A teenager who daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols after being radicalised online is facing jail. The 17-year-old from south Wales, who cannot legally be named due to his age, is charged with five terror offences.
A teenager who daubed a Windrush mural with Nazi symbols after being radicalised online is facing jail. The 17-year-old from south Wales, who cannot legally be named due to his age, is charged with five terror offences.
Wow, I mean what he did was obviously wrong and should be stamped out, but putting a kid in prison for more than a year for downloading some dodgy manuals online and spraying some shit racist grafitti seems a bit over the top.
It’s not just “shit racist graffiti” though, is it (well, it is)—he defaced a mural celebrating Windrush almost the moment it went up. That’s racially intimidating and really fucking unpleasant.
I’m a little torn, frankly.
If all the information is accurate, this kid has a personality disorder and autism – It’s likely they need psychological intervention rather than a jail cell. That aside, this kind of targeted attack isn’t some ‘dumb’ accident. There needs to be repercussions for something like this. Obviously what exactly those repercussions are, are another debate entirely.
I mean, I’m autistic and I’ve been diagnosed with several personality disorders, plus I have ADHD which gives me the most astoundingly poor impulse control, and I’ve still never gone around spraypainting swastikas on things.
Based on my own experience, though, I’d say we need people with specialist experience deradicalising autistic people. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of custodial sentences full stop, but if anyone’s getting them, I’d say a kid like this is a good candidate (though he may need protection once he’s in there) and we shouldn’t be exempt from the consequences of our shit.
We know what we’re doing, we know the consequences, and the fact that we’re convinced we’re right doesn’t make us different from… well, anyone very much.
I can’t claim to understand as well as you, though I can say that a family member of mine has Asperger’s Syndrome, so I’ve been close and personal to the issue for essentially my entire life. Though that’s all to say very little, given how widely different each and every person with Asperger’s is.
It’s a tough call for me as I absolutely believe there should be some level of repercussion but honestly, as you mention, the efficacy of custodial sentences for crimes of this nature are very much up for debate.
All this aside, I appreciate your perspective on this thanks.
It is, it’s really bad. I just don’t see how locking up a child for doing something that didn’t directly harm anyone really lines up. He intimidated people in a disgusting way, but what he did seems more like outrageous acts of a rebellious child than malicious hateful acts of a racist and terrorist. Like, I could see him going down that route as he grows up, but that doesn’t mean he’s there yet.
The purpose of the judicial system should be to prevent further harm to society and reform people, not merely punish them by locking them up, smacking them down, and all but ensuring they’re on a route to becoming the terrible person you accuse them of being. Is locking him up really going to push him away from neo-Nazi ideology?
Intimidating people is real harm, though. Racism is harm. Not knowing which of your neighbours is a fucking Nazi and what they might do next is a harm.
It’s all very well to say “ooh it’s just a bit of spraypaint and nobody got hurt” until you’re the one wondering if it’s going to be a brick through your window next or a boot to your spine. The effect of shit like this is to make people live in fear.
It is harm. However, it is a different level of harm.
Ultimately I think he’s just a kid stuck in Wales who’s lurked the internet too much, and putting him in prison potentially with Nazis is not going to deter him from his budding Nazi ideology. Instead, it would be better to direct him away from that and encourage him to develop his computer skills for good.
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