Posted on 10/15/2008 3:23:13 PM PDT by knighthawk
THE HAGUE, 16/10/08 - Labour (PvdA) continues to waver between tough and soft policies for dealing with young Moroccan troublemakers. This time, PvdA MP Hans Spekman has chosen a rigorous approach. "You have to humiliate them".
In many cities, young Moroccans are responsible for criminal activities and media agree the taboo on discussing the problem has been broken. But among the major parties, the PvdA in particular seems to have no idea what tone it should set on this sensitive subject. Tough statements are invariably followed by soothing words that seem to deny the problems again, but these are then succeeded again by yet more dissident views. Or, as a columnist in weekly magazine Elsevier described it, the PvdA is alternating between hot and cold baths.
This time, the harsh words are predominant again. "Moroccans who cannot behave must be humiliated, in view of their own community," PvdA MP Hans Spekman declared in an interview with weekly magazine Vrij Nederland. "If you merely hand out a warning or a fine, they will just laugh in your face. And a prison sentence only gives them more status in their group. You must take steps to ensure that they lose status. This is the only thing that works," Spekman argued.
Spekman is behind Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders in favouring much tougher treatment of young Moroccan troublemakers, for example by making them carry out community service sentences in public in clearly distuinguishble prison uniforms. "Wilders is right there. You need to humiliate them. But the difference between me and Wilders, and between the PvdA and the PVV, is that the PVV sets entire groups against each other. Because of Wilders, all Moroccans feel rejected, not just the troublemakers, while it should be a top priority for us not to lose the sound ones."
The PvdA MP also attacked Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar, a party colleague. He claimed she has no understanding of problem neighbourhoods. "I have offered to discuss the neighbourhood approach several times, but nothing has happened. That's the way it works here in The Hague. If something is not officially part of your portfolio, your expertise is not used."
Meanwhile, Mayor Wim Cornelis of Gouda (PvdA) is asking central government for 10 million euros to solve the problems in the Oosterwei district in the coming four years. According to De Telegraaf newspaper, residents of Gouda are astonished. "Ten million euros to call 60 Moroccan children that have gone amok to order, that is over 165,000 euros per person," the newspaper quoted a reader as saying. "Better to spend the money on people in old folks homes," snorted another.
Bus drivers went on strike in September in the Oosterwei district in protest against mainly Moroccan youngsters aged 9 to 15 robbing them. At the time, Cornelis said there was not much going on. Now he is asking for 10 million euros to tackle the nuisance. What he wants to spend the money on is not yet clear.
The PvdA mayor raises a big outcry from De Telegraaf readers, as does Gouda's regional police chief Stikvoort. "Many readers are calling on the state to sack the two instead of giving them money," according to the Netherlands' biggest newspaper. "Our mayor can surely no longer be taken seriously?," according to one resident. "A little while ago, Cornelis was still saying that nothing was going on, and now he suddenly wants millions," explained another.
The influential paper reports that the solution does not according to its readers lie in subsidies. "No extra government money, just tougher tackling, is a frequently heard reaction," the editors stated.
Ping
Humiliation at the end of a rope seems to have worked in the US.
We have a Sheriff (Arpaio) in Arizona who makes his prisoners wear pink underwear and jumpsuits. He has a low recidivism rate.
Give a few buildings as club houses and hire the Hells Angles or Rock Machine to guide these young people.( Guide them away from walking the rest of their lives with really bad limps and much surgical metal pins, screws, plates...)
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