The Freedom to Dress Like Eminem
David Cameron, as reported earlier, is the oh-so-sensitive leader of Britain's Conservative Party. This week, he's going to stand up for a bedrock principle of classical liberalism: the right to wear black hoodies.
In a ground-breaking speech calling for more 'love' to be shown to adolescents, the Tory leader will attack bans on hooded tops—a symbol of urban menace to many adults—that were imposed by a shopping centre last year, arguing that shrouding their faces is a response to children's own fear of crime against them, not a crime in itself.
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Cameron will tell a conference on social justice tomorrow that politicians should be discussing causes of crime not its symptoms. He will say: 'The hoodie is a response to a problem, not a problem in itself. We—the people in suits—often see hoodies as aggressive, the uniform of a rebel army of young gangsters.
Yes, it sounds incredibly stupid. Yes, expressed like this, it is incredibly stupid. We'll know if Cameron is serious about discussing the "causes of crime" if he starts discussing the fate of kids arrested, imprisoned and hardened for committing consensual crimes.