Met Police: Play classical music to scare off drug dealers
NewsPolice have reportedly told residents of the upmarket London district of St Johns Wood to play loud classical music in order to keep crime of the streets that they no longer patrol.
The NW8 area has suffered high-profile recent burglaries and expensive car thefts.
Policing has been stretched thin by budget cuts.
Which is scarier, Mahler 8 or Turangalila? Asking for a neighbour.
More here.
pictutred: street life in NW8
Suggestions:
Siegfried Act I (scenes 1 & 3)
Stockhausen (any)
Wuorinen (most)
PDQ Bach
Moses un Aron
Babbitt (any)
Hey! You leave our PDQ Bach out of this!!
Not just drug dealers that would be scared way by some of that lot.
How loud are these things supposed to be played before drug dealers (presumably driving, or otherwise outside houses as they make their way), actually hear it? I rarely hear anything from inside houses I pass — maybe a summer party if there is LOUD music.
Sounds like many are on the fiddle in St John’s Wood.
Dies Irae – Verdi, Penderecki and many others.
Volume control on 11, natch.
“Policing has been stretched thin by budget cuts.”
And by monitoring social media.
I hate to think classical music could achieve this goal and I doubt that it would. But strafe the area with recordings by the 101 Strings and success will be yours!
A lot of businesses and metro stations in the U.S. are doing exactly that, playing loud classical music to deter would-be loiters and riff-raff.
It happens at metro stations in the UK too.
To repel them, or calm their criminal minds?
Oh just put on some Philip Glass’ barf-inducing boredomusic, or the MET’s recent failure Grounded and the hoodlums will vanish in no time
I find it sad that good music is being used as public noise to ward of undesirables. That Isn’t an image want to be accostumed to
The Turangalila is a good choice. I saw someone on social media say that she ran away just one minute in, when she went to hear Turangalila live (she did not know what the music was)
This has long been a tactic in Australian bus stations and newsagents to encourage undesirables to go elsewhere, although the practice seems to have faded in the last couple of years. Jazz singers were also used for the same purpose.
In my day, St John’s Wood was famous for being where wealthy philanderers established their mistresses. Times have obviously changed.
Wouldn’t it provoke just an opposite effect? Loud Messiaen or Mahler indicating that the streets are not patrolled, thus more criminal offences?
Pray that they wouldn’t use this to argue that classical music worsens criminal rates.
Face masks a bit out of date?
This could work. I have attended hundreds of classical concerts in my life, and I have never once encountered a drug dealer.
Although Nigel Kennedy did arouse my suspicions.