Police, schools should not stereotype youth

On National Heroes Day, I witnessed three men around 18 to 20 years appearing to be having a social chat with nothing seeming untoward when a police cruiser drove by and stopped.

Two police slowly disembarked from the vehicle and commenced to search the young men whom passively allowed them to do so as if this was an every-day occurrence.

From my vantage point it looked as if nothing was found on their person, however, the police returned to their cars and pulled out ticket books.

At that point I drove away, as I could not bear to stay around to find out what was going to happen next.

I later heard the men were arrested. My thoughts were yes, whilst I want to see police presence and law enforcement, what I witnessed had a strange resemblance to apartheid, harassment and something sinister; equating to injustice and stereotyped antics. 

That same day another incident came to my attention, that of another young man being arrested stemming from a routine police check for an outstanding warrant, despite the protests of the young man that the fine had been paid months ago. 

After many hours in the cell, it came to light that the ticket had been paid, evidenced by a receipt being produced.

Is it that we now must carry on our person forever and a day the receipts from paid traffic offences because of the all too frequent administrative glitches?

With all the police checking and arresting, why is our crime rate increasing?”

Could it be that we are going after the wrong profiles?

ZBM news on Tuesday evening conducted an interview with young men on what to them were the most pressing issues of the day. All men spoke on wanting to get jobs but how difficult it was as they were already stereotyped.

One spoke about the importance of an education but how quickly they are suspended or expelled from school. He spoke on the lack of supportive parents.

I know from recent experiences that the schools in Bermuda love to suspend and expel at the drop of a hat.

They are quick to be punitive to even the honour roll student, so Lord help the challenged student.

Their pattern reminds me of the words of Ron Miller: “To control and sort young people for the sake of institutional efficiency is to crush the human spirit”.

Most of the school officials seemed to dwell on the negative whilst they continue to make it appear that they don’t, suffering from the sucking and blowing syndrome and sending confusing messages.

The young people ask: “Are you for me or are you not?” 

Many of our students, as one of the interviewed young men stated, are facing insurmountable challenges. Hence they need nurturing and understanding before disgust and punishment. 

A saying attributed to Muhammad relates: “A father gives his child nothing better than a good education.”

Education is not to be taken lightly and no one has the right to deny a child an education because they were late three times in a row, or had a spat, or something else equally as simple. We all know that “the man who can make hard things easy is the educator” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

An African proverb states that the ruin of its people begins in the homes.

Parents, children have rights over you.

We talk of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day when we honour our parents, but there are a lot of dishonourable parents and their wrong doings have produced broken, hurt and damaged children that society has to figure out what to do with. And throwing them in jail seems to be the only alternative. The following hadith sums up some of the rights of children: “One day a man came to Umar ibn al-Khattab whom was a close companion of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to complain of a disobedient son.

“When Umar questioned the son on his disobedience the son responded by saying: ‘O Commander of the faithful: Are there no rights for a boy against his father?’

“Umar said ‘Yes’. Then the boy said ‘What are these rights?’ Umar said, ‘A father must choose a good mother for him, to give him a good name and to teach him the Quran’.

“Then the boy said: ‘O Commander of the faithful; my father has not accomplished any of these rights.

‘As for my mother, she is not a good woman; as for my name, he has named me Jual (beetle); and he has not taught me even one letter from the Qur’an’.

“Then Umar turned round to the man and said ‘You came to me complaining disobedience on the part of your son, whereas you have not given him his rights.

“So you have made mistakes against him before he has made mistakes against you.”