YOUTH violence has been on the rise for some time now, but apart from occasional expressions of concern by our wise politicians the problem is ignored. In the last week alone there were three incidents.
Last Sunday Limassol youths attacked policemen both before and after a football match, using flare guns, sling-shots and rocks. Several officers were injured in the fracas. On Wednesday students went on the rampage at the Vergina Lyceum in Larnaca during school-time, attacking Palestinian fellow students who had supposedly been provoking them. On the same day, at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia, Pontians reportedly beat up a couple of Greek Cypriot students over a row about a bench. Two of the Pontians were taken in for questioning by police on Thursday, after the incident was reported.
Violence at football matches has become a regular occurrence, but there have been other incidents in the last year. There was the case of youths randomly attacking people who looked foreign, brawls between teenagers from different schools, fights among football fans, vandalism at school buildings in the night and so forth. The surge in youth violence is a relatively recent development – last eight to 10 years – which may explain why our society seems at a loss about how to handle it.
Cyprus had always been a peaceful and safe country, described as the perfect place to bring up children. There may have been verbal rows and shouting in the streets, but acts of physical violence of the type we are witnessing nowadays were very rare. Violence at football matches was much less frequent and on a smaller scale. What factors have made our youth so aggressive and violent? Is it violence on television, consumerism and individualism, the break-up of the nuclear family and the erosion of traditional values, the culture of instant gratification and falling educational standards, the recession or the influx of immigrants?
It is very difficult to say with any certainty what the causes are. This is a job best left to sociologists, social psychologists and researchers but even they are unlikely to agree on the causes. What we can do as a society is to take a zero-tolerance stance on violence, wherever it is manifested, to send youth a clear message that it is not acceptable. The liberal approach involving flexible moral boundaries and over-concern with the causes of anti-social behaviour have not only failed, but also sent out the wrong signals. They have been interpreted by youth as tolerance of violence and aggression.
We have reached the stage at which youths at football matches have no fear of, let alone respect for, policemen trying to maintain law and order. On Sunday in Limassol a mob of some 500 youths just charged through police lines, injuring officers in the process. A few weeks ago, the leader of the police union, rather foolishly, said his members did not want to police matches because their personal safety was at risk, publicly admitting, indirectly that the hooligans had won. In fairness, the police have not been allowed to do their job. When in the past they have resorted to some force to restore law and order they have been pilloried by the media and the politicians for using excessive force. Now they do not use any force and the hooligans are left to run wild. A similar situation prevails at public schools, which have become so liberal that it is almost impossible to discipline misbehaving and disruptive students. The result is that violence goes unpunished, bullying is rampant and the education of all children suffers as a result. There is no real discipline, because it is considered anti-educational, but our modern methods simply encourage anti-social behaviour, lack of respect for authority and a general refusal by youth to take responsibility for their actions.
Punitive measures need to be taken against violence irrespective of whether it takes place at schools, football grounds or on our streets. Politicians, journalists and officials should stop offering extenuating circumstances for unruly and violent behaviour, which is viewed by the perpetrators as indirect justification for their actions. Society – political parties, media, government, sports clubs, the judiciary, schools – should speak in one voice against all types of violence and ensure they do not go unpunished.
The modern liberal approach to anti-social and violent behaviour has emphatically proved a failure, which is why it is an imperative to revert to the old school method of setting clearly defined moral boundaries.
