Undoubtedly, one form of disorderly conduct that the Cayon community expresses concern over is classed as “young people doing nothing”. The bare presence of some young people within the Cayon community is construed as threatening or dangerous. Perhaps some reflection of the extent to which the fear of youth crime has become endemic in the said community needs to be highlighted.
One member of the Cayon community suggested that for some of the young people, a lot of their spare time takes place hanging about on the streets “…especially Upper Cayon, and the main activity that the youths take part in is ‘doing nothing’, which means shooting one another or breaking the law”.
Within our own lives, leisure revolves around doing concrete actions; we must realize that for these boys action has to be understood in entirely different ways.
Another member of the Cayon community suggested that it is the streets that provide the arena for legal or illegal activities for some youngsters, and it is there that the vast majority of shooting, selling drugs, vandalism, stealing and fighting take place.
I believe youth disorder or rule breaking in any from takes place within a public arena, namely on public streets. Paul Corrigan’s research into this topic revealed that once on the street the young people engage in a series of activities which they labeled as ‘doing nothing’ and whilst ‘doing nothing’ some of them would have ‘weird ideas’, which would sometimes get them into trouble. Getting into trouble whilst ‘hanging out’ or ‘doing nothing’ seems inevitable.
Historically, the police are there to keep the streets safe and for some youngsters the street is their arena in which they can ‘do nothing’, thus the two discrete groups are bound to interact.
For many young people, the streets are one of the few places that are free from social control and allow them the greatest amount of freedom, despite being aware of the police ideology.
This ‘hanging out’ and ‘doing nothing’ is precisely the activity that is disliked by the police which always ends up in law breaking. Our Commissioner believes in keeping the streets of the Federation safe and the last time I checked Cayon is a part of the this Federation.
So, to the youths, namely, the Upper Cayon Bloods (UCB) and their affiliates, the Spooner’s Top Shotter’s Crew (STC) and the Lower Cayon Gang who are ‘doing nothing’, our advice to you is start doing sometime positive such as getting a job, join the PEP, or go back to school. Once you break the laws of this Federation the Police will find you and you will be dealt with accordingly.
