5 point plan to reduce London crime by 50% in four years

The Natural Law Party is pleased to offer to the Metropolitan Police Force a 5-point programme to combat crime in London. We are confident, based on the results of extensive scientific research, that this programme will be effective in London, and if introduced comprehensively, can reduce crime in London by 50% in the first 4-year term of the Mayor and the Assembly for London.

The Natural Law Party will take pleasure in working with the Metropolitan Police Force and other agencies, in implementing this programme and seeing its effect in our capital city.

1. Reduce stress in society – the root cause of crime – by forming a permanent group of experts in creating coherence in society, the antidote to stress. This group will be trained in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme, including Yogic Flying, as founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Profound principles from quantum physics demonstrate how this programme reduces stress in the collective consciousness by creating coherence, a state of integration and harmony that pervades the whole community.

Fifty rigorous scientific studies have shown that this programme is reliable and repeatable in substantially reducing crime and other expressions of negativity in the whole community. Notable examples of this research have observed this effect of decreased crime and negativity in Merseyside, Washington, D.C., and Lebanon. (See attached fact sheet.)

2. Reduce levels of stress and increase integration and harmony in the police force –

The police force of any large metropolitan area is subject to high levels of stress and other challenges. The police have to be ready to deal with any emergency, and as individuals and a group they have to tackle head on the manifestations of stress in the city. In London, this is compounded by the ethnic tensions that are often the focus of heated confrontation, and which are mirrored within the force itself.

The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme has been found by over 600 scientific research studies to be the most effective and reliable method to reduce stress and the undesirable effects that stress creates for physical and mental health and well-being. If this method were systematically introduced for members of the Metropolitan Police Force, stress and its adverse effects would be minimised, there would be a substantial reduction in working days lost due to ill health and in forced early retirement due to serious illness. Furthermore, there would be a marked improvement in the internal integration and corporate well being of the force, including a reduction in racial tensions. A police force that has effectively tackled racial tension within its own ranks is then better equipped to tackle related problems within the wider community.

3. Preventing the build-up of stress and antisocial behaviour in young people –

Since the 1970s there has been an alarming growth in juvenile crime, drug abuse and drug related crime. The only way to tackle this problem effectively is to provide young people with the inner resources and positive creative intelligence that will allow them to grow up as constructive members of society. This can be accomplished through the use of Transcendental Meditation and other Natural Law programmes in education and youth training programmes. Positive creativity develops, and the young person can meet the challenges of growing up without accumulating the stress and strain that leads to criminal and delinquent behaviour.

A successful example of this approach has been seen in this country in a model school project in Skelmersdale, near Merseyside, and striking examples of the effectiveness of this approach in stressed and deprived communities have been seen in the USA in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.

4. Combating drug abuse by developing inner strength and integration –

Drug abuse is on an ever-increasing spiral, and, tragically, its onset is found in younger and younger age groups, so that today it is not rare to find drug abuse in early teenage and preteen children. The vicious circle of drug dependency and crime is even harder to break when drug use begins at such an early age.

Drug education and increased policing can only scratch the surface of this problem. Only by providing the antidote to this negative behaviour – within the young person – not by external pressures, can the problem of drug abuse be effectively tackled.

Many young people (and adults) turn to drugs when they lack inner fulfilment and when the pressures of life become too heavy to bear. The psychophysiological effects of drug taking provide only temporary relief, and actually weaken the system, making more substance abuse almost inevitable.

The solution is to create a state of inner well being, strength, and happiness, and integration of the nervous system. Ideally this should be done before the young person is exposed to drugs.

Research on the Transcendental Meditation programme has demonstrated its effectiveness in this area. It has tangible benefits in preventing drug abuse, and in re-strengthening and re-integrating the person's body and mind if drug taking has already begun. The state of inner fulfilment and happiness that is created is more pleasant than the taking of drugs, and

any substance abuse is found to detract from this state of inner integration and well being. The reduction of stress that results from Transcendental Meditation means that there is no longer the pressure to escape through drugs. The increased coherence of brain functioning restores the integrated functioning of the various systems of the physiology that have been disrupted through drugs.

5. Effective rehabilitation through reduction of stress and restoration of positive creative intelligence – A major contributory factor to the increasing crime rates of London and many other large cities is the absence of any systematic programmes for real rehabilitation of convicted offenders. Prisons are "colleges for crime", and re-offending rates are inevitably high, often over 90%.

The introduction of effective rehabilitation is thus a vital ingredient of any integrated policy to reduce crime. The Transcendental Meditation programme has been used in rehabilitation programmes in a variety of settings, to great effect. Examples are found in the high security prisons of California in the USA, and in Africa almost the entire prison population of Senegal was instructed in Transcendental Meditation.

The beneficial results, which have been examined through scientific research, may be summarised as follows:

stress is reduced, as measured through the levels of stress hormones, skin resistance, and behavioural measures

brain wave (EEG) coherence increases, corresponding to a greater level in integration and positivity in thinking

positive creativity and intelligence increase, which means that the individual is better equipped to find positive modes of living and working when released from prison

moral reasoning develops, resulting in a state in which there is an aversion to criminal behaviour

behaviour in prison improves, and there is less violence and crime within prison

the re-offending rate falls sharply

CONCLUSION

The implementation of this 5-point plan gives a positive strategy to decrease crime in London. It is effective and cost-effective. It does not demand additional resources, only that existing resources are used more effectively. Indeed, the positive results of this strategy will result in reduced expenditure. In contrast, no other effective methods are on offer to tackle the problems of crime in London.

We strongly encourage the Metropolitan Police Force to implement this programme and to observe the benefits – for London as a whole and for the police force itself.

"In the past 50 years, crime in the UK has risen decade after decade. Despite electoral promises by all of the old parties, crime is higher when each government leaves office than when they start. In the context of the London elections, how can we have confidence in the promises of parties with such a record of repeated failure, and when they are not offering any new formula to reduce crime?

"The Natural Law Party offers a scientific and reliable method to combat crime at its source: the accumulation of stress in the life of the individual and society. We are happy to offer to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner our five-point plan to reduce crime by 50% by 2004 – within the first four-year term of the Mayor and the Assembly for London. In common with all of the policies and programmes of the Natural Law Party, our programme to arrest the source of crime is reliable and based on scientific principles. It is backed up by dozens of research studies. We will be pleased to work with the Metropolitan Police Force in implementing this programme to reduce crime in London." – Dr Geoffrey Clements, Natural Law Party candidate for Mayor of London

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1997