Gimmicks, Asbos, and how to rid an estate of a drug dealer…

Published: 24 February, 2011

• SO, under Crimbos, having just five disgruntled people ganging up on a neighbour they don’t like, without a process in place to test burden of proof or possibility of rehabilitating offenders back into society, you can be landed with a criminal record.

Councillor Matt Sanders (Asbo ‘gimmick’ dumped as Crimbo becomes new order, February 17) may well be cavalier in rubbishing Asbos as a “Blair gimmick”, but back in 2006, with my neighbours, I stood in court in support of a case prepared by my police Safer Neighbourhoods team, and we pointed our finger right in the eyes of a drug dealer who for three years had terrorised my estate. The drug den was shut down and the dealer was never seen again. I would never have had that opportunity if it were not for the Asbo legislation.

In 2007 the Lib Dems in Camden found that, in fact, Asbos had a higher burden of proof than the Crimbos proposed by the Tories and now backed by Cllr Sanders’s own party in government. When it comes to Lib Dem policy, which way is the wind blowing today?

CLLR MERIC APAK
Labour, Kentish Town ward