According to the Birmingham City Council, its ambition to establish and maintain peace and justice envisions that:
”[Birmingham] is a safe and flourishing place to live, work and grow up in”. (Birmingham City Council, n.d.)
The target itself is not one that leads to major dispute. However, it is important to address the means by which this is achieved. The way that “safety” is upheld institutionally in Birmingham, and across the UK more widely, is by punitive law enforcement measures, which are far from the version of justice and peace we believe is suitable to strive for in pursuit of all people thriving.
Between the development of the hostile environment and ongoing austerity measures, there has been an increasingly regressive policy backdrop in the UK, which is negatively impacting people’s democratic rights at an alarming pace. For example, infringing on people’s rights and abilities to protest, particularly with reference to those demonstrating for environmental and racial justice movements, makes it clear that there are still significant ways to go in furthering this dimension.
“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” (Baruch Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise, 1670)
Systemic criminalisation and marginalisation of many communities in the past is an example of how law enforcement can contribute to a perceived sense of safety, typically striving for order and compliance, which is all too often conflated with justice. When combined with excessive powers and abuse of power, there is often a catastrophic loss of lives and livelihoods at the hands of law enforcement, who are reactive to too many injustices and often make mistakes or maintain oversight. We stand firm in the belief that there are ways to explore and practice definitions of peace and justice through a lens of care, of solidarity, and of kinship amongst neighbours and across ecosystems.
This dimension will need to be explored in further depth, with the view of shifting away from punitive institutions, whose version of peace and justice are not aligned with the thriving lives we wish to embed in our neighbourhoods.
At present, it can be determined with high levels of confidence that Ladywood currently is in shortfall in this dimension.
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