So Bluewater, that out-of-town mega-retail-outlet, has decided to ban the wearing of hoodies within its premises. As a cyclist living in Hackney, having read of at least 15 violent attacks on cyclists within 5 minutes’ walk of my house in the last year alone, I am one of those people who, on seeing a group of boys of a certain age, will automatically assume that their presence indicates trouble. And if they are wearing hooded tops, hiding their faces, increasing the sense of unknown, the indication is heightened, even more sinisiter.

Yesterday I cycled at 10.00am along the Canal towards Islington. A short distance from where I got on the tow path, and on a stretch that was completely deserted, I saw up ahead, cycling very slowly, two teenagers on bikes that were the wrong size for them (always an indication that they have been misappropriated – although one of them was on a bike that was way too big, the other on one slightly too small, for him. Why didn’t they just swap?). They stopped to allow me to pass, one of them flashing me a knowing grin as I went past, desperately trying to pick up speed as I went. I was concerned when about half a mile later I came to a barrier across the path, with a red sign saying ‘tow path closed’, and a large set of temporary stairs leading up into an estate. I started up the stairs, and they rounded the corner, now cycling much faster than they had been when I was cycling behind them.

Of course, I made it up the stairs, worked out where the diversion went, and zoomed off to safety. I have no doubt that the boys deliberately allowed me past, with the intention of ambushing me further down the canal. Attacks on the canal, especially on cyclists, are commonplace, and often quite brutal.

The point of that story is that I cannot say for certain whether the boys were wearing hoodies, but in my mental image of them, they certainly were. Although one of them might have had a Burberry cap. The cartoonish image of ‘generic yoof thug’ is so entrenched in my mind, that I forget that there was a time, in the late ninetees and early noughties (and just for the record, I hate that word, but no one has yet to come up with an alternative) when I owned several hooded tops myself.

With predictable promptness, and with moral standards flying high, our national and local press has jumped on the news to highlight the fact that the very fabric of society is being ripped apart by young thugs intent on operating outside of societal laws, norms, and mores.

Of course, it would be naive not to attach any blame to the perpetrators of youth crime, to the gangs like the 800 strong ‘London Fields Gang’ who are responsible for so many of the attacks round my way. But, without being too much of a bleeding heart liberal, I would like to propose that we look instead at rectifying the causes of youth violence and crime. The social exclusion, poverty and disillusionment. The education system, the moral torpitude bred by a government which chose to engage in an illegal and unethical war, the listlessness of the inner city. To stop blaming the youth for so much, to accept the failings of the modern world to look after them, to stop making them feel alienated, peripheral to society. Because as long as they feel like that, then the rules which we all look to for our security will mean nothing to them, and the only way of affirming their identity will be to flout them.

Now if you will just excuse me. I am going to phone up outlets of Gap, Next and Nike at Bluewater, to see if they stock hooded tops…

UPDATE:

Thanks to my friend who read this entry and suggested this alternative to my softly-softly approach. And, having thought about Blonde’s response in the comments, and remembered all the times I echoed her sentiments when I have felt threatened, or been the victim of the little brats – most often when I have had bikes nicked by them, I now wholeheartedly endorse the product below, and a vigilante approach to dealing with this problem!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 13th, 2005 at 3:08 pm and is filed under General, Topical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.