Hoodies and caps...

An article in the news last week that caught my eye was the revelation that Bluewater shopping centre in Kent has decided to ban ‘hoodies’ and baseball caps in a bid to tackle antisocial behaviour in the centre…

I must admit that this decision took me somewhat by surprise as I would never have described Bluewater as anywhere I have ever felt uncomfortable or intimidated.

If we assume that things have got that bad in Bluewater that the centre is now overrun with baseball cap wearing thugs and thugettes, perhaps the banning of items of clothing is not the best way to tackle the problem… In fact I would go as far as to say that whoever thought it was appears to have absolutely no idea how the mind of a teenager works…

If you tell a teenager not to do something, in most cases they will go out and do it just to be awkward. It’s a bit like the BBC banning a record is the surest way to ensure that they won’t be playing the number one record on Sunday…

But miracles do happen (apparently) and we may yet see the teenagers leaving the offending articles of clothing at home when they pop down the centre to meet their mates.

Obviously this won’t stop the gangs of teenagers congregating in the centre, intimidating all the old folks, but at least they won’t be wearing intimidating clothing... much!

To me, this policy is nothing more than someone trying to find a simple (and cheap) answer to a very complex problem! And as is always the case, the simple solution invariably causes more problems whilst failing to solve the problem it was initially bought in to tackle.

Banning hoodies and baseball caps will do nothing to deter the gangs of teenage kids congregating at Bluewater but it will cause a lot of aggravation to otherwise decent members of the public!

For example, I wear a baseball cap on a sunny day… to keep the sun out of my eyes! I would not describe myself as a thug but apparently I am to be viewed the same if I wear my cap to Bluewater. Similarly my son also wears a baseball cap when it’s sunny but I’m pretty damn sure that at 6 months old he doesn’t intimidate anyone either!

And what about those shops selling the offending items in the shopping centre itself… are they enticing us to break the rules? Or is the sale of baseball caps and hoodies banned too?

Finally, and possibly more seriously, what sort of message does this sort of policy actually send to the youth’s it is really aimed at?

You could argue that it says that ‘antisocial behaviour’ will not be tolerated in the shopping centre at all. Equally you could say this policy effectively tells everyone that discrimination is acceptable in this day and age.

After all, some thugs where baseball caps and hoodies, therefore it is acceptable to assume that everyone wearing a baseball cap or hoodie is a thug. Similarly some West Indians (or any other minority group for that matter) commit some fairly nasty crimes. Surely applying the same logic it is now acceptable to assume that everyone with a darker complexion is nothing more than a petty criminal?

What I did find surprising however was the government came wading into the argument too (apparently without thinking it through either). That’s it; hoodies and baseball caps will soon be banned on the streets of Britain too and hailed as the definitive answer to all of societies ills!!!

Another example of the nanny state in action!

Now where did I put my Frankie Goes to Hollywood CD?