AIBU to feel frustrated? Attempted theft of bikes incident, police not interested.

[HexBramble]

DH and DD(7) went for a cycle yesterday along a cycle track that runs all the way into our local city centre. It's safe (or so we thought), runs alongside a river for a few miles so is a pretty run and passes a lovely coffee shop half way through. Perfect for my eager DD cyclist.

3 miles into the run, my DH and DD were surrounded by a gang of youngsters who tried to intimidate them into surrendering their bikes. There was glass spread across the whole track and DH slowed to a halt to lift the bikes over and it was then that these kids appeared from behind pillars of a bridge. DH said that he counted approx 12 of them, ranging from about 6 years of age to 14 years of age. DH had picked up both bikes at the same time and told DD to stay close and walked the 3 metres or so over the glass. One of the older lads barged into DH but he kept walking, but all the while starting to feel real anxiety because DD was with him.

He urged her to get on her bike and gave her a shove to start her off quickly but heard some of the kids say "push her off, get the bike". He gave them an earful but they laughed at him, told him to "f*ck off" and that they all had "iron bars to batter him with". Some lads had started to jog after my DD so he flew after her but they all started chasing and throwing stones. One stone caught DD at the back of the head, thumped off her helmet and another stone caught her on her bottom. Big enough to leave a bruise.

They did get away, Thank God, but are really shaken by the whole ordeal. DD who by no means is an easy crier, sobbing and white as a sheet. DH telephoned the local police at the coffee shop, police arrived but told DH that the kids were most likely from the gypsie site nearby and were more or less above the law. They admitted that they wouldn't be following it up because it was known amongst the police that gypsie's would find out where they lived, and make their lives a nightmare. DH pointed out that there was glass most likely placed across the path to stop cyclists, and the police officer said that they'd get it swept up, but other than that, no further action would be taken.

I'm so angry about this. My gut instinct was to try and go down to the site and appeal to the Mums of these kids, but DH thinks I'm nuts. I'm not going to, but I'm appalled that these kids are getting away with it. At it's best, the whole situation has really shaken DD up, but at its worst, it could have been terrible. DH is 6ft 5' and the kids had a tough enough pack mentality to take him on.

What can I do, apart from avoid this track like the plague?

Some more anecdotes.

We had a neighbour who used to keep and breed ferrets and pole cats as a hobby. He sold some to a traveller once who then cam back and stole the rest.

There is a nursery near by. Traveller kids were seen one weekend stealing a slide and seesaw from the outdoor part. Police weren't not interested then either.

I'm appalled at the racial hatred on this thread. Some of the comments are inciting racial hatred which is a criminal offence. Replace the word gypsy/traveller with any other ethnic group - would this be acceptable?

The examples given are anecdotal and can not be said to be representative of a whole racial group.

amessagetoyouYoni, What is the preferred name for gypsies these days? I'm genuinely interested to know because it changes a lot and in the interest of staying on the right side of decent - do enlighten us. These people were once gypsies by their own definition. And they call non-gypsies Gorgios. I'm not offended by that, are you?
I don't believe the facts above are based on stereotype. The facts above show their way of life and actually, when they are harassing people it's unfair that they can get away with it.

Look on AIBU today, and there's a thread where the Police are making a woman apologise over a parking spat with a teen. If the Police are prepared to follow up that complaint, why not one where attempted theft and violence against a child are reported? It doesn't take much to get annoyed at the injustice - we are all human.

Perhaps the government should give the gypsies some more protection money as they are obviously being oppressed by the police and having their rights abused by middle class cyclists.

Yay, I love these sort of threads on mumsnet! A chance for all the right-on posters to prove just how much more progressive and politically correct they are than the majority. When in reality they would be spitting feathers if they were ever put in the same situation!

Why are some people encouraging OP to join the police officer in his prejudiced assumption that the gang were traveller kids? She doesn't know if they were, and neither did he. It's not even the relevant aspect of this.

Whoever they were, they did something quite serious to her DH and DD and the officers who were told about it seemingly can't be bothered to take it up, and on a pretty unattractive basis. There is absolutely no need for OP to join him in his rather ugly racial bias.

Recently my aggressive neighbour shouted a swearword at me in the street. He did not throw any rocks or chase me. Neighbour didn't realise someone else witnessed this. The witness called the police and the police dealt with it. They said they had enough evidence to charge him. I can't remember the charge, it is the new Breach of the Peace. In the end they gave him what they called a "Police Warning" which I think is the new version of a caution.

I simply cannot believe the police would not follow your incident up.

There was a police officer on another thread the other day who said all incidents must be followed up, however trivial. Not that I'm saying your incident, if it happened as written is trivial, far from it.

I probably have an unusual perspective into travelling communities. Many years ago in my youth I used to attend events where I met many of them regularly. Although I never developed any friendships I did get to know them and gained an insight into their lifestyle. They're just people, like you and me. Some are nice, some are not. Some break the law and have an overwhelming sense of entitlement about their lifestyle, others try to keep their heads down, avoid alienating the locals, and work to increase the number of sites they can access and the facilities on them.

As a more mature person with a very different role now, these days I tend to encounter the less savoury side involving petty thefts, littering, drug use and violence. There are reasons why these activities are associated with the travelling community, but it would be a (bigoted) mistake to assume that all those within the travelling community are carrying out those activities. I have never lost sight of the fact that I am dealing with people first. Their cultural background is very much a secondary thing.

Thanks everyone, I didn't start this thread to provoke or upset. I genuinely see MN as a huge source of info and advice, and needed some feedback about this.

Again, quoteunquote, thank you. You've brought more focus to my line of thought. I wouldn't have thought of those kinds of questions.

Can't see any racial hatred? Are you a complete bigot?

I know many gypsies in Romania. As in proper Roma gypsies. They call themselves gypsies or travellers, Iv never heard any other name and they don't seem offended with their own name for describing themselves. Very odd.

It's not the name, it's the context in which it's used.

Say I had a friend who was black. If I was asked to describe him, I might use the adjective black. If I was to refer to him as "the black" however, that would be highly offensive.

Bionic don't try and get all PC about it. There are plenty of people who have shared their negative experiences of travellers. It's unfortunate that my experiences of the community have been overwhelmingly negative, I'd love to be proven wrong but the ones that live near my parents have made people's lives a misery for many years.

Travellers and gypsies (not necessarily the same thing but often overlap) use these terms to describe themselves.

Did you DH say he could identify any of the youths? If he couldn't then how would you like the Police to progress this?? Speak to every child in the neighbourhood who vaguely fits the description?

I appreciate it's not a nice thing, particularly with the stone throwing and glass, but the Police are very limited with regards to what they can do to move these groups on, and usually, as it is more of a council issue, your local council will have a 'traveller liaison officer' - it would be worth speaking to them about your concerns. Also about getting the glass cleared up, as this would also be a Council issue (though they should be cleaning it up themselves!)

Hope your DD & DH are ok.

HexBramble, if it's any consolation, we had an attempted burglary a few months ago, and though they got through the door, nothing was taken (disturbed, we were asleep) and thus, the crime would not be taken any further. The Police still came out to see us, give us advice, forensics took prints etc.
Not investigating crime such as this (where there was thankfully a lucky escape), is held on the national database but it won't be followed through to a conclusion! If there are repeated attempts in the same area, they will see it and they will have to do something about it. There just aren't the resources for anything more. You've done the right thing in alerting people here to your area though so they know not to use the same track. May be worth telling the local press, I'm sure it will have happened to others.

Replace the word gypsy/traveller with any other ethnic group - would this be acceptable?

If they descended upon my community, camped illegally in parks/graveyard and made the crime rate in my area shoot up, I would still want them to fuck off.

Their ethnic group wouldn't make any difference to me, though I would have no worries about revealing what it was should someone ask.

Celtic Pixie, you said "they are scum".

If you had said "the ones I've had dealings with are scum", it would still have been an unpleasant choice of words but it wouldn't have been bigotted. Do you not see the difference?

How can a whole racial group be lumped together as being a bad lot? In all parts of society as Dahlen has said there is good and bad? I fail to see how it is ok to say this particular group are all bad? That is not being PC it is reasonable.

Why do some travellers camp illegally? Is it not because local authorities have failed to set aside land for traveller encampments which is their statutory responsibility to do so? Most travellers will accept the most awful pieces of land to live on in order to not camp illegally. The cost of setting aside this land would be far lower than cleaning up after illegal encampments, and subsequent evictions.

DH says he could identify 3 of the boys, the rest were just a blur.
Their accents as a group were not local, and by that I mean, not even close to being local. We live just 6 miles from the coast and in that 10 minute journey, the local accents and colloquialisms (sp?) change about 3 times.

These kids accents weren't similar at all.

I believe you. I had the same thing happen to me when I was about 12. Fortunately they grossly underestimated how quick we could move on our bikes but we got a few dunts from the stones they chucked.

My DF was in the police at the time and 'made a few equiries' but ultimately they could do nothing.

Sorry to see that times haven't changed.

Hope your dd gets back on her bike soon.

Tuppence, I though it would have been obvious that I meant the ones I had met? But then look at others posts on here. I am not the only person to have experienced their anti social behaviour and that is because it is endemic in their community.The reason for this is because the police don't clamp down on them like they would anyone else. They are rarely brought to account for their wrongs.