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?

Some of this behaviour is filmed and uploaded to TikTok in the hope it will go viral and the person uploading if can earn millions through advertising as an "influencer". Sadly, this is not a "tin foil hatter" conspiracy theory.

@CooCooNut @itsacarveup are there any particular areas in Edinburgh that are bad for this? We're thinking of moving there for work.

@Spongeboob

Where in the wirral?

I feel like the youths in the UK can at least turn around their lives. I had a placement for 6 months in Alice Springs in Australia and the gangs of children (7 year olds!) and teens roaming the street at all hours was frankly terrifying. They are drunk, high, and armed. Cars, houses, restaurants all broken into and smashed up. Can’t go out after about 5pm unless you want to be robbed and have racial abuse screamed at you.

At the same time you feel sad for them, the parents don’t care at all, not made to go to school, aren’t fed by them, they stay away from home because they get beaten and raped there. The number of babies we saw with sexual assault injuries is downright evil. Then they grow up and continue the cycle of addiction and abuse.

It’s all Indigenous families so the police can’t much more than caution as they riot every time a teen is arrested for stabbing another or grandpa is charged for raping a minor cousin. Removing children from their abusers isn’t done because the white city elites will shriek about stealing babies being trauma, then demand more to be done when the baby is eventually neglected to death.

Oh I’m sorry to hear this OP. I often go into York and never have any trouble with teens. Sounds like there were some trouble-makers in town yesterday though!
Given what DS tells me goes on in his otherwise good school it doesn’t surprise me. I know the parents of some of the trouble-makers, some of them are even teachers themselves but it’s never their little darlings who are to blame- it’s always the teachers apparently!! I do feel sorry for the teachers. On the other hand though, I remember groups of marauding teens when I was younger - throwing bricks at trains for example, so it’s not a new thing.

Tik tok is a Bloody nuisance the viral thing on Friday in schools was about uniform and being banned from going to the loo in lesson time. I hate to think how that turned out

I've seen a lot of football violence lately, particularly around train stations on a Saturday afternoon. Only yesterday at Crewe there was a pitched battle just after full time (the station is near the football ground). It was all handbags between teenagers from opposing clubs.

There was an immediate big police presence but they didn't do anything more than split it up and make sure the trouble makers got on their trains home. That police presence is needed in town centres, not just at football matches.

Why? Can you explain what gentle parenting is and how it leads to this behaviour?

Agreed, I don’t remember reams of things to do when I was younger either. I made my own fun to pass the time, while having boundaries of morals from my parents, as well as knowing there are consequences.
There would be lots of kids with limited parenting back then but social media ramps the effects up, giving kids ideas and seeing the kudos they would get repeating these things. If we had more youth clubs these would probably be rampaged in the same ways.

But how can you make the parents care?
These kids will go on and have more kids brought up with no respect for society.
I don’t know why the human rights of the individual must come before the human rights of those they are abusing.

It's gonna be some stupid tik tok trend again.

@hotdog74 sounds like we were there at the same time. I saw 1 police officer and 2 PCSOs trying to find them. There was too few of them and they really looked like they needed backup, it was a scary situation. I really feel sorry for the businesses, teachers and everyone they are affecting.

Looks like it’s quite common from the responses. My views are purely based on my first hand experience of what I’ve seen I’m sure there is plenty more online, which I don’t even want to look at. Like I said previously this just feels different to naughty teenagers previously, they really behave like they are untouchable. They know about their rights but nothing about their responsibilities. Worrying that these are the adults of the future. Who is actually going to employ them?

I think it happens in most towns, to varying degrees . I don't go out after dark but in the town centre daytime there are usually pockets of youths with the black puffa jackets and grey joggers hanging around trying to look hard. The general behaviour of children has been deteriorating since the 90s and social media has caused a huge upsurge.
My solution would to be to Marshall them all into a large sports stadium, lock the gates and leave em to it 😉

Memory is a strange thing there was terrible behaviour in the 80s. Toxteth, Moss Side, Brixton, Handsworth, Broadwater Farm. All brought about by many of the same things young people are facing now mostly a Tory government

This plus there is no where for them to go.
Loads of clubs have closed down in deprived areas and this is the effect.
Thanks government and councils who don't think these types of teens are worth investing in. It's shameful what the lack of funding has done to their prospects.

Yep, all the same conditions as there were leading up to the 80s riots. But we never learn from history and keep voting these people in knowing they'll make these "savings" when promising tax cuts.

This is it - you are demonstrating that parents don't care.

broken windows definitely applies here. Lord knows I sympathise about the lockdown and yes, this feral behaviour was predictable, but when people are just thinking "meh" about this, we've got trouble.

Some of you have said your own teenagers have been shocked by the behaviour they have seen, how can we protect them?

Sorry what does Tiktok being a Chinese company have to do with antisocial kids in the UK? You’ll have to clarify, what is the connection you’re making here?

I live in Edinburgh and it does happen here. There are problems with groups of teenagers in balaclavas behaving anti socially, committing crime, in various parts of town.

How incredibly sad. Not enough is widely known in the UK about the plight of indigenous people in Australia.

I wish it was but it's been going on in my area for the best part of 15 years!

I've had a firework thrown in my window, they come in the garden and bang on the patio doors (I thought knock and run was for 9/10 year olds, not 15+!)
Messing with the buses - that did stop as one put a brick through, ran from behind the bus, got hit by a car and broke both his legs

They all walk around in black puffa jackets, balaclavas and hoods up yelling into their phones on speaker and smoking weed

I lived in York for years as a student and after it's a dump. A mix of rude tourists, up-tight people who have lived there forever, drug addicts and teens. I feel for the people who pay these crazy amounts to live there thinking its 'quaint'.

I don’t know why the human rights of the individual must come before the human rights of those they are abusing.

This, I think is a big part of the problem, we're all encouraged to understand the impact that poverty, poor parenting, abuse and lack of opportunity has on these children, but, no one is thinking about the impact of their behaviour on the people subjected to it.

There was a fairly local video doing the rounds a couple of weeks ago where a group of kids (just teens, but most looked like they had barely reached puberty) were terrorising people going in and out of a shop, were throwing things, dragging litter bins around, threatening people and ultimately as the staff and security guard barricaded themselves in the shop, they used scooters and a litter bin to break the glass in the doors.
The staff and security guard were filming them and they actually didn't care because when the footage hits the internet, they become hero's rather than the behaviour being seen as unacceptable, a large number of responses were finding it funny or saying things like "Just kids messing around".
The police are scarce and don't have a lot to tackle this behaviour with, they can't really touch them to remove them because then it becomes about police violence towards children, and an ASBO or similar is like a badge of honour to them rather than a deterrent.

I do think though, that schools need to look at some of their policies and how they're contributing towards this, not in any way the teachers fault, but, uniform demands for specific items and standards and punishment if this cannot be provided leads to parents and kids feeling singled out and punished for being in poverty and not being able to afford those things - I've been on the other side of that with my daughter put into "inclusion" (which actually meant being put in a room with booths to spend the entire day without interaction with anyone else, sso definitely not inclusive 🤷🏼‍♀️) because her shoes broke and I had to wait until I got paid to replace them - the very opposite of what these uniform policies are supposed to do by making sure everyone is wearing the same so there's no one who is obviously poor etc etc.
She got tortured by some other kids on the bus and over social media because the school actually just highlighted the fact that she was from a family having a tough time at that point. And we were encouraged to understand those kids poor background as an excuse for their behaviour - but didn't have the same courtesy extended to us regarding the uniform.

She didn't start any riots or anything, but the whole thing was totally unnecessary and punished her for circumstances beyond her or my control, and no choice to change school either, it's the only one in the area. She then felt like school was against her and was less likely to engage, they were more bothered about what was on her feet than her education and improving the chances of her and kids like her getting out of the cycle - which I feel is their job as a school really.

So I can see how people who have this sort of thing happen repeatedly, start to hit back because they're pretty much powerless to change the reasons they're being punished in the first place.

@Babyleafy it looks like the riots in the 80s were mainly to be due to police treatment of the black community.
Whereas these issues now are being done more for fun? Sense of control? Notoriety? Feeling of community(with the other teens)?
I agree deprivation plays a big part. I also wonder if a lot of community spirit was brought about in the war days and as the generations go by maybe we are losing that on the whole.

Absolutely this... I live in Clapham and I see it daily..