AIBU to find it disgusting that gypsies have taken over a school playground

[Adizzylass2014]

whilst attending my best friends wedding today in a little village I was horrified to see that gypsies had taken over the school playground. There was rubbish all over the floor, children and dogs running all over the place and scantily clad women puffing away.
why a school playground, these people have no morals. The poor caretaker is going to have his work cut out for him as there was at least 15 caravans!

Many travellers have fixed abodes. They might not choose to live in them,
Gypsies; as in not Irish Travellers; often live inconspicuously in static homes.

Surely a protected group should be based on things which are unchangeable, such as race, colour, sexuality. Choosing to break the law should not be a protected characteristic.
I am not allowed to set up home, camp, live where I want, so why should anyone else?

Unfortunately, if a whole group/class/race of people are demonized as subhuman scum then a lot of them will decide that they don't, actually, give a fuck about the people who hate them and therefore won't bother about trying to make a good impression.
At some point in the last century, despite a certain longstanding romanticizing of gypsies and gypsy culture, they began to be regarded as primitives, pests, enemies of progress etc and their nomadic lifestyle as something to be stamped out. (I am using 'gypsies' with a lower case g to include both the different ethnic groups (Romani and Irish Traveller) and also the not-specifically-ethnic groups of people who want to travel rather than settle in one place). This bigotry is the main cause of all the problems.
Given that it's acceptable to rip up great chunks of the countryside for speculative housebuilding and unnecessary superstores, it should not be a problem to set aside a few sites for the use of gypsies, and supply these sites with basic sanitation. There are designated sites for the Showman's Guild, after all. (Maybe the answer is to arrange for the sharing of these sites? But I have a feeling there is longstanding feuding between the two sides).

I'm not totally admiring of gypsy culture: a lot of it is worryingly misogynistic. But I don't think the idea of a nomadic life is so terrible that it needs to be stamped out.

My experience with the travelling community has been negative so far as well I had one Nick the alloy wheels off my car. When I was younger some of them pitched their cavarans they caused mayhem and were unpleasant. How is being a traveller not a lifestyle choice?

Good point, notall how IS car insurance obtained?

I just want to know (like others) why it is the case that every time travellers come to our town, they leave such a mess. I'm sure there ARE travellers who don't leave a mess, but maybe they just never come through our town? Genuinely wondering.

notall what arrangements do you make for your waste/rubbish and why can't the people who leave the mess do the same?

Erm, because both Romani and Irish travellers have been living nomadically for centuries?

We have had nightmare sitautions in 2 of the 5 boroughs we live in (one group on a semi perment in a thrid borough was great though no problems at all )

What needs to be done is for the gypsys/travellers that misbehave / destory property do all the anti social things should be meet with the full weight of the Law rather the rubbish pussy footing around that happens now incase concuils / police are considered racist for trying to deal with them

And I think the travellers themseleves should actully be made to pay for clean up / damages becuase they cant be held responable for their actions why is it in their intrests to actully attempt to maintain anything if that means they are thrown in prison, children taken into care due to caravans being seized, parents in prison etc

If its considered racist to belive that travellers should be held accountable for the destruction they leave and if it means it ruins some of their ways of life (aka removing their assists to pay for damage even if it means they can no longer travel so be it because at the moment their is no actual punishment for them) to accomplish it so be it. And we are not allowed to denouce them because we get white knights shouting the god damn R word when dealing with travellers which is the main bloody reason that the police and conuls cannot adicautly deal with the problem as they would be seen as persicuting gypsys/travllers if we attempted to hold the accountable to the same level as normal people......

On a random note the UK is a hotspot for travellers because the law is so weak that they can basically ignore it here as police will not go into camps for anything other then very serous crimes

Well, I was pretty ambivalent about travellers

Until one lovely old "lady" told me to go and fuck my granny.,

This was after a funeral at our local church resulted in loads of Ford Transits and BMWs abandoned all over the street, including in front of my drive, stopping me getting out.

I was looking at the van for some identifying marks when another car loaded up further down the street and then drove up, to give me a mouthful.

and the old lady that told me to fuck my granny looked old enough to be my granny.

I'm no longer ambivalent.

Travellers regularly 'park up' in the large park near my home.

Leave tons of rubbish, go thieving in the local area and generally don't give a shit about the local people who live there.

And the absence of places for them to pitch? Who is supposed to pay for the designated areas?

Oh, and when the police checked the registration of the van blocking me in, they could find no trace

Smilla "Eqyptian " is a term used for "gypsy". It is an alterarion of Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien, Egyptian (so called because the Romani people were thought to have come from Egypt).

In the novel The Hunchback of Notre Same for example the gypsy girl Esmeralda is referred to as " the Egyptian ".

And again without the typos.
Smilla "Egyptian " is a term used for "gypsy". It is an alteration of Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien, Egyptian (so called because the Romani people were thought to have come from Egypt).

In the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame for example the gypsy girl Esmeralda is referred to as " the Egyptian ".

When I worked in the community, I regularly visited two sites. As per company policy I had to wesr a suit, carry an ID badge on a lanyard and park my car where it would remain in my sight. People went in doors, but not before smiling at me. I coild see I had thd curtain twitcher's attention, the same as any other street in Scotland.

When it emerged I had helped ond old lady secure heating for her caravan, the atmosphere changed. I was walked to the car and treated warmly, and told come back anytime. There are some good ones oug there,

Another group I encountered was different. They hacseized some industrial land, closed off roads for privatd use and thd smell! When they wouldn't let me turn the car, they wanted to know why I was there: big mistake. Me? What the fuck are you doing here and who said you could close it off? A knife, eh? Sweetheart I was a blackbelt in martial arts when you were an arranged marriage in your ma's eyes. If you don't open that gate, I'm going yo kneecap you and run my 4x4 through your little village toot-cunting-sweet. Once I've done that I will have uour children taken away, your young woman placed in education and I will saw your balls off with floss.

He moved the barrier.

Jesus people listen to yourselves. These are people you are talking about. And some of you are talking as if each individual gypsy/traveller is like that and so will their children be. As if their behaviour is racially predetermined.

Yes some leave the place in a tip. But have you seen the streets following a festival or a football match? Simitated, if you lived outside the grounds of Millwall football club, what would your opinion be of football fans? They have the same range of personalities and types as we do, because they are not an Other to be segregated, dehumanised and treated like shit FFS.

I find it's usually the people who haven't had many first hand experiences of them who are so quick to leap to their defense (me, years ago )

My dad, a taxi driver, asked them to stop smoking in his car before and they took him down a country lane and wrecked his car.

Another time one put a crossbow to his head because he knocked in for the fare.

When I had just left school I was doing promotional work in Cork and a traveller girl came crying to me saying her dad beat her and she had nowhere to go, I begged my manager to give her a job with us as accommodation was provide. She stole all our purses, expensive items etc and ran off. Walked by me laughing a few days later and bashed into me sending me flying.

One sexually abused my friend when she was 12 and her family were severely threatened when they went to the garda.

Their very young children roam close to where I live, absolutely filthy, with vicious dogs and throw rocks at passing cars.

Just have a look at the "traveller feud" videos on YouTube of them calling each other out and you'll see what you're dealing with.

Excuse me if I sound hateful but it's based on experience.

We live in a small village down south, and probably half of the community here are "settled" travellers, either in houses, on a small permanent site, or living on their own land. You literally wouldn't know it either, my kids attend the local primary school where their kids attend, we must be lucky because they've never once caused any of the problems you're describing above, there are even travellers who pull their caravans into The local secondary school with permission and I've never seen any mess.
I think personally it's because they feel a part of the community here and they do genuinely take pride in living in this area. (maybe I'm biased though, my other half is a traveller, albeit a settled one ;-) )
Our kids go to the local primary school-the same I used to attend, even with some of the same teachers, and in general they seem happy to accept and teach a lot of traveller children.

Who would have thought that so many people on here would find so much common ground with the the 3rd Reich

The common ground is just people stating actual events, created by these people.

wow because we have stated problems caused by members of their community we are branded nazis wow just wow i hope to god Barbarian that you never ever experence the joys of some of the worst groups of travellers (not all as some are lovely just hope you get the ones we had which we basically a traveling crime spree that the police knew about but could not crack down because stupid people like BarbarianMum would cry racisim/nazis because it was a group of travellers)

I lived in a village where when a group of travelers moved into a disused carpark seemingly over night the village went from near 0 rates of crime to the vast majority of the villagers having houses robbed and the bastards driving around in cars stolen from said thefts and even with mountains of evidence the police would not act as it would look like they were causing diunity with the community (eg like the roachdale incedent) and they only finally sent in police after they actully stabbed someone (who later died btw) and then it was full riot gear / armed officers as the travellers had threated police with a gun it was like something you would only see on USA tv crime dramas....

No fanfeck the common ground is the demonisation and dehumanisation of an ethnic group based on some individual experiences, a whole lot of fear, ignorance and stereotyping

just hope you get the ones we had
Really not a nice or adult thing to say.
I really don't like the way people tar everyone with the same brush in the travelling community

As far as I can tell Irish Travellers are a ethnic minority by virtue of their cultural heritage alone. They are still white Europeans. In the same way a white English person couldn't be racist about a white Scot or Dutch person how can they be racist about a white Traveller? The Scot or Dutch person has a different cultural heritage to the English person but iwouldn't it be considered xenophobia not racism? How can prejudice against white travellers be racism? Genuine question, I'm not trying to be goady.

I have no issue with people who want to camp somewhere on land that's appropriate. I've seen it loads of times near here.

But.. the times I've seen it and they've gone, they've left the place a mess. That's what pisses me off. Rubbish strewn everywhere. The expectation that someone will clean it up.

I've encountered a few traveller children at schools. I feel sorry for them in that I don't think they'll get a decent education and achieve what they are capable of.

I hate stereotyping. I am sure there are plenty of people within the traveller community who get fed up with others for giving them a bad reputation. But it's like other groups - you can't make people responsible for the actions of others.

All I can say is that given my experiences, I expect there to be a whole pile of mess and rubbish left over when travellers leave after they've pitched up. I think that's socially irresponsible - just as pitching up in a school playground.

Live your life - but be aware of others and act in a socially responsible way. That could be applied to a lot of people.