East London Youth: A Fight Against the Stereotype

So I can see why people have a certain generalization of the youth, and why they think that were going to snatch a handbag and run down the road but I haven’t finished yet – What’s the big deal with police stop and searches, ill be honest right now and ill say that the police stop me at least 3 times a week because I look suspicious, This is either because they think I’m going to do something or they might find something on me which I shouldn’t have. Its not like I’m going to carry a knife or a gun, the only thing I usually carry around with me is my bus pass, my keys and my cigarettes and a lighter. So basically the police see a youth and think they’d make a move into us and see what they can find.

I have never been arrested, although I have committed a crime before. Saying that, 80% of people probably have committed a crime once in there lifetime. In east London you regularly see somebody running down the road. The only crimes I have committed is shoplifting, never anything more than about 10 pounds worth. The police always come, but never really follow just take CCTV footage. I was once told that if you steal anything up to 17 pound the police won’t investigate it further. But anything over the police will patrol round and stop and search anybody they see that matches the description until they find what there looking for. The same goes with Petrol apart from 7 pounds is the max you may take before the police will come. Another thing I was told is that if you rob anything from a shop the owners are not allowed to pursue or touch you. Once you’re out the door they can’t follow you (they are then the ones disobeying the law).

Still I don’t see why everybody looks at me and thinks “Wrong-En” straight away, the thing that pisses me most off about stereotyping is that people look at varied ethnical groups differently all the time. Its like, seeing a black person walking down the street is different to a white person walking down the street – in my view it doesn’t matter if somebody is Black/White/Asian/Mixed race or even albino. It doesn’t bother me one bit. All I’m bothered about is wiping the label that the youth get from other generations away forever.

So I’m going to say this – Stop the stereotyping!