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?

Wow you really are determined not to answer the question, aren't you?

Amberleaf, I did answer the question. Why so aggressive??

well if you read on I said if there is a time they arrive and nothing happens I will let you know.

Give me another homogenous group if you can. I don't know about Inuits as I haven't met any but they seem nice on the telly.

What about Daily Mail readers?

We just want to reiterate what RowanMumsnet said earlier:

'Posters are welcome to describe their personal experiences of interactions with Travellers (or any other group) - positive or negative.

But we will delete reported posts that make blanket negative assertions or generalisations about all Travellers.

We'd appreciate it if you could bear this distinction in mind, please.'

If folks persist in breaking the guidelines, we will have to remove so many posts that the thread ends up making no sense and will be zapped.

God no I hate DM readers .

You bigott!

RebeccaMumsnet

The opening post broke the guidelines.

The Pavee (Irish Travellers) are not a homogenous group, there are multiple subgroups within them as they are in all groups. Neither are Inuits - there are several nations that come under that category. No group is homogeneous - not even teens on the street corner - treating them as such ignores the diverse reality and encourages oppression.

Cushtie335 I can well believe that happens as well. When the Travellers are in town fly-tipping increases but caravans don't need half the stuff that's dumped so it has to be other persons from the settled community.

Please leave the OP, Rebecca. Self-appointed censors are even more irritating than people who generalise about groups of people. It's something we should be able to discuss as it obviously effects lots of people on mumsnet.

We have both Irish travellers and genuine gypsies staying near us from time to time. I get quite annoyed at the confusion of the terms, most Irish travellers that I've known of are not Roma gypsies. The genuine gypsies cause hardly any problem and move on when asked but every group of Irish travellers that had set up camp illegally in all the time I've lived in the village - in play grounds, car parks or school fields - have created problems and leave a dreadful mess.

I don't like my children being beat up or having abuse hurtled at them or wanting to play with kids and having their parents pull them away, but all that's been done by White Brits (some with White British parents encouragement), should I be more wary? I've had White Brits dumping their rubbish in my front garden and on the road to the point that the council got involved and we had weeks of rubbish all along the verge because of it. We've had White Brits puke and shit in our road before, should there be a harder crackdown on them? I have to pay for their clean up each weekend when they get out of the pubs on either side of the road, I'm teetotal, why should I pay for their menace and lifestyle choice to drink and get drunk in public?

Can you seriously not see that dehumanizing an entire group of people by the actions of a few is part of the path towards situations now in Hungary and Slovakia where Romani people are being killed and their communities walled off to "protect order"? Dehumanizing stereotypes are created as part of the system of oppression.

If councils were still required enough for land for traveller groups to use, more enforcement could be done better, areas with properly done sites have far fewer problems and get more revenue. But setting those back up since so many were sold off isn't going to be easy with these attitudes.

If that's your experience of white brits then I could not blame you for being wary of them.

I respect the very few genuine gypsies I have met. They didn't go around in large groups and kept themselves pretty much to themselves.

I dislike groups of white-van drivers, towing caravans, who think they can camp illegally anywhere and create a terrible mess. The bridle path near me has been taken over recently by such folk who dump all their crap, in all forms, over the path to discourage passers by.

I'm white and British and the majority of unpleasant encounters I've had in life have been with other white British people. I would wager that most WBP would have had similar experience, but somehow if we have a negative experience with a person of a different race or culture, we decide that entire race/culture are ignorant/psychotic/rude/criminal or whatever that ONE encounter threw up at us.

I hardly think this thread is going to turn into a mass murder of travellers.

Well the local gypsy that knocked the wing mirror off my car this morning & sped off is a cunt of the highest order, couldn't comment on the rest...