Plymouth's proposed Operation Drake has already attracted criticism from local people who believe it could be seen as racist. Photograph: Colin Palmer Photography/Alamy
Plymouth city centre is proposing to limit the number of foreign students who can enter shops at one time because of a rise in shoplifting and antisocial behaviour.
Teenagers who are visiting the city to study English could find their movements restricted by the Operation Drake project.
Shops would display stickers stipulating that only a certain number of students could be inside at a time. Posters would also be sent to language schools explaining the scheme.
Operation Drake is being discussed by city councillors on Monday but the project has already attracted criticism from some local people who believe it could be seen as racist.
The proposals are set out in a report to the council's growth and prosperity overview and scrutiny panel (pdf).
It says Operation Drake has been worked on by Plymouth Against Retail Crime and a police community support officer.
The report says: "Over the past five years we have seen in Plymouth, especially the city centre area, a large influx of foreign students. Feedback received from retailers has been that they have experienced an increase in shoplifting and antisocial behaviour from foreign students, incurring large financial losses."
It adds that the action plan includes:
• Special cards for foreign students to carry with them at all times with useful contact numbers.
• Stickers to be displayed in retail premises bearing Operation Drake logo limiting the number of students allowed in at any one time.
• Posters displayed in all language schools explaining Operation Drake.
The plan was greeted with concern on the Plymouth Herald website. "Shocked at how racist this report is. What sort of city are we living in?" said one commentator. "And will we be sewing some symbol on to their clothes just so we know who the 'different' people are?" asked another.
Sorry if the title's a bit more emotive than the contents of the article might warrant, but for crying out loud, are these people serious? No details are forthcoming about exactly they're supposed to identify a "foreign student", and frankly I'm afraid to ask. Doesn't this send such a fucking wonderful message to the rest of the world? Confronted with the admittedly non-trivial problem of shoplifting by a bunch of teenagers and young adults away from parental supervision for the first time, do the shopkeepers of Plymouth hire a couple of loss-prevention staff over the summer, or invest in better CCTV? No, they go to the council asking for some kind of by-law to let them limit the number of foreigners in their store at any one time.
And suggestion that it'll be all students and not just the foreign ones is frankly less than reassuring as well, because I don't feel any too comfortable with profiling based on age either. I've been chased out of a shop with one of those "no more than two unaccompanied children at a time" signs and it felt a hell of a lot like discrimination to me at the time!
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-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Yeah, no way that could backfire and build up resentment which leads to more crime
Zor
HAIL ZOR!WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL Terran Sphere The Art of Zor
Plymouth City Council should also make "foreign" students sit in special areas on the buses as well.
In all seriousness, how do they identify "foreign" students? The only way I can see this being enforced is singling people out by their appearance (i.e. their skin colour) or just harassing all young people in general. I'm sure that will work well. Small government Conservatism at its best.
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi
"Problem is, while the Germans have had many mea culpas and quite painfully dealt with their history, the South is still hellbent on painting themselves as the real victims. It gives them a special place in the history of assholes" - Covenant
"Over three million died fighting for the emperor, but when the war was over he pretended it was not his responsibility. What kind of man does that?'' - Saburo Sakai
Well the clumsy sounding Operation Drake caused such a outrage, the harebrained scheme has been shelved. ID cards for every foreign students sweepingly deemed untrustworthy?! Wouldn't colour coded badges sown to their jackets be nice as well?
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...' - Dr. Evil
'Secondly, I don't see why "income inequality" is a bad thing. Poverty is not an injustice. There is no such thing as causes for poverty, only causes for wealth. Poverty is not a wrong, but taking money from those who have it to equalize incomes is basically theft, which is wrong.' - Typical Randroid
'I think it's gone a little bit wrong.' - The Doctor
You really do have to wonder what mixture of drugs and booze government people are taking when they come up with ideas like this.
"Put book front and center. He's our friend, we should honour him. Kaylee, find that kid who's taking a dirt-nap with baby Jesus. We need a hood ornment. Jayne! Try not to steal too much of their sh*t!"
