Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 Source: Helsingin Sanomat International Edition (Finland) Copyright: 2001 2000 Helsingin Sanomat Contact: http://www.helsinki-hs.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1158 Author: Kari Huhta WHEN ZERO TOLERANCE STARTS TO REPLACE UNDERSTANDING Perspective This writer and Jenna and Barbara Bush, the twin daughters of President George W. Bush, have a common problem, namely the purchase of alcoholic beverages in the great state of Texas. The twins crossed the news threshold in embarrassing fashion this week when Jenna, 19, allegedly attempted to use someone else's ID card in order to obtain a drink in a fashionable watering-hole in Austin, the state capital. Barbara had meanwhile somehow managed to get served, and she was cited for possession of alcohol by a minor. It is an offence to consume or to attempt to buy alcohol in Texas under the legal drinking age of 21. Let's get this straight; a 19-year-old student attempts to get a margarita and a police squad car is called to the scene. I can appreciate the predicament of Bush's twin daughters, because I also had to prove my age in order to be served a drink in Texas. The police were not alerted, as I am 48 years young. I guess it must be fully a quarter of a century since I was last asked for my papers in this way. However, in the popular panoramic restaurant in Dallas there is a standing order that everyone should prove their age, and that means everyone. This is everyday zero tolerance in action. Rules are not to be applied or interpreted on a case-by-case basis. They are to be read by the numbers, just as they are. Zero tolerance became an international topic when it was introduced into the United States' criminal justice system. It was zero tolerance that cleaned up the streets and subways of New York City, and it was zero tolerance that filled U.S. prisons and penitentiaries. Even the smallest felony can carry a jail sentence, there is no room for mitigating circumstances, and repeat offenders will never get out from behind bars. Social scientists have debated whether there is any sense in a system that has put thousands of young first offenders on drug possession charges into prison, where they are then only schooled in further crimes. Zero tolerance in the legal context is a perfectly straightforward concept in the sense that it always places the rights of the victim and society before those of the defendant. The guilty will be punished without mercy. End of story. The way in which zero tolerance has trickled down into other areas of everyday American life has a more abstruse and difficult logic. It seeks to provide simple solutions for a complicated society. Rules come to replace commonsense understanding. For a start, things are to be explained in such a way that everyone can be sure to know what is going on. In Washington D.C. there is a building site not far from Congress that is surrounded by a long fence. Signs have been placed on this structure at regular intervals, bearing the words "Long Fence". A couple of weeks ago there were a lot of walkers in downtown Washington, taking part in a sponsored event for charity. Along the walking route there were signs bearing the words "Many People Walking". We've seen this sort of thing in Europe, too. In Stockholm, for instance, at the bottom end of a down escalator there might be a sign saying "Ej Upp!", to remind users that it does not go up. Sweden is often ridiculed in the U.S. for the way in which people are molly-coddled by the welfare state, but the Swedish model works from a subtly different premise. One reason for the way in which the totally, blindingly obvious is announced in the U.S. with such earnest diligence is the power of the legal profession. Hot coffee is labelled "Hot Coffee" in order that nobody will get sued - as did McDonalds a while back - for serving hot coffee. Aside from this, notices are a habit; the USA is after all a veritable fount of semi-meaningless set phrases. What is most important, however, is that people who do not communicate well one with another should be able to function together, when the rules are kept simple and absolute. This helps the millions of immigrants. It helps those people emerging from the dreadful schools in the poor inner city areas of the United States to manage in the sort of jobs that their education would not otherwise prepare them for. But what happens when zero tolerance is used as a replacement for thought and for the use of healthy common sense? Then we have a situation such as that in which a Florida schoolgirl will not be able to graduate from high school and will lose her university scholarship, because a bread-knife was found in her car. The bread-knife had been forgotten there in the course of moving house, but the rules state that this was in fact a concealed weapon, and as a result the young lady's life changed in an instant. That's zero tolerance. Oh, and by the way, that ID paper I flashed in the Texas restaurant, it doesn't have my date of birth on it. So sue me. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth