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?

Thing is OP, you had a crappy experience. Near where I live there was the Dale Farm site and the locals had lots of problems with them. Now this was a huge site and many people living there did so peacefully without causing problems for the locals. Some however DID cause problems just as some of the non traveller people do....we cannot just say..."ooh don't criticise because that is racist" we just acknowledge that in any community there will be troublemakers. That's white/black/yellow/any other colour/European/Indian/Chinese/African/Asian/anywhere else in the world.

Equally there were people local to Dale Farm who did not want the travellers there and went out of their way to antagonise them. I visited Dale Farm in many occasions due to my work and tbh never had a problem with anybody there but I have no doubt a small element of troublemakers DID exist there, just as they do elsewhere.

Cushtie, I've not had one encounter with travellers. I am a minority in my town and I don't judge everyone who lives there on one experience. We aren't all 'buttoned up the back' because we don't have good experiences to report and as a result we are lacking in compassion for the oppressive life of the traveller at the hands of the tax payer .

They were illegally camped on Dale Farm though. The site grew and grew out of all proportion, they thought that the planning laws didn't apply to them.

That in itself is arrogant and anti social. If i lobbed up a bungalow on land i own my neighbours would do absolutely everything they could to ensure that it came down or had retrospective planning permission granted.

This is an Irish Pavee blog I came across: barefootpavee.blogspot.co.uk/p/archive-of-past-posts.html

I'm going to bookmark it.

I wonder if it's the same group that was in
my town a few weeks ago. Apparently they smeared human
Poo all over the children's play equipment that they set up next to, plus violence towards the other children. The council had to close the park until they left - just what you need in the summer holidays!

"Part of the reason for the reputational issues is that anti-social behaviour of settled communities is somewhat "ghettoised". Those with repetitively poor behaviour do it in their own area and not in leafy suburbs or pleasant villages, so the populations of those places have never witnessed that behaviour from settled people. In contrast those travellers who demonstrate anti-social behaviour and move weekly can give 52 different places an experience of anti-social behaviour in a year. Usual caveats, it isn't all of them, they aren't a single group etc. You also might not even notice travellers in your area who parked up in an out of the way place and behaved reasonably, so your perception is skewed to those who behave poorly."

and

"'However in my professional and personal experience the sorts of incidents that are occurring within traveller communities are no different to those happening in many disadvantaged areas (except the caravans) the length and breadth of the country's council estates. (And no that's not a dig at ALL people who live on council estates, the same as not ALL travellers act in an anti-social way!)'

I think that all the people, including MNetters, who have chosen to live in a nice area with good schools and lovely shops would react in exactly the same way if members rough housing estate were suddenly dumped on their doorstep. If you live in a place you love and enjoy and feel safe in, any perceived threat would trigger a negative response. But for a lot of people, the nastiness is far away in another place, not suddenly on the cricket pitch with the local ducks being BBQ'd."

These two posts from yesterday sum it up for me.

There is a travellers' site on the edge of my village. I'd lived here for three years before I even realised it was here. That's how little impact it has had. I'm not aware of any anti-social behaviour or rise in thefts.

The little shit who shone a laser in my DH's eye while he was minding his own business walking the dog, on the other hand, lives in one of the 'naice' bungalows in the expensive end of town but I don't tar all late-teenage boys, bungalow dwellers or white males with the same brush.

shock horror more incidents involving human faeces, and how nice to leave it where not only local children play but where their own children will play, or did they leave it as a farewell present.

Ever thought that travellers might be reacting to the way they are treated by some members of the settled community,whilst I dont condone anti social behaviour I cant condone the outright racism and bigotry I have witnessed and experienced against gypsies and travellers.

Interesting article on marime.

Yes Dale Farm was illegal and there were massive issues as a result of that.

Be aware OP that sunshine had this info second hand and was not witness as you were to poor behaviour.

There is no doubt that some travellers DO behave poorly but not all do, in the same way that not all non travellers behave poorly.

I don't disbelieve you btw about what you experienced....our local village had travellers turn up and camp illegally in the local cricket pitch/field....they were moved on but n protest they turfed up the cricket pitch.

Now a small number of men were responsible for that action....not the majority....but it didn't help their reputation among the locals as you can imagine.

I really think the main issue is the unsettled travellers with no base to call home. Where I have lived near settled communities you don't see this kind of behaviour. Except at Dale Farm but that was huge, not legal and the subject of much legal wrangling on all sides.

yes but if a permanent base was set up would they want it? isn't that the point of being a traveller, to travel?

Chanatan

why are you using the generic term for travellers when trying to excuse the behaviour of some travellers?

If you are referring to me using the term gypsy,its because I know the difference between a gypsy and a traveller, they,re not the same thing you know.

When I read the op, I have to say my first thought wasn't - " Uh typical traveller behaviour", it was - dreadful behaviour by people who happen to be travellers. I think most of us are intelligent enough on this site to be able to read that some travellers have behaved like this - but not all travellers do. Just as when we hear other behaviours from certain
" groups", " tribes" is not representative all everyone in that group.

Just as it rolls of the tongue that Brits are lazy, we all know that is not true. Some are, most are not.

What makes me fearful is how some people want to close down discussions like this. Op immediately gets slammed as a bigot and racist.

Chanatan

I was referring to your use of the term traveller.
In this "Ever thought that travellers might be reacting to the way they are treated by some members of the settled community" post

"I know the difference between a gypsy and a traveller, they,re not the same thing you know."

I already know that thanks. But according to the race act that various posters have cited they come under the same umbrella term.

Indeed amber

a traveller is what you are, not what you do

The use of the word 'friends' in the title is in very bad taste, in the same way as racists talk about our 'coloured friends from overseas'.

"What makes me fearful is how some people want to close down discussions like this. Op immediately gets slammed as a bigot and racist."

If someone makes statements that are patently bigoted, why shouldn't others point that out? FWIW, I'm no fan of censorship. I think people should be allowed to express all sorts of views, even ones I find deeply offensive (and that would include many of the vile racist posts on this thread). But equally, I think that other people have every right to express how utterly offensive these views are.

yes I used the term 'friends' sarcastically because I am fuming that this behavior was allowed to happen because local people to scared to confront and police don't want the hassle

clementine - your first thought on reading the OP may have been what awful behaviour from people who happen to be travellers, but there is NO denying the fact that the OP clearly set out to portray this as "behaviour typical of travellers" - not just "unacceptable behaviour" from a small minority of people, just as every town and city has a small minority of residents intent on spoiling things for everyone else
eg
we live in a peaceful kent village - mindless teens from "naice" families put fireworks in the dog poo bins - hahahaha really funny. dog poo everywhere. If this had been travellers, it would have been "typical, just what we expect from them lot" - from a lot of people who claim not to be prejudiced.

but there must be a reason why there is a general feeling about travellers that illegally set up camp in someone's private property (farmers field) or council property then leave a trail of destruction behind them?

There's no smoke without fire so is it just the ones that visit our town through summer?

no because there are countless posts from people up and down the country