Disagreeing with Conservatives over Mosquito Devices

I must not make a habit of disagreeing with the Conservatives.  Seriously I do agree with 95% of what my party says, but every now and again I see or read something that I just cannot agree with.

Nick Herbert's failure to deal with mosquito devices is one of them.  The BBC report the story here.

Mosquito devices are evil electronic gadgets that sit on the outside of buildings and emit a high pitch noise that only young people can hear, they are there to deter young people for hanging around in certain places.  They are a poor substitute for good community policing.

One the surface I can see why some people approve.  However, if you believe that punishing the innocent is wrong - then you simply cannot support these vile objects.  The vast  majority of our young people are a real asset to us - those innocent, well-behaved, well-intentioned young people are affected by mosquito devices as much as the small minority of young people who don't know how to behave.  It suggests that just 'hanging around' is anti-social behaviour in itself.  It is not.

What about those people that can't express their view?  How about a mother stood near one of these devices with a baby in a pushchair?  That baby could hear the device, could be disturbed by it and could not express the reason for their distress.

I remember having a conversation at a meeting with a representative of Cambs Police.  At the time they had supported the installation of one of these things at Queensgate shopping centre.   He justified it by saying that it was OK because it was only turned on for 20 minutes at a time.  So I asked him if it was OK for me to pester older people as long as it was only for 20 minutes at a time.  I didn't get an answer.

I really hope Nick Herbert will rethink his views on this.