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?

There was a thread a few days ago about kids in a couple of towns trashing McDs and KFC and posting on Tik Tok. Seems like a Tik Tok craze (lovely). On one occasion reported, they went so far as to attack customers in one.

At the risk of sounding like a tin foil hat wearer. It did cross my mind that it may be related to Tik Tok being a Chinese company.

And you're basing this opinion on??

This stuff happened at my school in 80's/90's

All the child and youth services have been cut to the bone. Alcohol and mental health services cut. This is what happens

At the risk of sounding like a tin foil hat wearer. It did cross my mind that it may be related to Tik Tok being a Chinese company.

There may be something in that, although of course gangs of feral youth are nothing new, it seems the numbers involved have increased.

@GoodVibesHere There's free bus travel in Scotland for under 22s. I've heard that kids from smaller towns are travelling to cities to hang out in the evenings, which is leading to anti-social behaviour. Haven't seen it myself as I rarely go into the city centre (partly because of the above reasons!). Overall though, there does seem to be a slide in behaviour from groups of young people. I think people are afraid to confront them, which is understandable, but unfortunate as many of them would probably take a telling. It's not easy to judge which would and which wouldn't though.

There’s another thread on this where teenagers are trashing fast food stores and intimidating people in lots of local towns. Sounds very scary.

That’s odd OP I was in York yesterday and didn’t see them - must have been lucky as I had DD with me who is 10 and would have found that very intimidating. I did think it was quite busy though…

i grew up in Peterborough and recall this happening from time to time. I’m not sure it’s a totally recent phenomenon. Unpleasant to see though. As they are all
old enough, the police should probably arrest a few for public order offences and the message might get through that it’s unacceptable behaviour.

Thinking these kids have been brought up by the sort of parents that practice gentle parenting is one of the most out of touch things I have read in a while 😂.
There is a group near me like this, the kids that I know in the group have grown up with a range from mild to severe neglect. 2 of them have had Dad's who have been in prison (one for domestic violence), lots of drug and alcohol issues etc. My mates kid was beaten up by one of them and so she knocked on the parents door and ended up calling social services because the kids Mum was so violent towards her child.

@GoodVibesHere all of Scotland, free bus travel up to age 22, then kicks in free age 60.
Good idea in principle but has a shitty fall out if using to get to work and can't as it's full of people using it to go 1 or 2 stops!

Using bus to get to work that is!

I don't know if it's the same in other parts of the country, but in the midlands it's a case of there not being any good jobs for uneducated people.

So people leave school and have kids and then their kids leave school and have kids etc. When I left school, so many were pregnant or pregnant within a year.

And yes they do get benefits that gives them more than working would. Rightly or wrongly, this is very common. These people are very rough, so don't expect great parenting.

During the Xmas school holidays a cafe in my town had to close because of repeatedly being targeted by teens. Running inside and terrorising customers, yelling and screaming, throwing water balloons, swiping vases off the table to smash on the floor. Police did nothing, said they could only take the kids home (if they could catch them) and they just came straight back.

In the end the cafe closed because they were sustaining damage to the premises and customers were leaving so they weren’t making any money anyway. The owner was distraught because that was his livelihood. He reopened when the kids went back to school. Thankfully they didn’t come back at half term because they’ve forgotten about it and moved on to terrorise someone else.

Yep. In West Scotland the police had to divert the buses and make the bus station a no go area in the evening recently.

I was in York yesterday with my 12 year old DD. It was definitely a thing. We were in one of the dessert places for a treat. First I saw a group of teens pass by squirting drinks at each other but of course everyone else in the street was getting caught by flying liquid. Then a large group came into the shop we were in and started running around between the table shrieking and laughing and then went behind the food preparation area and were crouching down behind the counter and then popping up and laughing at each other.
I felt so sorry for the staff who did eventually manage to get them to leave, but not before I had asked to be moved from our table by the door to an upstairs one so that we could enjoy our treat undisturbed.
So for sure in York yesterday there were several large groups of teens marauding around definitely looking to cause as much disruption as they could. My DD was horrified by the behaviour and vowed to never be like that when she's a teen so something positive might have come from it!

I’m not a gentle parenting advocate as it’s not my thing, but as a secondary school teacher who works with teens I really don’t believe it’s gentle parenting - the kids I know who have form for acting like this have experienced significant trauma in their childhood or have parents who do no bloody parenting. There’s one or two outliers where the kids have fallen into the wrong crowd and the parents are just distraught and pulling their hair out, but largely it’s kids who have awful backgrounds and were dealt a bad hand in life on the day they were born. Social media definitely exacerbates and fuels this sort of behaviour also.

It is awful and scary though. I feel unsafe at work in a very mixed area knowing some kids have brought knives in etc, it’s a horrible thought. I try to remember that far more kids are lovely than not, and far more parents are supportive and give a damn than those that don’t.

Down in 'K' Sprouts? Colleague's originally from there and was having to help elderly parent with shopping and taxis etc as the bus station was a war zone and was little they seemed to be able to do to control it other than close station to everyone!

Try have 30 of them in a small classroom for an hour. Pack mentality and they know they have the upper hand. There are no consequences and they know it.

I was reading the threads on parents jumping on board to support the students portesting for the right to wear skirts the size of belts here yesterday. On poster proudly describing how her son and his friends had 'taken the knee' in support of all things. Clearly the right to dress how you want, where you want means you can hijack a protest from the civil rights movement.

There are so, so many lovely, well behaved, caring, funny and thoughtful young people in this country. sadly there are a significant minority who ruin it for them all. Parents who either do 't give a damn or who actively support them - well until they can't manage them and their poor behaviour starts to impact on their home life. Then they go into school and complain that they child is out of control and demand the school do something about it.

I vaguely remember a theory that a frightened public was good for the Government of the day, but the details escape me.

It’s zero parenting not gentle parenting. The result of many years of parents thinking that they must never say no, be their kids mates, never tell them off, no consequences.

I left teaching last year - I’m in awe of anyone still there. The kids are feral and the parents back the kids all the way. Look at all the fucking nonsense and skirt lengths. 🙄

There wad a complete loss of control in 4 locL secondaries here one day this week. It started as a protest against toilets being locked and resulted in parents being called to collect frightened teens a d police involvement. I know these things are often exaggerated but the reports in the local press sound quite wild. I guess probably the day Pupinapram is talking about.

The age if criminal responsibility is 10. So why could the police "not do anything"?

Blame the Tory party. They got rid of all the places for kids to hang out and the cost of living crisis means their parents can't afford to keep them entertained.

They have no where else to go and nothing else to do so roam around making trouble as at least that is vaguely entertaining for a while.

another place Ive noticed this is at the football. There has been a recent increase in the Young Team supporters. Large groups of young teenagers meeting before and coming into ground together, generally being rowdy en route and then being particularly loud and obnoxious during the game. Use of smoke, projectiles and pyros, unacceptable language etc. it’s the 12-16 year old age group and I think they love the ability to be completely obnoxious in a place where this appears to be acceptable. This is at small low league clubs and they are definitely modelling themselves on a certain element of ‘fans’ seen at the bigger clubs.

🤷‍♀️ The police never do anything about unruly teens do they? That’s why it keeps happening, because they keep getting away with it.

Haven't seen any of this and I live in London.

I grew up in a small town. Honestly this reminds me exactly why I left.

I agree.