Obviously if you have less cops on the job, let’s simplify the job.
ed: /s
The benches is an anti-homeless move, regardless of what they say. Always has been.
‘We’re committed to stamping out the ‘social’ in ‘anti-social’ behaviour’
Someone somewhere thought this was a good idea
Are benches communism too now? This country really is becoming a satire of itself.
They want us to all sit at home or in the office like good obedient robots.
The police should have zero say in how public spaces look or what furniture is used.
They exist to maintain the rule of law they are not there to rule through the law.
Community means community action and we can’t have people organising or the powers that be might be held accountable for their actions. Better to keep everyone frightened of the potential criminal nextdoor.
this thread already not looking like a place for reasoned discussion, but i have been visiting a few towns recently, and i have noticed that the sort of public areas that are clearly designed for social congregation with multiple benches etc, usually attract intimidating looking groups of youths and young men, while occasional single benches dotted around the pedestrian areas are mostly used by the elderly and shoppers. kind of sad, but designing areas that encourage youths with nothing to do to hang around aimlessly is clearly a bad idea, however well intentioned.
Because acting like annoying busybodies and bothering random people is easier than facing actual criminals and solving crimes.
Been robbed? Err, nothing we can do guvnor…
… oioi ‘ang on there, it looks like you may be being a bench without due care and attention. You’re under arrest, benchy boy
Umm, I think it’s thier job!
At least that’s the way our Gov’t interprets thier role..
We have had benches removed in Twickenham Green. : (
Without reading the article and taking a complete stab in the dark, pardon the pun, I suspect it’s to do with anti-social behaviour maybe? Remove the benches where the children congregate and they move to somewhere else? Better idea would be to give them somewhere to go…
Don’t the police have anything else to do such as not solving crimes, abusing their powers and protecting themselves from people with cameras filming them and holding them accountable?
Having playgrounds which are not overlooked by houses has the opposite effect.
All the playgrounds in my area which are not overlooked are regularly vandalised, full of litter, used by teenagers to drink and take drugs, and do not feel safe after dark.
You got a loicense to sit down? To cycle?!
U GOT A FOOKING LOICENSE TO BE OUT IN PUBLIC?!
_You’re nicked, mate._
> One example Curtis gives is cul-de-sacs. Most contemporary urban designers avoid building cul-de-sacs because they chop communities into dead ends, inhibiting mobility and stopping neighbours from meeting each other. Secured by Design, however, praises “cul-de-sacs that are short in length and not linked by footpaths” claiming that permeability generates crime such as burglary.
I can’t understand how they can push this with a straight face, it’s straight out of some kind of low budget sci fi distopia. What’s next? No more pubs? No gathering of more than 6 people at a time?
Because they are bad.
Gathering places …. freedom of assembly
Can’t have that
Some people meet on a bench to sell drugs. Police: ban benches. Dealers: fuck me, I’d better get a job!
This country sounds more and more like a dystopia. Removing park benches and paths to reduce crime. Maybe we should all just live in the pod.
> In a since deleted tweet, Ashford Police explained that the benches had provided “places to gather” and their removal would help “design out crime”.
*sigh*
Just do foot patrols you twits.
Open shelters for the homeless & keep the benches,or you could let homeless people sleep in then at night cos the council employees sleep in then all day
Hmm. Although it shouldn’t be the police implementing it, I can understand why they’re doing it. I lived in a rough area and the only people who used the benches were dealers/ gangs, when the weather was warm enough it was their spot. When you live amongst that you do become desperate for someone to do something…
Ahhh, so now you’re getting the Scottish treatment. Expect ‘no loitering’ signs to appear around your public parks, created to be loitered in.
Hope Boris’ next shite is a concrete bench.
“Meanwhile in Poole designs for a row of new houses that had been intended to overlook a park, in part so parents could keep an eye on their playing children, were rotated after the police claimed that homes overlooking a play area would encourage the “wrong kind of person” to move in. ”
What the actual fuck? Lets make everyone’s lives much worse and remove the ability for the neighborhood to self police just so that maybe a pervert won’t be able to look at kids in a park from their house?
I… god damn
Despite the article negativity about designing out crime, it is a real solution to some offences.
For example – group of kids repeatedly smash up a bus shelter. Group of 10 kids, lots of people hear it and call police but no oneknows who the offender/s are. Group gets stopped, you know one or more is the offender but Police can’t arrest them all.
Liaise with bus company and council, get glass changed to metal sheets and remove the bench.
Can’t sit there, no longer a draw to the area.
Drug users injecting in a passage way, lots of used needles left behind. CCTV installed but users don’t care, they are using not dealing. Police attend and drugs already in the system, nothing to arrest for. Now probably requires ambulance because duty of care.
Change bulbs in the pass to low light blue bulbs, prevents users finding veins and moves them from the area.
Neither of these solve the problem but reduces in that area.
England needs a right to roam like Scotland has.
Unfortunately England is ruled by aristocrats and the Royal family so it is unlikely to pass.
It sounds bad when written this way but many people have asked for better streetlighting to reduce crime over the years. I suspect in the case of the passcode gate around sheltered housing was proposed to handle door to door scammers which sounds pretty reasonable, they just need to add a physical token scanner instead of just the keypad.
Whilst removing benches sounds silly in some cases it will decrease anti-social behaviour.
30 comments
Clear-fire zones?
Obviously if you have less cops on the job, let’s simplify the job.
ed: /s
The benches is an anti-homeless move, regardless of what they say. Always has been.
‘We’re committed to stamping out the ‘social’ in ‘anti-social’ behaviour’
Someone somewhere thought this was a good idea
Are benches communism too now? This country really is becoming a satire of itself.
They want us to all sit at home or in the office like good obedient robots.
The police should have zero say in how public spaces look or what furniture is used.
They exist to maintain the rule of law they are not there to rule through the law.
Community means community action and we can’t have people organising or the powers that be might be held accountable for their actions. Better to keep everyone frightened of the potential criminal nextdoor.
this thread already not looking like a place for reasoned discussion, but i have been visiting a few towns recently, and i have noticed that the sort of public areas that are clearly designed for social congregation with multiple benches etc, usually attract intimidating looking groups of youths and young men, while occasional single benches dotted around the pedestrian areas are mostly used by the elderly and shoppers. kind of sad, but designing areas that encourage youths with nothing to do to hang around aimlessly is clearly a bad idea, however well intentioned.
Because acting like annoying busybodies and bothering random people is easier than facing actual criminals and solving crimes.
Been robbed? Err, nothing we can do guvnor…
… oioi ‘ang on there, it looks like you may be being a bench without due care and attention. You’re under arrest, benchy boy
Umm, I think it’s thier job!
At least that’s the way our Gov’t interprets thier role..
We have had benches removed in Twickenham Green. : (
Without reading the article and taking a complete stab in the dark, pardon the pun, I suspect it’s to do with anti-social behaviour maybe? Remove the benches where the children congregate and they move to somewhere else? Better idea would be to give them somewhere to go…
Don’t the police have anything else to do such as not solving crimes, abusing their powers and protecting themselves from people with cameras filming them and holding them accountable?
Having playgrounds which are not overlooked by houses has the opposite effect.
All the playgrounds in my area which are not overlooked are regularly vandalised, full of litter, used by teenagers to drink and take drugs, and do not feel safe after dark.
You got a loicense to sit down? To cycle?!
U GOT A FOOKING LOICENSE TO BE OUT IN PUBLIC?!
_You’re nicked, mate._
> One example Curtis gives is cul-de-sacs. Most contemporary urban designers avoid building cul-de-sacs because they chop communities into dead ends, inhibiting mobility and stopping neighbours from meeting each other. Secured by Design, however, praises “cul-de-sacs that are short in length and not linked by footpaths” claiming that permeability generates crime such as burglary.
I can’t understand how they can push this with a straight face, it’s straight out of some kind of low budget sci fi distopia. What’s next? No more pubs? No gathering of more than 6 people at a time?
Because they are bad.
Gathering places …. freedom of assembly
Can’t have that
Some people meet on a bench to sell drugs. Police: ban benches. Dealers: fuck me, I’d better get a job!
This country sounds more and more like a dystopia. Removing park benches and paths to reduce crime. Maybe we should all just live in the pod.
> In a since deleted tweet, Ashford Police explained that the benches had provided “places to gather” and their removal would help “design out crime”.
*sigh*
Just do foot patrols you twits.
Open shelters for the homeless & keep the benches,or you could let homeless people sleep in then at night cos the council employees sleep in then all day
Hmm. Although it shouldn’t be the police implementing it, I can understand why they’re doing it. I lived in a rough area and the only people who used the benches were dealers/ gangs, when the weather was warm enough it was their spot. When you live amongst that you do become desperate for someone to do something…
Ahhh, so now you’re getting the Scottish treatment. Expect ‘no loitering’ signs to appear around your public parks, created to be loitered in.
Hope Boris’ next shite is a concrete bench.
“Meanwhile in Poole designs for a row of new houses that had been intended to overlook a park, in part so parents could keep an eye on their playing children, were rotated after the police claimed that homes overlooking a play area would encourage the “wrong kind of person” to move in. ”
What the actual fuck? Lets make everyone’s lives much worse and remove the ability for the neighborhood to self police just so that maybe a pervert won’t be able to look at kids in a park from their house?
I… god damn
Despite the article negativity about designing out crime, it is a real solution to some offences.
For example – group of kids repeatedly smash up a bus shelter. Group of 10 kids, lots of people hear it and call police but no oneknows who the offender/s are. Group gets stopped, you know one or more is the offender but Police can’t arrest them all.
Liaise with bus company and council, get glass changed to metal sheets and remove the bench.
Can’t sit there, no longer a draw to the area.
Drug users injecting in a passage way, lots of used needles left behind. CCTV installed but users don’t care, they are using not dealing. Police attend and drugs already in the system, nothing to arrest for. Now probably requires ambulance because duty of care.
Change bulbs in the pass to low light blue bulbs, prevents users finding veins and moves them from the area.
Neither of these solve the problem but reduces in that area.
England needs a right to roam like Scotland has.
Unfortunately England is ruled by aristocrats and the Royal family so it is unlikely to pass.
It sounds bad when written this way but many people have asked for better streetlighting to reduce crime over the years. I suspect in the case of the passcode gate around sheltered housing was proposed to handle door to door scammers which sounds pretty reasonable, they just need to add a physical token scanner instead of just the keypad.
Whilst removing benches sounds silly in some cases it will decrease anti-social behaviour.
That policy has a name: hostile architecture ( or defensive architecture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_architecture