Huge increase in large groups of teenagers terrorising the public

[Shopaholic100]

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in large groups of teenagers terrorising the public? I was in York today and there were huge groups of teenage boys causing havoc, screaming, swearing, shouting and pulling peoples hats off and throwing them on the floor as they walked past. At the same time another huge group of girls were also screaming and kicking full cans of fizzy drinks around so it was squirting everywhere. Milton Keynes a few weeks ago was the same with large groups running round John Lewis causing havoc whilst security were trying to get them to leave. In another part of the shopping centre another group were causing trouble too. I’ve seen the same in London too. I used to see small groups sometimes do silly things, but the size of the groups is much larger and threatening and they seem fearless. Anyone else noticed this?

@LaughingCat I’m just a couple of years younger than you and I can absolutely relate to the sort of 00s teen behaviour you’re talking about.

I grew up in London. I didn’t know a single boy who hadn’t either mugged someone or been mugged (my friendship group was quite… mixed).
One of my friends had been to Oxford St Christmas shopping and a gang of teens nicked ALL the presents he’d bought on his way home. That one stuck with me more than any other!

Daily spitting and throwing of bottles out the top deck of the bus from one state school in particular at me and my friends in private school uniform. One time that school got off the bus en masse and started a huge fight with our school. I used to dread 4pm in winter years 7-9. Then I
got tough 😂
Knife crime has I believe got a lot worse though. I remember my brother being threatened with a knife.. but a penknife I think? He threw his phone at them and ran away.

Fires were always started at Reading festival! Portaloos on fire, cars on fire.

I am finding the convo around schools interesting though. A lot of my friends are secondary school teachers and most don’t really have bad experiences at all… but those who do have really, really bad experiences.

Oh my god - I was beginning to think it was just me.

I remember the winter 4pm dread well - and the bus - that happened to us too! We also had something called sprog bashing day, where Year 7s could be hunted down by any older kid on any Friday 13 in term time and y’know, hung out of windows until they wet themselves or had their heads flushed down the toilets, while teachers looked the other way. We got a new headmistress when I hit Year 8 and that was squashed. Hard.

Yet, whenever someone asks whether I enjoyed school, I rave about how much I loved it - the clubs I ran, the teachers that made an impact. This stuff was just background noise.

We're back to Borstal type school units perhaps

Let's hope not:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/detention-centre-torture-boys-youth-sexual-physical-abuse-inquiry-kirklevington-medomsley-a8142456.html

There's two units in our area remote parts of Wales. The kids get 40 days. They do kayaking, climbing, fell running and other things. They're given money to buy a meal to feed everyone in the unit. They're home lives are chaotic so it's a chance of respite for them. Some are accidental carers for drug/drink adults. They've been neglected.

They get to see their parents once in this time. Some come, some don't. It's hoped they get to see there's something to look forward to. Sometimes it works

Agree with the posters who say to some degree it's always been there.

But truthfully it's just shit parenting. Schools can't sort this stuff out without parents backing them. Then it becomes a police matter.

This thread is interesting because of the different expectations of parents. For example, silence in schools or strict uniform requirements or isolation. These are things that you would get if you paid for a child's education because if you did not comply with the rules you are asked to leave. That ie not to say that private school kids are perfect. But the expectations of what children do and how they behave is a lot higher. It sets them up for a better life. And good state schools will have these rules too.

Kids who don't get that may never really understand why they don't get it. But that is on their parents - people with low expectations of their own children, probably for their own reasons.

Ultimately kids who can behave better do better. A litany of excuses about why it's difficult or you swear or can't do uniform is just that. An excuse.

Very unlikely. I work with with families. Not one of the troubled families i work with parented 'gently'.

I did volunteer work in a very very deprived school back in the 90s. Many of the kids were neglected - it's an area with a lot of drug addiction. These kids (teenagers) were kind of quiet and subdued - they didn't have proper winter clothes; they hadn't been fed properly. They weren't going around the school being intimidating; quite the opposite. It was hard to get two words out of them.
That's what I remember at primary with the kids I knew who were in foster care too.
So I'm not convinced by any means that all the teenagers who behave like this are acting like that because they're deprived. They just enjoy bullying people and knowing that no one will stop them.
I didn't mind wearing a uniform at school. It was easier. Anyone who says that European schools don't wear them clearly has no idea how strict the discipline is in other ways in Europe.

I live in a posh town. I met my daughter from school on Friday and it was HIDEOUS.

Huge groups of kids swearing, pushing, walking out in front of cars and staring the drivers down as they slowly sauntered across the road in front of them.

It wasn’t kids in high spirits, one was yelling “get here you fucking cunt I’m going to smash your fucking face in” whirling around, grabbing and jumping and pushing. It was really threatening and I’m not te type to pay too much attention to noisy loudmouths. I know him vaguely he was at my kids primary school. His mother is a PTA type and his dad a high flying city consultant.

these are kids from “nice” homes. I was appalled and realised why both my quiet, reserved children find school nothing short of traumatic.

What do the police actually care about?

Not yobs and their an antisocial behaviour
Not rape or violent crime towards women
Not car crime (it’s an “insurance matter” now)
Not petty theft, pickpocketing or bike crime
Not cowboy builder fraud (it’s a “civil matter” apparently)
Not domestic violence

????

‘Hate’ crimes. That’s all they care about.

Most police officers are young, so are part of this problem generation. They’ve been indoctrinated by social media along with the rest of them. I honestly think the majority of them believe that hate crimes are worse than anything you’ve listed. On a par with murder, for sure.

Anecdotally, I own a nursery in London. It was vandalised last year and the police knew who had done it. One of them told me with a straight face, ‘We only investigate murders’.

That’s what we’ve come to, and I can’t work out whether we’ve been led here deliberately by a ruling class that was alarmed by how well social mobility was working when bright, working class kids had access to Eton-level grammar schools, or whether it has happened accidentally and through stupidity alone. What I’m quite sure about is that there’s no going back.

@User8646382 - honestly it was because people voted to destroy social mobility and the legal structures to have debt, right to buy, and pathetic redundancy packages instead of union rights. They are being persuaded currently that the NHS doesn't work and they need insurance. Nothing like a bit of short term greed, short term need to undermine social progress.

All voted for and approved. The ruling class are a tiny part of this country. People voted and did themselves and their children in. A British stupidity.

@User8646382 Our police were like this , we have a prolific shop burglar in our town. He’s been caught on cctv, he’s admitted it to police and his victims, witness as well as cctv footage have been provided. Police refuse to do anything, because of a lack of evidence and the man’s social conditions. Couldn’t make it anymore of a farce if they tried.
I say were - as we now don’t have any police or police station in our town, nearest one is a good 45 minute drive if there’s no roadworks or traffic accidents.
So basically a free for all for anyone wanting to commit any type of crime.

I think the British have become progressively more stupid over the past 50 years. With a steady diet of junk food, drugs, reality TV, social media and screens from age nothing, and an educational curriculum that prioritises play over learning, is it really surprising?

We’ve been fattened up like pigs so we will spend our benefits on hair extensions, take away coffees and Christmas Eve boxes.

Well, my DD is currently at university, sat and struggled for hours with one subject for during the online education days at college and did so many extra classes to fill in the gaps in her knowledge that she should have been taught while in school, to get her A level grades so she could get to university. I bought books, paid for tutoring and did everything to support her to get there.
I am supporting her now while she's there too and she continues to work at making the most of this opportunity.

But nope, one incident of uniform 'violation' that boiled down to an emergency surgery and recovery and a temporary cash issue during that time, meaning I couldn't replace something that was provided, but had broken, in 24 hours means I'm a shit parent full of excuses.
No previous 'violations' one further incident of swearing and answering back that was very effectively nipped in the bud with the school backed 100% by me, and no further incidents.

That's not having low expectations of my child, or being a shit parent, that's life happening like it does every day to everyone.

Did teach her an important lesson in compassion and tolerance though, and how it feels to be treated unfavourably because of your financial situation, even if that is temporary. And that for some people, no matter how hard you work or show you're committed, unless you have the right shoes on your feet, to them it's worth nothing.

@User8646382 - well that's a consumer society. But it's always pretty noticeable that people with money and status fight like the devil to keep it, and they do fine. A stupid person is persuaded to give their rights and privileges away for a few trinkets on credit. The rich have never been so foolish nor will they ever.

Social mobility depends on those people at the bottom of society being better than those at the top. Not equal, but better. This is why uniforms, swearing, crap attendance etc matter far more, that actually less latitude is good. Because the standards are not fair or equal.

I completely agree with this, and it’s why I think the internet is so toxic. You can only learn dignity when you are taught by example.

@Maverickess - I hope the lesson your daughter took away was that it was deeply disrespectful to swear at her teacher, and that her doing so reflected badly on you.

We've had little shits throwing things off the top of the multistorey car park. There was also a spate of them using catapults on birds by the river - they killed a male goose who'd been returning to the area with his partner year after year. Basically anything that moved was fair game for the fuckers.

Animal abuse is a predictor of future human to human violence. This is horrific, the poor swan.

I mean goose!!!

She didn't swear at a teacher, she was overheard swearing in conversation with her friends in the yard and pulled up on it and instead of accepting that she shouldn't have done it and apologising, got defensive when pulled up - which didn't include swearing at the teacher, or shouting, but not acceptable still.
And no, that's not my DD's interpretation, it's what the teacher told me when she rang. Punishment by the school 100% accepted and endorsed by me. I didn't want that kind of behaviour and it needed nipping in the bud.

Apart from the 'uniform violation' the only negative phonecall home and the only behaviour related incident in her 5 years at senior school that was brought to my attention - I don't doubt there were other times she was told to sit down, be quiet or calm down by teachers or staff, as most are.

But you seem determined to paint me as a shit parent and her as some disrespectful tear away, luckily the school had more foresight and common sense than you.

And I think that’s perhaps the most serious problem with this generation: video games have completely desensitised them to violence.

The older I get the more I think that Mary Whitehouse was right.

It was horrible. The female was swimming up and down calling for him. They'd come back for so many years and we'd been lucky enough to see them bring up their family - one year they had 11 babies. I don't hate many people but I make an exception for whoever did this.

And I think that’s perhaps the most serious problem with this generation: video games have completely desensitised them to violence.

Are these the same video games that were going to end the world as we knew it in the 80s ?

Pretty much. If we could go back to 1979 and start again, society might have a fighting chance.

Yes, definitely. Barely a week goes by without some incident kicking off in the local shopping mall or high street,always involving gangs of teenagers. I think the increase is due to the fact that children and teenagers are 'untouchable' nowadays. If a member of the public dates to try to intervene,they will always come off worse. I've seen teenage girls screaming in the faces of security 'Get your fucking hands off me,you just assaulted me', because the security guard had put their hand on the girl's shoulder!