Getting REALLY tough on crime

Forget killing the gun registry to get tough on crime, perhaps Stephen, Vic and Stock should consider following the example of some communities in Britain.

They've come up with an innovative, low-cost way of dispersing local gangs of hoodlums: pipe in uncool music. Perhaps that explains why I'm often greeted by the strains of Mozart or Bach when passing through Warden Station.

Is it a testament to my uncoolness that I actually like classical music (but god, no opera please!) and some of the songs on this list? Probably.

From the Globe's Social Studies section this morning:

Local councils in Britain have been given a list of uncool music selections that will disperse obnoxious teenagers. The central Local Government Association (LGA) calls for the councils to launch "pilot projects for the Manilow method," referring to experiments in Sydney, Australia, where strains of Copacabana and Mandy were piped into a car park to disperse congregations of young hoodlums. The 20 selections suggested by the LGA include such songs as: Release Me (Engelbert Humperdinck), Achy Breaky Heart (Billy Ray Cyrus); Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen (Neil Sedaka); Bridge Over Troubled Water (Gene Pitney); (They Long to Be) Close to You (The Carpenters); Uptown Girl (Billy Joel). However, some local officials "fear that the songs on the Manilow method list could inadvertently become cool and even enjoyed by the young people they are supposed to deter," says The Independent on Sunday.

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