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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

885 replies

AndThatsWhatIThinkOfYou · 15/08/2013 13:20

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?

OP posts:
Al0uise · 16/08/2013 15:33

"Animal theft, abuse, fighting, puppy farming is rife.
^^ these things are of course awful, but not restricted to traveller communities only, and also, not evident in all traveller communities"

Except travellers are far harder to catch, because they can just pack up and move. On to the next patch, next police force, next community with no thought for the destruction that is often left in their wake.

AmberLeaf · 16/08/2013 15:35

ALouise why mention their being travellers then.

whos 'solely employed' to look after travellers??

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:36

I'm not solely employed to look after travellers, as you charmingly put it.

AmberLeaf · 16/08/2013 15:39

Astonishing (and deeply depressing) that some people really don't mind admitting that they are prejudiced and bigoted

Its because they don't see it as prejudice, they think travellers are fair game. lots of people agree which is why this thread is still here.

phantomnamechanger · 16/08/2013 15:40

Astonishing (and deeply depressing) that some people really don't mind admitting that they are prejudiced and bigoted.

^^ indeed it is
Of course, they know those are bad words that no one would want to be associated with, so they actually quibble about the definition to try to argue they are not prejudiced or racist, when they clearly are!

Al0uise · 16/08/2013 15:42

I mention that they were travellers because they were travellers.

Swathes

Also see my telephone conversations with the Police Travellor Liason.

Original poster
AndThatsWhatIThinkOfYou · 16/08/2013 15:43

well the council workers that have to clean up after the mess. They could be classed as employed to look after them, ie clean the faeces up, litter, repair damages.

OP posts:
skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:44

And? What's your point? I am neither a Police Traveller Liaison nor an employer of Colchester Council.

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:44

*employee

FranSanDisco · 16/08/2013 15:45

Skylarwhite - I am wary of Irish Travellers due to my experiences. As I am of gangs of hoodies on street corners who have intimidated me or drunks at bus stops who have letched over me. As I said if my next encounter proves that I do not have to be wary then great. I don't mind being called whatever as I know I am not a racist in the real sense of the word.

Al0uise · 16/08/2013 15:47

Skylerwhite - what are you on about?

I haven't once said you were.

AmberLeaf · 16/08/2013 15:47

I mention that they were travellers because they were travellers

But you have just said its about behavior not ethnicity.

Make your mind up.

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:47

Would you write 'I am wary of black people because of my experiences of them', FranSanDisco?

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:49

Al0uise you said that people defending travellers were solely employed to look after them.

Original poster
AndThatsWhatIThinkOfYou · 16/08/2013 15:50

what a stupid comment to make, totally out of context as I have my opinion based on everytime they settle in our town.

There has never been a time without chaos or some sort of illegal activity. When there is I shall let you know. May be waiting a while tho.

OP posts:
Al0uise · 16/08/2013 15:51

No I bloody didn't.

"I didn't name the thread and i couldn't give a damn about the ethnic background of the people who commit these crimes but the fact remains they are defended by whole swathes of people who are solely employed to "look after" these people who happen to be Travellers."

FranSanDisco · 16/08/2013 15:53

Black is a colour not a homogenous group. I consider Irish Travellers to be a 'close-knit' group.

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:54

Ah ok, misunderstanding then. Apologies.

Why does it matter, though, if there are state or council employees who are tasked specifically with liaising with, working with or advocating for traveller groups?

skylerwhite · 16/08/2013 15:55

Well, would you write 'I am wary of Pakistanis because of my experience of them'?

sheridand · 16/08/2013 15:57

Years of experience teaching and living in areas with large, settled and unsettled traveller communities. I found there are certainly issues, for me, with the way their female children vanish from education around year 9 ( not in all cases, obviously, but in many) and the lack of respect for women and girls learning. Comparably, the school I was then in fought hard and long to reptariate year 10 girls who had been removed back to Pakistan to marry, but allowed the traveller girls to vanish. Unfair. The traveller girls were just as intelligent, just as full of potential, just far more politically sensitive and difficult to reach.

I also struggle to deal with the absences, and the subsequent disruption after they've missed so many lessons they are behind.

I live practically next door to a large site, with weekly rubbish pick ups, same as the rest of us, and still it's surrounded by rubbish, by waste and so on, no reason for it. I cannot even begin to understand that. If you have an old shower, take it to the tip, don't just chuck it into the neighbouring field (my field!)

On the other hand, the community is stable, there's no "extra" theft, the parents send their kids to school ( some regularly, some not) and liase with the officer employed for them. What they don't do especially well, is mix. But then, that's true for all the communities i've taught. In Kings' Cross, there were traveller, Somali, Bengali, Eritrean and Portuguese communities cheek by jowl, in the early 90's, all of which ignored each other mightily.

We don't all have to be friends, but we do all have to get along and allow our children the chances to be educated to the best of their potential. My only bugbear is that we fail the traveller community in that respect too often.

Al0uise · 16/08/2013 15:57

Because it all costs money and Travelling travellers are not exactly known for making themselves known to HMRC or the local council.

Therefore the non Travelling community is subsidising a lifestyle choice.

AmberLeaf · 16/08/2013 15:57

Im betting she wouldnt skyler, because that would make her racist in the 'real sense of the word'

phantomnamechanger · 16/08/2013 15:57

I have my opinion based on everytime they settle in our town.

so the next group that turn up, you will dislike from the off due to your previous experiences with other groups of travellers, not because of anything the new ones have said or done to give you concern but "because they are travellers"

which is EXACTLY what prejudice means!

AmberLeaf · 16/08/2013 16:00

Black is a colour not a homogenous group

She said black people which is an identity. don't split hairs, just answer the question.

FranSanDisco · 16/08/2013 16:00

Pakistanis are not homogenous either - there are different cultures/ethnicities depending on where you are from within Pakistan.