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?

It's so depressing MreDeVere

retro or perhaps said laws are to ensure that many travellers can no longer make a living in a trade they have had for possibly generations, and thus have to potentially give up their way of life. Who knows?

But... the id cards/microchips/tags are for THEM, innit? Not decent law abiding people. Until you get fined because the microchip on your bin tells the council you left it out too long. Ha!
I also hate any suggestion of tags or the idea that anyone dealing in cash is deemed automatically dodgy.
I don't want the state keeping tabs on me all the time. Because I have stuff to hide? Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. But that's my own personal business.
A lot of the conflict between travellers and the settled are , ironically, partly caused by harsher restrictions on what people can and can't do.

exactlyif not then and it may start with 'them' but end up being all of us which is not good.

I don't think using cash is dodgy but let's face it, the authority like to know what we are all doing and buying e.g. tesco club card and they can control us.

cash is harder for them to keep tabs on

It depresses me the way our whole lives are tracked these days. I stopped using Tesco for this reason, I had to go to Customer Services to return something but I'd lost the receipt. The assistant said "no problem" and swiped my clubcard, it then came up with every transaction in Tesco I'd ever made. It really freaked me out. I go to Aldi now and pay cash.

I'm so paranoid I won't have a loyalty card at Costa! I never sign up for any promotion with my real name, and I nearly flipped my lid when the water company asked me for my D.O.B "for security purposes".
They actually tried to tell me I couldnt pay my bill without giving it.
I said "ace, free water!". Funnily enough I was "allowed" to pay it in the end.
Same as in the kids shoe shop. You buy something, they ask for your name and address. When I say "I'd rather not" they look at me like I am mad.
Am I ? Maybe I am!

"Country People" is an Irish traveller expression for settled people. Romanies and Showmen tend to use gaja.

NightScentedStock
"It has become harder and harder for travellers to pursue their way of life and make a living. One example being that the law has changed so travellers who deal in scrap metal are no longer allowed to buy it for cash."

Have you ever wondered why that change in law came about?
Or is it just
"cos we is racist init"

"Their way of life" has to be just as law compliant as any one else's way of life. Things change and we have to adapt and evolve. Life is dynamic and people can't choose to continue to do things just because that's the way they've always done them or we'd still be sending children up chimneys.

I agree with you 100% OP. Britain should join the euro.

Yes I do wonder. I also wonder why nomadic and vulnerable minority groups all over the world, not just travellers in the uk, are having their lives one way or another made harder or impossible to lead by governments policies and laws.
The bushmen of the Kalahari being one of many examples.

I've been watching this thread with the usual dismay and contempt. I'm always shocked by how racist MN can be.

As an aside, I'll share my experiences. I've worked with GRT families for a few years now, as well as non GRT families. Without exception the GRT homes (vans and houses) are gleaming, spotless. The parents are always completely devoted, but also full of fear. Fear that their DC will be subjected to the racism that they and their parents did. Most GRT parents literally want their DC within sight at all times. One family I worked with would only allow their DS to go on a school trip if the head teacher (male) promised to hold his hand the whole time; this poor year 6 lad was mortified
Some schools are not so supportive. I'll never forget a head teacher proudly telling me that GRT pupils are not allowed to walk around the school in groups of more than 2
Don't get me wrong, I've met some snakes in my job, I've been intimidated and threatened. But less so when working with GRT families.

Please don't be ignorant. Please stop tarring an entire race with the same brush, it's fucking ridiculous

NightScentedStock

That law was changed to stop unscrupulous people stealing and selling, buying and handling stolen goods.

That is people as in traveller and non traveller.

It means that you can no longer turn up with a load of "scrap" lead and sell it "no questions asked"

It wasn't done to make travellers lives harder.

Boney but the effect of that law upon traditional (and not illegal) traveller way of life is what Night is getting at. All the more so when travellers generally have very little stake in the law-making process, and so the sense of disconnect from the rest of society is exacerbated.

skylerwhite

All it means is that you get a receipt so that the scrap is traceable.

It is exactly the same as not being able to sell a car without documents.

No, Boney, it forces scrap metal dealers to operate either via cheque or electronic transfer.

Hasn't stopped people nicking copper wire and Henry Moore sculptures and assorted metal that doesn't belong to them though, whoever the thieves are.

skylerwhite

"it forces scrap metal dealers to operate either via cheque or electronic transfer."

That would be why my local scrap dealer pays cash for cars, batteries and metals then?

SilverApples

No it hasn't stopped people nicking copper etc. (nor has it stopped people nicking the lead off roofs) as their will always someone willing to break a law.

Well your local scrap metal dealer is breaking the law then, if they have paid cash in the last few months. What's your point?

Coconutty, no I'm not mad keen on Irish travellers. My family have had a lot of bad experiences with them going back to the 1970s. The first one was when a relative had moved into a remote house they were renovating one winter in Ireland in the early 1970s. All they had to heat the house was one oil, it was in minus temperatures outside and she had 4 children under 5. While her husband was away from the house a group of traveller men knocked obstensibly to sell carpet but when she refused proceeded to try and scare and intimidate her into giving them the oil heater.

And in 2010 when said relative died during her funeral a group of travellers was disturbed trying to break into her house. The Guards were called and they told us that there had been a spate of burglaries which appeared to be linked to people placing death notices with the time of the funeral in newspapers giving the time of the funeral which alerted them to when the house would be empty.

And there have been other incidents in between.

So no, I am mistrustful, I'm not mad keen.

And yes, when incidents like this have happened we have felt like we were considered fair game because we are 'country people'. And if that isn't a form of racism I don't know what is.

But of course, racism can only be done to them not by them and we all must keep pretending that's the case.

Noone has said that some Irish travellers are not racist, Sofia. Just as some settled people are also racist. Thankfully your hateful earlier post was deleted.

My point is that the law was not brought in to disrupt the "culture" of travellers or too make their lives more difficult. It was brought in to protect people from those that would steal metal by making the dealing of such items traceable.

but you are talking about metal I was talking about scrapping a car.