So my quiet town had a visit from our traveller 'friends' this week and

[AndThatsWhatIThinkOfYou]

They wonder why people are so against them setting up camp where ever they please.

They arrived last Wednesday on a football field with a park and caused a whole load of trouble, for example, going to the petrol station handing over euros, being told they won't accept euros as payment, they simple got in their vans and drove of.

Made a visit to our local Sainsburys got caught shoplifting, were locked in until police were called.

Local children playing on park got beaten up with sticks by the traveller children.

And to top it all of 3 vans pulling up outside a local pub, very busy, dropping their trousers and all three disgusting men casually took a shit one by one on the pub doorstep. Got in there vans and drove of.

Then left the football field and park in an absolute mess. Rubbish everywhere.

Each incident police were called but nothing has been done.

So AIBU to wonder why travellers think this behavior is acceptable? and why can't anything be done to stop it?

I feel a bit like that NightScentedStock, I have a lot of experience of living beside travelers and mine is that there's not really all that much difference between one group of folk and an other. I've always found that if you treat people with a bit of respect you get it back.
Sadly, travelers are treated like crap in most places.

Have any of you ever talked to any of the cleaners on the tube or trains?

Those same suited professionals who travel on them frequently also often puke piss and shit every where but the actual loo.

Or the lovely clean, wholesome camping families who regularly leave piles of rubbish and actually human shit in my dad's field, generally without asking if they could camp there in the first place.

I grew up in a part of the country where I had never encountered travellers or gypsies. When I moved to where I lived now was the first time I had encountered them. I saw a group of girls and boys in a car park dressed in extraordinary clothes (this was pre the gypsy wedding telly programme) and I asked XP what on earth they were wearing, he looked at me as if I had two heads and told me that they were clearly gypsies.

There is a large permanent site round here and a large proportion of settled gypsies/travellers. I haven't encountered any trouble personally and think it is well integrated. Also know some people married to gypsies and they are fine. Perhaps I am just naive, but in my experience the travellers/gypsies we see in pubs etc are loud and raucous, but then again so are lots of people.

I think it is awful to generalise about all travellers the way some people have befor they were deleted yesterday.

Sucks your post is very interesting, I hope you manage to save and I am glad the people living around you are kind and helpful.

Good suggestion paristoberlin!! Thank you

' I am glad the people living around you are kind and helpful.'

Rather than the ones next door, dragging a wife down the road by the hair?

I wish people would just fit in or fuck off

Is this a bit like "Get back to where you came from" ?

No.

It is what it is.

Fit in or be subjected to the same sanctions as the non travelling community.

If you prefer.

Its0kToBeMe

I do prefer.

"be subject to the same sanctions as the non travelling community" sounds like integration while "fuck off" doesn't strike that chord at all.

I used to work in a county council planning department, and there was a gypsy team within the department. (I know gypsy may or may not be PC, but that was what they were called, at least informally). This was back in the early 2000s.

A TEAM of council officers employed solely to work on behalf of travellers. Imagine this replicated up and down the country in other county councils. I presume the same team is still employed today, albeit probably cut back slightly.

So as well as providing land and other services, there is the cost of providing an up to date plan for travellers, endless Council meetings, liaison meetings with other councils, planning applications, appeals - it's such a huge cost to society.

That's what bugs me the most. A group which takes so much, but puts back what?

This thread is turning me into a bleeding heart lentilly woooly liberal

I had moments....when I thought that my business/sales role was turning me a bit ..capitalist, and I accepted that. I even agree with some conservative policies, so shoot me

then this thread came along. THANKS EVERYONE

I am not as bad as I thought

Lots of groups of people need assistance from wider society to varying degrees and at various times, but aren't maligned and their existence resented in the same way as travellers are.

You wouldn't say disabled people are a group that takes so much, but puts back what? Would you? Why is it ok to say the same about travellers?

Lady told little kids that they were not supposed to have dogs in play area ( not knowing they were travellers). They told her to fuck off or they would get their dad after her. ( we're talking kids no more than 8). Charming people then?

I'm sure there are some decent travellers, I've even met some. But so many travellers are a law unto themselves, and too many people are too scared to do anything about it.

YY mrsw I too have found that if you treat people with respect you will almost invariably receive it back.

For God's sake, feesh.
All councils have a duty to look after vulnerable groups. There's a traveler team because how their lifestyle meets that of the settled majority makes them vulnerable. There will be homelessness teams, drug teams, sex worker teams all of whom work for groups whose worth to society might not be apparent to every individual, but who are still people and as such need care.

To be fair Night I have never come across a group of disabled people who have completely trashed a local park/football pitch/shopping centre car park and left behind a cleaning and repair bill worth thousands of pounds.

However, I have come across 9 different groups of travellers who have done just that and worse, and I am not the only person. Is it any wonder they are met with mistrust?

I am accepting of the fact that not ALL travellers are like this, and my encounters have been unfortunate, but how anyone can say they are shocked when a group of travellers are not welcomed with open arms by a town/village etc are playing stupid. It is easy to see and understand why this is, and whilst it may not be fair, it is certainly understandable.

If the travelling community really want to make peace with the communities they travel through, then it will take years of better behaviour to convince these communities to trust them. Cleaning up after themselves, showing some respect for trespassing laws and generally being less hostile would be a fair start. I am afraid that the onus is on them to start the reparations, as they are the ones who have caused so much destruction and aggravation, and they are doing their fellow travellers who do obey the laws of the land and live respectfully a massive disservice.

Erm the only sweeping generalisation I have seen are from those refusing to understand those that have issues with groups of travellers descending on their community ie anybody with issues is a racist daily mail reader and all travellers are salt of the earth types of which any trouble that may happen is because they're misunderstood.

Really helpful- not.

Dingit

A few weeks ago, my dad came across tourists, including children putting themselves at risk at a very dangerous spot in the river near his house (think fast flowing with undercut rocks, there's a drowning or two there every year or so). He got out the car and explained how dangerous it was and they told him to fuck off. They were white English, does that make all white English people spectacularly rude?

I'm coming off this thread now, some of the attitudes are boiling my piss.

There are people on here who don't want to believe any bad of any group.

Deluded fools.

Nightscented - a book I would recommend is 'Bury Me Standing" by Isobel Fonseca. The title is from a Romany saying which ends, "because I've been on my knees all my life" which is a fairly descriptive statement of how gyspy people feel they are treated by gorjas. Admittedly it is largely about gypsies and this thread is talking mainly about travellers but it's worth a read anyway.
I know many gypsy families from working in Romania and have countless positive experiences but would say of the problems caused by extreme poverty eg.traficking, prostitution,alcoholism, ,domestic violence, gambling etc that each peraon involved was an individual, a person with a history, life experiences that made them behave as they did and above everything else, a human being. The levels ofv
racism and discrimination I witnessed regularly against them was sickening and indicative of this same old attitude of judging someone or a group of people without actually knowing them.
Where I now live, an annual horse fair takes place and residents nearby without fail object strongly to it. No mess is left, I pass by a few times daily on purpose to show the children a different culture and try to instill in them a respect for a differing culture.I have never peraonally had a negative experience with travellers or gypsies. When I was at university in Staffordshire a decade ago, pubs still had signs outside saying 'No gypsies or travellers'.If that is how people are used to being welcomed it is hardly surprising if they perhaps then rebel against the settled community. Not suggesting that retaliation is ok but merely that there may be a reason behind any behaviour diaapproved of.

It was the 50's, 60's and early 70's my grandparents travelled with their fairground through Scotland and the experience is very far from removed from the 'traveller' experiences on this thread. Everyone was allowed to go to school including the teenage girls, council tax etc was all paid , sites all immaculately clean and kept ,no one received any benefits , a good living was made from the fairgrounds.
In winter when we didn't travel and would stay on a official council owned traveller site which we paid rent for my father and his brothers would get lorry driving work or building /joinery work until the spring when it was time to travel again.
The women worked in the summer in the kiosks and rides but didn't work in the winter , and the children went to a school for 6 months of the winter then changed schools every 3 weeks or so when travelling.
Then a lot of the rides and stalls and kiosks etc were built themselves so in winter all the painting and fixing etc maintenance was done.
Maybe that is the difference it was a job as well as a way of life , it was hard work and you were working most days for 10 hours , 7 days a week. It never felt that it was a case of do as you please, they were still part of communities and followed laws and rules as anyone else would, there was never any problems with any of the councils, or communities and it was a generally happy way of life.
There were large travelling families as in most families I knew had 3 , 4 or 5 children but never experienced anyone having families of 11 or 12 or similar!
My Fathers generation all pretty much settled in the end so that their children could get a more stable education and the majority of them bar 1 I think bought their own flats or houses , no one received council houses .
All the 'travellers ' I know would be as horrified as everyone else at the anti social examples on this thread.