I started wearing a hoodie this week to keep out the rain, cold and wind of autumn. Was that a mistake? Hoodies became political in May of 2005 when the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent banned them and the then-PM, Tony Blair, gave his support and promised to clamp down on antisocial behaviour often associated with teenagers in hoods. David Cameron, newly elected leader of the Conservatives, waded into the debate. But did he really say we should “hug a hoodie”? Am I in danger of being grabbed and squeezed?

Oxford Mail:

David Cameron actually said: “When you see a child walking down the road, hoodie up, head down, moody, swaggering, dominating the pavement – think what has brought that child to that moment. If the first thing we have to do is understand what’s gone wrong, the second thing is to realise that putting things right is not just about law enforcement…It’s about relationships. It’s about trust. It’s about love.”

So in my new position as a member of ‘the tribe’ I decided to hug a hoodie and find out what one hoodie, Jonathan, was thinking when he committed a series of crimes.

Jonathan: “I did a theft or two, TWOC, that’s ‘taking without owners consent’. For those I got fines and community service orders, 25 hours in all.’’ Bill: “What did you take and why?”

Jonathan: “The last time? A Honda 500 motorcycle. There was a lot of peer pressure around. It’s just getting in with the wrong crowd, seeing them do things and you want to be part of them and you just carry on with what they are doing – no questions asked. But you can get yourself into a lot of trouble and it’s no good at all.”

Bill: “What exactly happened? You got caught rather quickly.”

Jonathan: “Yeh, really quickly, riding up the Botley Road near Toys R Us and Argos. Straightaway the police, sirens blasting, pulled us over. I got off the bike because I was on the back of it. There were three of us on the bike, so you can imagine what that must have looked like to the police: no helmets, wires all hanging out from the motorbike because it was hot-wired. It was really embarrassing to be caught by the police like that.”

Bill: “What did the police do?”

Jonathan: “They took us straight to Abingdon police station, handcuffed really tight. They don’t make it comfortable for you at all.

Oxford Mail:

David Cameron

“They put you in a cell and leave you there for 10 hours. If your mother doesn’t come, they get social services and that can take 10 more hours. At the end of it you are really tired, distorted and you just want to get out of there.”

Bill: “How long were you in the cells in total?”

Jonathan: “The longest? Two days once because my mum wouldn’t come to get me. I didn’t eat anything except some rice which wasn’t that bad, but everything else was slop.”

Bill: “Why wouldn’t your mother come?”

Jonathan: “To teach me a lesson – just to respect what my mum says, and to get on with normal things and not commit crimes cos there is no need for it at all”

Bill: “And so you changed. What made you go straight?”

Jonathan: “Really seeing everyone around me breaking down and crying. Everyone was just so hurt because nobody else in my family is like me, not what I was like. That changed me when I saw my mum in tears. Seeing my mum cry changed my thoughts completely.”

Bill: “I bet you were a tough kid to handle for your mother. How did you express your anger when you felt angry?”

Jonathan: “I used to hit walls a lot. I’ve broken loads of my knuckles. I’ve dislocated my thumb just from hitting walls. I would shout at the top of my voice to let the anger out. I would go running around the block, just running as fast as I could to get my anger out. Sometimes I would smoke cannabis. That used to relax me. All the bad thoughts in my head, all the bad things I’d done would disappear. I could forget them with a spliff.”

Bill: “Teenagers often say they don’t have anything to do. Is that part of the problem here?”

Jonathan: “Yah, because on the street if you want to do things, that costs money. Not all kids have money. So in order to get some, if they don’t have jobs, they go out and commit crimes. There are community centres with free facilities, such as music studios, football, basketball, but not everyone is into that. There needs to be a wide range of things for young people to do.”

Bill: “Do you still hang out with your old mates?”

Jonathan: “No, never. I won’t see them again. Too much hassle, too many problems. It’s not worth it.”

Bill: “Do you think people are getting less tolerant of teenagers?”

Jonathan: “I don’t think adults listen to what kids want. They just think ‘Oh, they’re kids and we’re adults and we know best.’ But it’s actually the kids that know best. They know what they want and what they want their community to be like. They’re the ones who are going to have to grow up in it and be adults in it, and they should be able to make the decisions about what goes on there.”