Silence over vigilante claims
The last issue of the Leys Independent reported that the IWCA had secured agreement from the council to allocate funding to a drugs rehabilitation drop-in facility-Blackbird Leys Community Action and Development (formerly Communities Against Drugs).
But while Labour and Lib Dem councillors felt compelled to vote for the proposal, they also took the opportunity to label the IWCA as ‘vigilantes’ and attacked our anti-drugs patrol as ‘not only unhelpful but dangerous’.
The IWCA’s view is that these claims simply represent the middle class bias of the mainstream parties, who regard attempts by the working class residents of Blackbird Leys to take lawful collective action to tackle crack and heroin dealing as beyond the pale.
At the following full council meeting IWCA councillor Stuart Craft called for those making allegations of vigilantism to explain their claims.
In a question to the leader of the council, Labour’s Alex Hollingsworth, he asked what justification there was for the view expressed by members of his party that the IWCA are vigilantes and, as the term vigilante implies illegal activity, whether it was believed that the IWCA was breaking the law.
Unsurprisingly Cllr Hollingsworth declined to comment.
None of his Labour colleagues or their Lib Dem chums who made the allegations in the council chamber were prepared to offer any explanation either.
Once again we see that those prepared to lazily trot out clichéd smears about the IWCA are not so bold when it comes to backing up their claims with evidence.
Leys Independent, issue 31, February 2006
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