A world turned upside-down

There is something wrong with our society when a senior policeman pleads a classic liberal line in social tolerance while labour politicians demand thoughtless social repression. The Scotsman reports:

"ONE of Scotland's most senior police officers has hit back at ministers over the use of new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour, insisting they are not a panacea in fighting youth crime.
Dumfries and Galloway chief constable and ACPOS youth justice spokesman David Strang also says there is a "disproportionate fear" of young people...
Mr McConnell and the Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson have been consistently critical of councils and police for not using measures such as ASBOs and dispersal orders.
Last month Mr McConnell accused authorities of an "inexcusable" failure to make full use of powers for tacking anti-social behaviour. He expressed "absolute dismay" that many were not using powers such as dispersal orders - which he said they had been pleading for - when "far too many" young people were still showing incorrigible behaviour.
Mr McConnell spoke out after it emerged that only half of Scotland's eight police forces have imposed dispersal orders for breaking up unruly crowds. Only four ASBOs were served on children in the year since the power was introduced in April 2005. But in an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Strang defended police and local authority efforts to tackle youth crime.
He insisted the "real answer" was not to deliver more ASBOs but to tackle a loss of trust between young people and the wider community by reaching out to youngsters."

While I may applaud the sentiments of the Chief Constable and deplore the authoritarianism of Ministers, I might also ask why chief constables feel free to indulge in public political controversy of this nature. After all, it is not the job of the policeman to determine policy with regard to youth crime. They will inevitably have their own views and they have channels to deliver those views to the Executive. But however enlightened and informed those views are, chief constables are surely not entitled to engage in public debate with elected politicians.