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Original poster

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

7 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?

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MNHQ

KateSMumsnet · 15/08/2013 16:36

Hello all,

Thank you to those who reported this thread to us. We're going to go through this thread and delete posts that break our talk guidelines.

As ever, we will delete threads that become bunfights.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 15/08/2013 18:26

Hello

It might be helpful to clarify the MNHQ position on this.

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.

Thanks
MNHQ

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 16/08/2013 16:07

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.

MNHQ

KateSMumsnet · 17/08/2013 11:13

Morning everyone,

We're sorry some of you are upset at the way we've handled this thread. As we've said before, we will delete racist posts, or posts that make blanket negative assertions or generalisations about all Travellers. However, we will allow people to share their experience, both good and bad.

As much as we welcome vigorous debate, AIBU is not a fight club, and we will remove threads that turn into bunfights.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/08/2013 13:52

Hello

As KateMumsnet said earlier, we're sorry if we've caused upset by allowing this thread to stand. We like to think we take a fairly strong stand on blanket anti-Traveller prejudice, but the line between people describing their personal experiences (on the one hand) and making blanket statements (on the other) is not always easily drawn.

We've allowed the OP to stand because it is, in the main, a description of that poster's personal experience. We do see your point, AmberLeaf, that the final sentence reads as a blanket statement, but within the context of an OP that clearly describes a personal experience, we thought it would be a little heavy-handed to delete the entire thread (which was already a long and lively discussion when we got to it) for what may have just been clumsy drafting in the final sentence.

But again, these are fine judgements and we're sorry to have disappointed some of you on this one.

TimeOfChange - we owe you an apology. Your post was deleted not because of reference to institutional racism in the police force (we make a point of not deleting sentiments that are endorsed by senior members of the judiciary Wink), but because we read it as accusing another poster of that same racism - but we see now you referred to the other posters' posts, not to the poster themselves, so we will reinstate that now.

(Just FYI all - we do deem 'you are a racist' a personal attack, even if you think it's true.)

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/08/2013 14:05

@edam

is 'that comment is racist' a personal attack? Just if someone is saying racist things e.g. 'all travellers are " then surely posters should be able to point that out?

Generally speaking, that's fine, edam.

We do obviously have to be a bit careful, because it's fairly easy to use that formulation to get around our personal attack rules (eg, 'your post makes you sound like an utter racist twat' - we might delete that.)

But generally we think it's fine to say 'I think the views you've expressed in that post are racist'. It's even better if you can back that up with an explanation of why you've come to that conclusion.

It's a lot about tone and being prepared to engage in a reasoned debate, if you see what we mean.

MNHQ

JulieMumsnet · 18/08/2013 19:03

@KateSMumsnet

Morning everyone,

We're sorry some of you are upset at the way we've handled this thread. As we've said before, we will delete racist posts, or posts that make blanket negative assertions or generalisations about all Travellers. However, we will allow people to share their experience, both good and bad.

As much as we welcome vigorous debate, AIBU is not a fight club, and we will remove threads that turn into bunfights.

Just to remind you of our stance on this;

AIBU is not a fight club, and we will remove threads that turn into bunfights

MNHQ

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