in community and profess to be a member of the Halifax community, then you also believe that these kids are our kids. They were raised in our community, they have attended our schools, they have accessed the services delivered by our systems. They are not other from us and we cannot demand more accountability from them than we do from ourselves. We cannot respond to their behaviour with anger and hateful words when we are asking them to be more caring and empathetic. We are their role models.
2) The manner in which we are currently holding young people accountable for crime and violence is not working. I am not here to argue about the ethics of punishment, just to say that an informed focus on actually reducing youth crime and violence should lead us to understand that punishment is not the answer. In the US, where people have the potential of paying the highest price possible for their crimes, there are no studies that show that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. Similarly, more severe punishments are shown to be ineffective at reducing almost all forms of violent crime. Accountability and punishment should not be synonymous. The solution lies elsewhere.
3) Being tough on people who commit crimes and violence entails punishment. Being tough on crime means being tough on the causes of crime on systemic levels---economic disparity, racial and sexual oppression and inequity, etc. No matter what communities we come from, and whether or not we are invested in a Halifax community, if we want to reduce crime we do well to recognize the social causes of crime and that there is no quick fix to these underlying causes. Revamping systems and rebuilding trust among those they are meant to serve and the service deliverers is long-term process and one that can, at times, feel overwhelming. When events occur that cause a reasonable sense of fear and a lack of personal safety we have a natural tendency to want a solution that is immediate. There is no such solution. We would be best served by using the energy and interest caused by such events to begin the long process of change.
4) We do not do enough to teach our kids to care. We do not teach our kids leadership and often when we do we show them the Pied Piper version of Leadership--the one where they are popular and everyone follows them. We do not teach them that sometimes leadership is lonely, that sometimes your views are unpopular, that sometimes great leadership actually means moving away from the crowd, being the one kid to walk away while everyone else is following. We do not teach these things but when our kids behave other than the way we want them to we expect them to know these things.
5) The people I know who are effective in working with the young people we are talking about are struggling. Not in sense that you would think. We do not struggle to do our jobs. Our work is difficult work but it is often the most rewarding work. It is a vocation---not a career. We are struggling for support. We are struggling to be seen as part of the solution. We are struggling to be included in the decision-making processes that affect the people we work for and with. We are struggling to be heard among the many voices that are crying to lock away our kids, to make them pay adult penalties, to essentially give up on these young people and label them as beyond salvation.
6) Halifax is the largest city east of Montreal. We do not have a youth centre. We do not have a place designed by and for our youth. A place with a free gym, a tutor to help you keep up when you are suspended, a nurse you can talk to about your health and well-being, a caring a positive role model available to discuss life decisions, someone to assist you in navigating complex systems. We do not have an alternative school. Nova Scotia is doing an OK job of providing for those who fit within what we have decided are the norms of our society, but we are doing little that works for those who don't. The systems that have been designed to help are bogged down in bureaucracy and policy that does not shift as quickly as youth culture does. Not for profits---staffed with people who see their work as their life's work---need to start being seen as a financially viable, effective and alternative solution to systems that are struggling to be effective and cost-efficient in their service delivery and who often do not have the trust of the people they are supposed to serve. We need people in positions of power to support us.
I want to make it very clear: I believe in holding young people accountable for their actions. I have worked with young people for close to 15 years and I have seen programs that work and ones that don't. At LOVE we have found that holding kids accountable in a caring and compassionate manner has actually had the effect of changing their attitudes, behaviours and decision making processes.
I believe that the solutions to youth crime and youth violence require a radical shift in how we address the underlying causes of such behaviour. The solution does not lie in merely pointing fingers at government, schools or parents. It does not lie in more studies or in more short-term projects. The solution lies in listening to their stories, validating their experiences (and sometimes their anger) and then supporting them over the long term to become happy and productive humans who, in turn, give back to their communities what they have received. The solution lies in each of us taking the actions we can to benefit young people in our communities. This includes government, schools, corporations and parents as well as each of us as individuals. If you read this---thank you for listening. I hope it is the start of a conversation that we need to have for the benefit of our young people.Sarah MacLaren is Executive Director of Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE).
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Comments (25)
Showing 1-25 of 25
Great article .... very good points.
There needs to be a common thread throughout the HRM making existing services ( however minimal they are) more accessible. Public.
The left hand doesn't know what the right is not only doing but is capable of.... as in there are Municipal agents who will direct someone to a program that the funds ran out and the doors were closed months before .... and they themselves don't even know that. Why would they? They didn't need the program. It was for the teenagers.
Everything is short term. Council does need to find the will and come up with the money and invest in our future. Build some new infrastructure for teeangers.
At the moment teenagers barely meet citizen status in the eyes of the general public.
It's a glaring discrepnancy.
I could go on .... but the article says it all .... good stuff.
How can we expect our teenagers to respect anything or anyone when we as a city have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt unwilling to respect their situtaion.
Violence is for chumps who can't take their lumps.
Dubz
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Thanks for this, Sarah. I can't read through all the many comments already posted, so I'm sorry if I'm repeating here what someone else has already said.
I just wanted to make the point that as a society we have made what I think is a pretty good decision -- not to hold youth AS accountable as adults for their actions. They still have to be treated as individuals, and they of course have to be punished and/or rewarded for the sake of learning. But because they are still so under the influence of the society that produces them -- less "fully baked" individuals than adults who have already internalized that society's values and can now be expected to make fully informed, responsible decisions -- their individual responsibility for their own actions is taken to be less than an adult's. We make special laws for them or ways of applying the law to them, and I think this makes sense.
If we then change our stance when those youths start doing things more morally wrong than we'd considered they might, we undermine this assessment in a very dangerous way. By applying MORE responsibility to their WORSE actions, we in effect assert the belief that any good children may do is a product of their environment, whereas their bad actions come directly from their own unique, individual wills. In other words, we equate a child's individuality with evil.
Thank you Sarah for your comments. You are, sadly, so right. I only hope that politicians will start to look at science as opposed to firmly held and strongly expressed beliefs that 'obviously are right' - but actually have been shown again and again to be, at best, ineffective and, at worst, to exacerbate the problem.
There is only one thing that I would add to your conclusions: we are reaping the effects of cuts to services to preschoolers made a decade ago. Children learn how to regulate affect and how to empathise even before they enter school. Their vocabulary before school determines how well they will be able to use their education and how well they will be able to talk things through and negotiate, rather than lashing out. The cost benefits of preschool education in the USA have been calculated as a return over over 2 dollars for every one spent - and their social services are meagre so we probably would save even more in the long run.
A punitive approach is a waste of our most valuable resource - our children, as well as a waste of money, time and effort.
Ardath. the amount of hubris in your comment is laughable. You actually blame the victims for being angry for wanting their attackers punished. I guess in your world no one ever has to pay a price for a crime that is committed. You are right, there is probably a better "educated" way to deal with this problem, however, until the people that are committing these crimes and those who support them own up to it and accept that they need help, those methods will remain in the library books you talk about.
I read your article "Meeting Violence with Love" and all of the comments so far. Some observations:
1. All the comments which came from people who had been victimized by these gangs of young criminals advocated harsh penalties for the offenders and self-defense for would-be victims (i.e. carrying a weapon at the ready).
2. All of the comments that advocated not severely punishing these young criminals came from people who hadn't yet been directly impacted by the violence, either by having been victimized themselves, or personally close to someone who had been victimized.
3. Some victims have been so severely beaten by these criminals that they haven't recovered, and will never recover(irreversable brain damage, broken limbs and bones that haven't healed properly, lost teeth, etc.), and surely if people haven't already been killed, it's bound to happen sooner or later.
4. Apparently, the police, for whatever reason, are unable to prevent this violence from recurring.
5. A couple of people who have advocated leniency on these criminals have said that the severity of punishment has no bearing on the frequency and severity of crimes committed. This is simply NOT TRUE. All one has to do is look at the issue of drunk driving over the past 20 or 30 years, and a correlation between the severity of the punishment and the number of offences becomes obvious. As the punishment has become much more severe through the years, from a slap on the wrist and the police telling you to drive straight home, to a large fine, jail time, and losing your license for a year on the first offense, numbers of drunk driving offenses per person in the population have decreased to a small fraction of what they were and are still steadily decreasing as penalties get more severe, and blood alcohol tolerances more stringent! It's only common sense!!! Why anyone would expect a different result with regard to punishment and youth violent crime is beyond me!
6. some bloggers want to blame socio-economic conditions for these problems. While in the long-term solving these problems will undoubtedly be a large part of the solution, even in the poorest neighborhoods, the vast majority of citizens there do not engage in these criminal activities! These criminals CHOOSE to do what they do. No one is making them swarm and hurt people, and by the way, they're not even robbing people to make their own economic situation temporarily better, they're just hurting innocent people! Yes, rehabilitating the whole communities from the ground up is a very noble and worthwhile long-term goal. However, to downplay the necessity of swift and harsh punishment as a deterrent to violent crime is ridiculous, irresponsible, and grossly unjust to the victims and would-be victims of these crimes. We deserve results, and making a young person pick up a little bit of trash for bashing someone's head in with a brick doesn't seem like a situation where the punishment fits the crime. Law abiding citizens should feel safe walking down the street.
I propose a grass-roots movement in the North end of Halifax. What would happen if every citizen in the area always carried a visible weapon such as a baseball bat? I'm sure that would be a deterrent to at least some of the swarmers. After all, they're youths, and most of the targets are white adult males. We're bigger than them! If they still want to attack us, let's really hurt them! Nothing like physical pain as a deterrent! After all, the fear of physical pain and violence is working on us. We are more afraid to go to certain areas, and walk around at certain times of the night. Why not make them afraid? After all, they are the criminals!
And finally, I bet if the few cops that do venture into these problem areas saw everybody there with bats and hockey sticks, all of a sudden there would be a lot more cops patrolling those areas, which would be the best outcome anyway! Maybe after a while we wouldn't need to carry weapons for self defense any more, but I believe this problem needs to be addressed as directly and as simply as possible. I know I'll be ready to defend myself if I need to. That's about as direct and simple as it gets, and if most people defend themselves and really hurt their attackers, I believe it will be proven to be very effective very quickly. After all, most bullies are cowards at heart, especially in a large group. Really hurt the first one that comes close and watch the rest evaporate.
Oh- and p.s Bo Gus: it's laughable that you differentiate prisons from 'misdirected bureaucracies'. Proponents of 'detention' should learn a thing or two about it before they assume it to be a viable solution.
Reading online comments is often a disturbing and upsetting experience. It's sometimes an ugly glimpse into the knee-jerk reactions of people who do not feel that they can express themselves in their daily lives. Online comments have become a place to vent racism, misogyny and the anger that people feel when they are not educated enough to understand why "political correctness" isn't designed to shut them down... It's about justice.
Sarah is absolutely correct on all points. If we believe in evidence, experts and the power of statistics; we have to concede that she is correct. Basic library research skills will lead you to the same conclusion.
The ignorance, rage and negativity shown in some of the preceding postings comes from people who a) have never received proper support for victimization they have experienced and b) have misdirected anger the result of unhealthy experiences.
By wanting to "harshly punish" these youth- they are the same as them. They are transforming feelings of powerlessness and anger into a need to dominate something and punish it 'back into the pied piper line'. We are the most upset by things that represent the worst of ourselves. Perhaps, thisislondon and vengeful-victimized friends, you see too much of your own feelings acted out by these kids.
Harsh punishment doesn't work. If someone has such a burning a personal problem with these troubled youth receiving the (evidence-based) support they need to heal- then maybe they need to join Leave Out ViolencE and get some help, too.
As a 2005 "swarming victim" and a close friend of three of the recent, brutalized "swarming victims," I can't express how appalled I am that this is STILL a problem in Halifax.
I would love to believe that Halifax could come together as a community and do something about it, and I apologise to any officials who have been working towards this, but IT FEELS like the agenda of the city is to develop everything into waterfront or water adjacent condos, and damn anything that interferes.
The prospect of having a career in most fields (in the HRM) seems low, Rental prices vs. housing conditions are atrocious. The downtown is desolate, with many of the multi-purpose spaces (IE the Khyber) being shut down or continuously hassled for noise or other "condo-invading" deviations. The example that the city's many college and university students is setting for these particular youths is exemplified by the drunken debauchery that happens in front of the Palace and such venues every night. If you were a young person and had these surface issues facing you, (not to mention anything deeper) you'd probably lash out too. Halifax is starting to look, sound and have a reputation like Detroit.
And to "thisislondon," there may be incidents involving "blacks," as you put it, but you can't say "let's forget the racist comments" right after you say something racist like "it has been black youths that have been committing these swarmings for as long as I've been alive in Halifax, which is 33 years." There are just as many, if not more incidents of white knuckleheads from St. Mary's, Dal, etc. who physically and sexually assault people in the south end and downtown. Don't be ignorant, take a look:
http://halifax.searchns.com/PoliceReports/…
Anyway...
So much to say, and lots of fingers to point, and if I had an answer I would be on the cover of the magazine, but for now, I've made another province my home where I can leave an affordable apartment, walk safely down the street to my adequately paying professional job or to any number of free or affordable activities, and walk home again, unscathed.
My heart goes out to the recent victims.
Here's the perspective of a swarming victim who pressed charges. I was swarmed in the North End by 4 African-Canadian kids in the early '90s in front of the office building where I worked. They yelled insults, kicked me, punched me, grabbed my crotch, and finally hit me over the head with a brick. A woman ran over and frightened them off-- it turned out they had previously hit her over the head with a bottle, but the four kids apparently wouldn't take on two adults at the same time.
I called the police, and two cars came, three officers behaved reprehensibly toward the victims, and one heroic officer took the complaint seriously, and caught all 4 kids. They really were kids, no older than 16, and I pressed charges because I felt if they were committing this sort of assault they would surely commit worse crimes later.
One boy pled guilty to kicking me and was ordered community service. Another was too young to charge. A 15 year old girl was charged with sexual assault, a charge I found off the mark, but she had grabbed my privates and the police felt it was the only charge they could make. There was no charge for "swarming". The city appointed "public defender" tried to convince the judge the girl had only defended herself from being assaulted-- by me. Her mother was shocking in court, displaying bad behaviour and making me think the fault was in the parenting. The girl was convicted and given community service hours. I faced the final boy in court, and discovered his mother was a social worker, well-spoken, apologetic and expressed concern for me. I believed her son had hit me over the head with the brick, but it seems no one can be their own eye witness to being hit on the back of the head. The boy was acquitted.
I had pressed charges because I naively believed the justice system would help steer the kids onto a better course. I was frustrated beyond measure to learn that none of the kids would receive any sort of counselling or guidance of any kind. No rehabilitation program existed, beyond (I was told) picking up trash. I regretted having pressed charges.
To me, Sarah is wright, and she's wrong. Kids who swarm, causing harm and fear and painful disruption to people's lives, need much harsher punishment, not a week of community service. But they also need serious counselling, guidance and supervision on a long term basis. We need programs to steer all North End kids in the right direction before they lash out. Poverty and ethnicity are no indicators of criminal activity; to view the issue in that light discounts the vast majority of poor and minority people, who are wonderful people. In our own community, swarming has been a behavioural phenomenon within a subculture for decades now, and damages everyone's lives. It's time for the police, city and provincial governments to be proactive, not reactive.
I don't know what the answer is to this problem but I think that this will never be resolved until we stop skirting around the most obvious fact of these swarming. It is mainly BLACK YOUTHS that are committing these assaults and in fact it has been black youths that have been committing these swarmings for as long as I've been alive in Halifax, which is 33 years. Now lets get over the racist comments that this post is going to create. I am not saying that blacks are bad people but until we admit the fact that it is black youths head on we will never be able to properly tackle this issue.
PUNISHMENT is designed to make children PAY for their mistakes. DISCIPLINE helps children LEARN from their mistakes and make better choices in the future.
Amen. Sarah, thank you for taking the time and energy to articulate these thoughts and share them with us.
Ok.
It's time to meet these youth's calls for attention (from the public, the police, their caretakers, their communities, their peers) head on. We must look them straight in the eye, show them that we see them and demonstrate that we expect more. But most importantly, as Sarah put it so well, we need to hang around long enough to let them know that we see the good things they do, too. And we need to reward and acknowledge the good in these kids.
You are all right- these kids do get high off of being involved in these acts. They get a high, because they feel a sense of control and power that they get no where else. Unfortunately these actions are extremely hurtful to those on the other end, but can't you see that these actions are borne of pain and being hurt themselves? There is no one to hold them accountable and ask them where they were tonight when they get home.
Why don't we give them that high off of doing something good, for walking away? It starts with the smallest things. Step out of your comfort zone, look a kid in the eye, and see them, acknowledge them, and, if you are so bold, smile.
It is really easy to be angry after scary, sad events like these. Challenge yourself to see beyond these isolated cases and look at where they fit into the bigger picture. They are symptoms of a greater problem.
I don't remember who said it, but it is in these cases that I remember the quote: "peace begins with a smile." I refuse to turn to simplistic reasoning to explain how these groups of youth can end up hurting others in this way. I have faith that, despite their participation, they do know right from wrong and that, if that gut instinct that what they were doing was not ok was acknowledged, they would feel empowered to change their behaviour and potentially the behaviour of their peers, as well.
Require more of yourself. Require more of this city. And require more of its youth.
Just bleeding-heart nonsense is what this is. These hoodlums are no different from hoodlums anywhere else in the world -- they live and breathe to take advantage of others, to create fear, to steal and rob, and then to brag to others about their triumphs. They know the difference between right and wrong, and choose to not go down the right path. They do not understand reason or logic but they do understand the messages provided to them in hip-hop gangster music -- violence and intimidation. Those are the only tools that will work to curb their anti-social behavior. Beat them up, lock them away, and treat them like the rabid dogs they are. Once they are safely locked away and can do no harm to society at large, then try to teach them how to behave. Money will not solve this problem unless it is spent on investigation, force, and detention, not more bureaucracy, misdirected govt programs, and attempts to amuse these hoodlums to keep them from beating us up.
It may sound harsh, as am usually for the underdog, but these "punks" have no respect for themselves or anything, anyone around them. They find their power in numbers and intimidation. Although it's true that Halifax may not have a lot to offer to young people, there are lots of places that don't and these areas aren't seeing swarmings out of boredom. The reality is, these kids don't know rules, nor do they want to. Many probably come from crackhouse parents who could cae less what their kids are up to. It's all sad..I can't imagine many of the young people I know being followers to these kinds of acts. Unfortunetly these individuals get a kick out of beating people up, it's a thrill for them. Sick but true...so how to solve the problem? I don't live in Abu Dhabi but have family members who do. Can't imagine what i'd be feeling if they were victims of these swarmings. I get so angry when I hear about the swarmings and I don't know the victims...i wonder, where are the police? Why aren't they preventing these heinous acts? But the bigger question is, "How can anyone find enjoyment in beating the crap out of someone, whether they be male or female", sick puppies indeed.
Having been a first-hand victim of this sort of violence in the North End, I have been re-thinking this for years.
From an intellectual standpoint, yes, I can see that this sort of violence is systemic. I can understand, to the best of my WASPy ability, what the problems are in Halifax that make this cycle recur every couple of years.
It would be nice if the city were to actually address the problem. They seem to think it will cure itself and it usually does after a few people get thumped, 2x4'd or otherwise beaten. It goes away for another year or two.
From an emotional standpoint though, I'd like to make a few points.
I watched my partner drop to the ground, knocked out after a punch to the head.
I stayed with her in ER for several hours while she got her memory back.
I've lived with the irrational guilt of having been unable to do anything to prevent this.
I lived in the North End of Halifax happily for 20 years and felt no fear walking there until this event.
I wasn't unhappy to move away from that neighbourhood, even though I love it.
These kids know what they are doing, and they know what they are doing is wrong. This is why they do it.
Yes, I can understand that this sort of activity gives a sense of power to disenfranchised kids. But to say that they are not "other" from us is a bit naive, I think. Yes, in a global sense, we are all part of the same community, but these kids definitely see themselves as "other" from their victims and it is this sense of "otherness" that enables them to do what they do. And what they do is hurt people; very severely in some cases.
I could see no empathy or sympathy whatever in the faces of the kids that attacked us, none. And this is made possible because we are seen as being "other".
So yeah, we don't teach the kids to care and putting them in jail is not the solution. I don't believe in violence but something needs to be done. The city that created it needs to step up and do something to make some positive change in this situation.
I've lived in Halifax since 1982. This kind of thing didn't happen when I first moved here, to my recollection. It seems to me that it's only been a problem for about the last 10 to 15 years. So this would suggest to me that something has changed. It might be a valuable exercise to think about what. This might lead to a why? Maybe the gentrification of the North End would be a place to start? I don't know what the solution is.
But until it's found, I think a greater police presence on the streets of the North End is a good place to start. Beat cops. Yes, it's a dangerous job, but really spend the damn money to make your citizens safe, Halifax.
And good luck with the rest of it. It's not like violence between tribes hasn't been going on ever since we could pick up a club.
Sarah has made several good points here. It is unfortunate that incidents like the swarmings are what brings this need for change into the public view. Just because our youth don't pay taxes or vote doesn't mean we should stop paying attention to them.
These are nice thoughts, and I agree with all of her points. Fortunately for her, she doesn't have to articulate them through a gurgling spew of blood and teeth brought on by the swarmer scum. Mid and long term solutions such as these are needed, but in the short term someone needs to hold these cowards accountable. In the meantime I am walking with my keys in my hands - if I am going to eat curb they are going to lose an eye or two in the process.
why doesn't someone give this lady all the money they are wasting on the programs that are obviously not working?!?
Great job Sarah articulating this. We need people like you, with experience, sitting at the political table and our kitchen table.
I don't want to be too big of a bitch, here, but would it be possible to get a couple of paragraph breaks in that gigantic block of text. That way, I might actually read it.
All well and good but we live in a democracy and, right or wrong, the majority of people want youth justice to reflect something closer to corporal punishment. I agree that the solution starts at home, giving kids a nurturing environment in which to develop and mature. The seemingly insurmountable challenge is giving every child such a healthy home.
I commend you on your well written article. You bring up some very good points, especially in regards to Nova Scotia being well prepared for those "who fit within what we have decided are the norms of our society" and "doing little that works for those who dont". As a resident of Halifax's north end i can attest to the brutal truth of this reality.
Halifax is VERY prepared to sink millions of dollars into our "culture" (Alan Jackson? Black Eyed Peas? Weezer? WTF???) yet, as you point out seem to have ZERO game plan for the cities youth. Additionally....WHERE ARE ALL THE BEAT COPS?? In my short life ive lived in 5 cities, 4 of which have populations of 3 million plus. And i can attest to the fact that the presence of police in the north end is minimal at best. This is why 20 kids can walk down a street at night jumping and attacking the invading hipsters...all completly undetected. This same scene on Tower Rd or Young Av would be handled within minutes.
THIS IS CLASS WAR
Written with love and understanding... Thank you Sarah MacLaren for making me step back and rethink how I feel about this situation! It's so hard sometimes from becoming immediately angry and get my back up due to the frustration of why these things tend to happen in our community - and yet when do I step out of my own comfortable life to lend a hand and be the compassionate human being I strive to be... not very often. Time to make a change!
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