Fear of Teenage groups?

[pixie_woo]

Is anyone else fed up of feeling intimated by groups of "yoofs"?
Walking home from work the other day I had a cushion kicked at me, I know it couldn't have hurt me but that is not the point. I turned around and said "children, please!" and continued walking. When I told the hubby he went mad and said I shouldn't antagonise them!

[Lan]

I know exactly how you feel. I got a football kicked at my car out of the blue which gave me a shock so my immediate reaction was to shout at them, a couple of days later an egg got thrown at the window which my partner said was probably because i'd shouted at them but what are we supposed to do, just ignore them?

[DavidUK]

I am more than just fed up - I am infuriated that a small minority of scumbag teenagers can seem to get away with making people's lives a misery.

I took my two kids to the local park recently and a yob threatened my 12-yr old with "I'll punch your face in". It ended up with a gang of them surrounding us with one of them shouting and swearing at me. The fact is that I didn't call the police because I don't want my kids to become a target for reprisals when they are out and about. Although my 12-yr old has been hassled twice since by members of the group on his way home from school. And we live in what would be considerd a good area.

At the same time, there was the case in the news of the woman in Yorkshire who had been convicted of assault for slapping three teenagers after they had been persistently making her life a misery. They got away with it of course!

Something needs to be done.

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, something does need to be done. I am well aware of these large crowds hanging round together, getting drunk , and its all over England. The thing is, the root cause is, they have nothing to do. Where are all the youth clubs and after school activities these days. the government is spending far too much money on integration, etc. and not investing any in everyday society. After speaking to these large crowds of people they all say the same thing. They are bored. They need someone with a mind like mine to lead them in the right direction...

[flip-flop]

Well when I was a 'yoof' I was never bored - if I wasn't playing football I'd be playing rugby, or going swimming, or riding my bike, or climbing trees...............the list is almost endless.

It never ceases to amaze me the large numbers of kids I see hanging around a shopping centre on a sunny day: that would have been the last thing I'd've wanted to do.

These things are still available, so I think the whole 'boredom' argument is a bit of a cop out.

[JOEYGREEN]

A couple of years ago I was driving up the road with my son, who was about 2 ish at the time, in the back of the car when a group of kids (who should've been in school) lobbed a rock which hit my car windscreen. It didn't smash or crack but there was such a bang I sh*t myself (not literally). I immediately stopped the car and screamed at them telling them how dangerous it was and that I had a baby in the car. They said they weren't aiming for me, they were trying to hit the bus! I wrote to the school asking why these kids weren't in lessons but the Head didn't really care. Since then the kids hanging around have got worse and I wouldn't stop and say anything to them now. I'd like to say I would but I wouldn't. Wrong isn't it.

[annavc]

A few weeks ago I was walking past the local McDonalds (were they all hang around) on a saturday afternoon. This gang - about 15 of them - looked to be about 13-15 years old were shouting abuse at just about everyone that walked past - as I went by (already feeling intimidated) one of them shouted "f***ing fat c***" at me to which they all laughed and then started following me and dancing around me shouting abuse in my face. I was really scared and very shaken by it. I don't know what can be done about this problem but something has to be.

[pixie_woo]

My parents (in their late 50's) live in a quiet cul-de-sac. Over the last 6 months gangs of kids have started making their nights almost unbearable. They regularly get eggs & stones thrown at the side of their house (which faces a public-access field) and have had shopping trolleys tipped over their fence into the back garden. The row of 4 houses which face this field have all been targeted.
One resident woke up and started taking pictures with a digital camera, the gang soon scarpered and so far there have been no reprisals. I think this is the best idea as it shows the kids you are not prepared to stand for their behaviour without actually confronting them.

[WendyS]

These groups of youths can be really intimidating and we've had a lot of problems with them recently in our area. Thankfully the police have at last implemented a Dispersal Order covering the central part of the village, which means that if two or more of them are gathered together and acting in an intimidating or offensive manner they can be arrested. And if they are under the age of 16, they will be escorted home to their parents who will be ordered to keep their children under control. I am waiting to see if the situation now improves.

[flip-flop]

Trouble is the parents couldn't really give a tinker's cuss what their offspring get up to - when I was a kid, I'd've been knocked in to the middle of next week if my parents found out I had been acting in such a manner.

[Captain Swab]

Yeah same here(im 26), i would have had the bejesus beaten out of me if i behaved like the little schmidts do nowadays. Yes they are bored but that is all down to bad parenting.

[DavidUK]

Shocking isn't it - all these stories. MrBen - I grew up on a city centre council estate with no TV and no family car in the 50's and I found things to do. Give these yobs a youth centre and they would probably wreck it or use it for drug dealing.

I suspect that the problem is caused by a few ring leaders and then the rest join out of fear of what would happen to them if they were not in a gang. The police and schools should work together to target these head scumbags - I'm sure they know who they are.

Also, I understand that these yobs organise themselves with their mobiles so they can quickly congregate to cause trouble. The Police should be authorised to consficate their mobiles if they cause trouble - they wouldn't like that. And yes, I know they would soon steal another mobile, but there could be an escalating offence if found with a mobile after one had been confiscated.

I plan to write to my MP and local councillors about the issue. If lots of people did this the authorities might be persuaded to do more about it.

[pixie_woo]

When I was a teen (I'm mid-20's), yes I used to hang around in the local park but my group never used to intentionally intimate others, nor cause damage to property and we were all home by 10.00pm.
We still had fun and felt like we were "pushing boundaries". Maybe the boundaries have been pushed too far and kids need to go to such extreme lengths to feel the rush I used to when 10 of us shared a bottle of White Lightning.

[dr john]

Cardinal Biggles! Fetch... THE CUSHIONS!

[fruitsalad]

on the road where i live we have gangs of youths average age 16 who hang about on the street corner, and yet we have a large open field at one end of the street and woods at the other end, where they could go and do as much shouting and swearing as they liked no one would hear them, but they are probably scared to go into the woods or the fields at night they only feel big and tough when they are in their little gangs outside peoples houses shouting their big mouths off.

[growlybear]

Its mostly all show. Showing off to one another. I suspect they are really scared that if they don't congregate as a hoodie gang that someone might think they're a bunch of immature kids - which in most cases is what they are. Why don't we extend the experiment where they played classical music and the yobs didn't hang around or the experiment with that noise that only teens can hear that drives them off.

[littleoldme]

It makes me laugh when I hear the excuse that "there's nothing to do". They've got just as much to do as the teenagers of 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago. What they don't seem to have is the wit or intelligence to think of things to do that don't involve anti-social behaviour. The fact that it is (believe it or not) just a minority of teenagers who behave this way show it up for the lie or lazy excuse that it is. The vast majority of teenagers manage to fill their spare time without causing misery to others - why can't the remaining few?

[encee]

it seems to me at the moment that the only peolpe with any rights are the people who do wrong

[AliFlump]

I agree, my boyfriend and i were in a bus station on saturday night about 9pm in a city after coming back from London and i was pleased to see 2 Policman in there as Bus Stations are not pleasant at night. I pointed this out to Mr Flump and he said 'yeah but only cos they are in here'

he pointed to 2 boys about 15 years old who were walking about and 'acting hard'. I said they should give them a clip round the ear 'ole like they used to so they know they cant get away with it.

But Policeman cant do anything these days, these kids act as if they are gods gift and know it all but if something unfortunate was to happen to them like they get on the wrong side of someone whos not scared to teach em a lesson i doubt they would act like that for long!

im not saying we should go around beating kids up but something should be done to make them realise that they are infact still children and should not be acting like this.

[Simeon]

Here is a contraversial solution.

What we need is a national vigilante system where the rep from one town can call the rep in another town to sort out the problem teenagers. This would stop the cowards doing reprisals as they would not know where the vigilantes came from.

[nicorijnders]

I think they tried that in Springfield, Simeon, it worked for a while but the sack beatings statistics shot up.