The police chief instructs officers to use their weapons, while the Justice Minister wants cameras installed in squares and other crowded areas as measures to tackle youth delinquency. Both overlook the fact that crime, especially youth crime, doesn’t appear out of thin air. These issues are rooted in social conditions that cannot be solved through authoritarian methods.
If cameras are installed in Square A and Park B where young people gather and cause disturbances, they will simply relocate to Square X, some vacant lot, or even a rooftop, playing hide-and-seek with the police. They will always find locations that are not—yet—under surveillance to cause trouble. Even if all of Cyprus were placed under surveillance, crime would not disappear unless we address (as much as possible) the underlying causes that foster it.
Concerns about violations of personal freedoms have been largely overcome, and most of us are no longer bothered since we’ve accepted that we’re under constant surveillance: where we go, whom we associate with, what our interests are, what we buy, what we eat, what we believe, how we vote…
Therefore, the remaining question is how effective cameras actually are in tackling youth delinquency. Even where images are recorded, when have these images helped identify perpetrators? And more importantly, when have they acted as a deterrent? In cases such as disturbances outside stadiums following football matches, or the racist incidents in Chloraka and Limassol, how were the recorded images utilised?
Another measure proposed by the Justice Minister is to record the conduct of students who commit serious offences on their school-leaving certificates, preventing them from being accepted into universities. The minister believes this will make teenage students think twice or three times. It’s right that we shouldn’t all be judged as excellent and well-behaved regardless of our actual merit, both as adults and minors.
However, this measure won’t help either. The teenager who goes to the square to join others and, as a mob, begins to attack passers-by and delivery drivers, destroy property, or goes to the stadium to fight with supporters of another team, certainly doesn’t have university on their mind. The goal should be to discourage them from becoming part of a mob rather than punishing them afterwards with a conviction that will determine their life and perhaps push them to the margins and into even more extreme actions.
In other words, authoritarianism is not the solution.