A hipster’s take on crime straight from the murder capital

Good, honest, salt of the earth, working class, socially conservative people are being menaced by quad bikes and weed smoke, if you believe the champions of the soft-left, Paul Mason and Keir Starmer. If you think this sentence is ridiculous then you're a hipster metropolitan liberal, who lives in a cosy bubble of craft beer and Korean barbeque and has no connection to the plight of the honest man.

Being taken seriously on the issue of crime (which apparently involves saying silly things) is part of Labour leader Starmer’s march on the middle-aged homeowners in small towns. These are the people who voted for Brexit and the Tories in 2019. Doubling down on crime makes sense as a political strategy, as voters who want a tough stance on crime tend to vote Tory and flipping the perception in (some) voter's minds that Labour would be better at reducing crime could help the party win some marginal constituencies.

I’m not a fan of this tactic. But there is truth in the fact that the Tories’ austerity program has reduced police numbers and made it harder for them to manage their workload. Also, it’s worth noting that increasing the number of police was a policy in Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 and 2019 Labour manifestos. The perception that crime has increased plays into the narrative outlined by both Corbyn and Starmer, that many years of Tory rule has led the nation into a state of decline and left the public realm devastated.

The tough decisions to tackle the problems with the police

Labour parking their tanks on the Torys’ lawn on the issue of crime makes me uneasy for several reasons. The first is that there are a lot of problems with our current police services, which go beyond their lack of funding. The Metropolitan Police have been found to be rampant with misogyny, homophobia and racism. Remember that a Met police officer was convicted of raping and murdering a woman recently, and his pattern of concerning behaviour prior to the murder was overlooked.

There are clearly institutional problems with the police in this country - not just the Met - and I want the largest party of the left to be getting stuck into tackling these problems; from sexual harassment, to the overuse of stop and search in ethnic minority communities, to spying on legitimate political organisations. Labour should be proposing that when in government they will make the tough political decisions to fix the problems with the police. I don’t want the party to be uncritically holding up the police as a solution to a range of social problems, when the police are the cause of some social problems.

The second area of concern is that more funding for the police will make existing problems larger. If new police officers are joining sexist and racist police forces then they’ll just be more people in a bad system, which means more people will be harassed or unfairly arrested or unfairly spied on. This means that reform of the police, not more money for the police, should be the priority of the Labour Party.

Yet again it’s socially conservative Boomers

The other thing that concerns me about this focus on crime is it once again shows whose opinion Labour is interested in; i.e., socially conservative Boomers, who voted for Brexit and feel threatened by kids hanging out in their local park. Great, let’s hire more police and sort that out. That is definitely the most important issue affecting communities across the country.

Do you live in a city and are concerned about police targeting racial minorities? Well then, get back to your craft beer you hipster. Can’t you see you live in a bubble and are completely disconnected from the views of ordinary, good, honest people?

Are you concerned that the reason why kids are hanging out in the park is because austerity has meant all the youth programmes have closed? Sorry, there’ll be no money for youth programs as Labour has to maintain a balanced budget because Steve in Nuneaton is worried about Labour turning on the spending taps and he really really really doesn’t want to pay more taxes (although he is very into more money for police and the army).

Tainted by association

Socialists, or anyone  concerned about uncritically expanding the reach of the police, are dismissed as being wishy-washy, bleeding heart, hipsters. We’re told that we’re out of touch because we live in a bubble called “London” or “Bristol” where people think and act differently to good, honest, salt of the earth types. The people who Labour want to win the votes of. The people Labour will listen to.

If Labour were to consider our views, then they would be tainted by association with such out of touch weirdos and the proper, decent, hard-working, everyday British families with their  semi-detached house in a small town and two cars would all vote Tory just so that London can get a kicking, even if the Tories’ main policy was to sacrifice all first born children in a ritual to resurrect Margaret Thatcher.

I admit that London is a bubble where people act in a certain way, but so is everywhere. Remember, there is a town where they roll cheese down a hill. Having a liking for pulled pork, craft beer, independent cinemas and restaurants you have to queue to get into isn’t that strange.

The dual nature of London

There is a strange dual nature to London. London is apparently insulated from all the harshness in the world that makes Boomers in small towns hate the young, immigrants, trans people and anyone without a double fronted house. The harsh realities of life outside the prosperous cities is always held up as an excuse for the reactionary views of people in towns, and city dwellers are told it’s wrong to lecture these people on not being bigots because they don’t have it as easy as people from places where there are more than two jobs in the museum sector.

We are told that the views of people in towns on crime, immigration or trans-rights cannot be challenged and are so deeply ingrained that Labour must pander to them to be elected. London is a strange place where people do odd things like not being racist or transphobic. We have that luxury because we live in a lovely comfortable bubble. However, London is also where a lot of the crime takes place.

I have lived in East London for nearly 15 years, and more than half a dozen murders have taken place on the streets I have lived on. Despite living in what could be considered a crime hot spot - a 15-year-old was stabbed to death outside my local gym the other month - I don’t want to see loads more funding for the police. I want to see Labour tackling the problems of misogyny and racism in the police force.

The people whose opinions matter

Apparently, that’s a hipster opinion and not to be considered by politicians. Also, before you ask, yes, I have been a victim of crime and, yes, I called the police when I was (not that it made any difference). I’m not saying no police at all. I’m saying tackle the problems of institutional racism and misogyny in the police. That should be clear from the above.

It’s strange that Londoners, Bristolians, Brummies, Mancunians, Nottinghamites, etc are considered too soft to have a valid opinion on crime (especially if you’re young) because, generally, we don’t want loads more police. What we need to do is listen to someone who doesn’t live in a hipster bubble. Someone from a small town where kids smoking weed and riding on quad bikes is a serious problem. These people really know what it’s like to live surrounded by crime. No, we don't want the opinion of people who live in the murder capital and/or are fans of The Murder Capital.

I would like someone to explain to me how I can both be living in a softy bubble and in a gritty urban area? Or is it that my opinion on crime, or any other issue, isn’t going to be taken seriously by Labour unless it chimes with what Daily Mail reading Boomers think? After all, they’re the people whose opinions matter.