Camden police have been issued with new powers to prevent drug traffickers operating in the area, but the under 16’s appear to be the target for this Draconian Anti-Social Behaviour Act legislation and not addicts or dealers.

After having shut down every youth club in and around Camden Town, giving teenagers no alternative but to congregate at suitable street corners, the police have now issued them with a curfew. Penalties for disobedience include a £5,000 fine, or six months in jail!

These powers which enable police, over a far-reaching area, to disperse and expel persons they ‘suspect’ of being a ‘nuisance’ is a breach of basic civil rights. It is not a crime to be on the street after 9pm as an unsupervised teenager and it is not illegal to gather in a group, unless martial law has been surreptitiously imposed?

Inevitably, enforcing this ‘exclusion-zone’ which incorporates Hampstead Heath, will result in harassment of the innocent, along with the guilty. Contrary to the hype, not all youngsters are anti-social or potential criminals, but they are being treated as such.

However, these intolerant measures, piloted on teenagers, are merely a precursor to producing a mandatory I.D. card, to ‘entitle’ citizens to be in a particular zone at any given time. Knowing Blunkett, non-compliance will be punishable by death.