I spent Saturday morning giving a Glasgow journalist a tour of my boyhood neighbourhood Kirkton.
That’s where police vans were targeted on Bonfire Night just days after Halloween chaos erupted in the area in a repeat of last year’s events.
In Edinburgh on Sunday night, the Niddrie scheme saw assaults on the police, with fireworks and bricks launched at them, while in Glasgow there were also attacks and eight officers were injured.
Elsewhere, there were nine attacks on fire crews throughout Scotland.
‘Those in charge are clueless’
Street disorder and rioting is as old as the hills but as always it’s a minority who make the lives of the majority a misery with their nihilistic destruction of other people’s property and peace of mind.
In Scotland those in charge at Holyrood are clueless when it comes to tackling this sort of behaviour.
With their naïve liberal agenda, they’ve given a free pass to those who commit mayhem and who know they’re practically untouchable by the law.
The SNP MSP Siobhian Brown – minister for victims and community safety (stop laughing at the back of the class) – had her say on social media in the wake of the trouble.
She wrote: “This behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
I’m sure the majority of decent folk who live and work in Kirkton and Niddrie and similarly afflicted areas will sleep easier in their beds now she’s on the case.
Or on second thoughts maybe they’ll be more likely to concur with the views of Calum Steele, the recently retired general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation.
He replied: “NEWSFLASH. It will be tolerated as a hollowed out police, legal aid, court, and prison service mean that tolerating is precisely what government policy is driven toward (plus most will be under 25 and that opens up a whole new can of worms).”
Under this current SNP administration those under the age of 25 – and that covers most of those who’d have been creating mayhem in Kirkton and Niddrie – are being held to lesser standards of culpability than others who are older.
From rape cases to serious assaults and other crimes, those under that age – whose brains supposedly don’t reach full maturity until then – are subject to much less stringent sentencing when found guilty of crimes.
At the same time as disorder and violence was raging in the streets, it’s also been rampant on some bus services.
Not only have the SNP government given a free pass for some youngsters to commit crime without any serious repercussions, they’ve also given them free bus passes to do it.
Travel trouble
Kenny MacAskill MP, the former Scottish justice secretary, has seen enough after incidents of anti-social behaviour by youths which has led to buses on vital routes being cancelled in some parts of Scotland.
MacAskill wants the free travel passes suspended for those teens causing grief for innocent travellers and drivers alike.
And harking back to Calum Steele’s comments, one company boss who has had to cancel some services in the west coast claims the police don’t have the numbers to assist with the issue.
Maybe there’s not enough for disaffected kids to do; maybe it’s boredom rather than badness.
Noticeably, the Kirkton Community Centre where I roller skated as a teenager was locked shut on Saturday morning.
The violence and malevolence of small sections of communities can’t be allowed to instil fear in the minds of the good folk.
If that means tougher sentences for rioters involved in violent disturbances and withdrawing free bus passes for offenders so be it.
We can have law and order or anarchy – which does the Scottish government prefer?
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