To feel scared.

[Babyroobs]

Does anyone else just think that our communities are becoming so much more violent than they ever were ? In the past few weeks in our area ( which I don't generally think is bad) there has been a horrific rape and two stabbings of young people both of whom died. On my way to work I walk past drugs being openly sold on the street, one day I turned up for work and in the small courtyard outside the building there was a person kneeling down with a stash of drugs. I have to walk through a small park to get to my car and there have been multiple robberies/ stabbings and rapes in recent years. My friend does home visits for a housing association and has to visit a block of flats where there is drug paraphenalia littering the stairwells and blood splattered up the stairwells . Even small things like minor road rage incidents seem more frequent and people spitting all over the street etc. It all makes me feels so depressed and I'm so worried for my teenage kids growing up in this environment. This is the town I grew up in and it scares me.

The area you're describing is definitely not "not bad" but it sounds very troubled.

I live in Australia now...we moved 4 years ago. The town I grew up in had once been a very nice, semi rural/industrial small town but once the industry got killed, the area went down.

Does your area have a long history of heavy industry such as steel or coal or shipping?

Yanbu and i m glad my dc have grown up now.
I live in a nice area (home counties) and in the past few years there have been multiple stabbings, a drive by shooting and various rapes/sexual assaults.
Dd s male friend was stabbed to death back in 2015. He was only 20.
I see drug deals up the street in the early hours.
It s definitely different to the 80s when i was a teenager.

This is what happens when governments cut police numbers, cut welfare, cut youth services. Rises in crime are directly linked to austerity. It’s not a moral issue, poverty always results in more crime.

What @Crabbitstick said 👆

When we were students 18 years ago we accidentaloy moved to brixton, cold harbour lane. We never felt safe a day there. Saw people screaming in the street being chased by a guy with a large metal pipe, and once a guy with a chain. Someone was murdered outside our door the year before we lived there. Around that time several stabbings were happening on the bus routes I took to my uni.

I don't think things have worsened really? It was sucky then and still is.

I live on what is a notoriously "bad" estate in my city.
There have been a couple of minor bullying incidents involving an older boy and my 10 year old, both of which were dealt with immediately by the older boys mother who apologised profusely.

I don't think the reputation of an area has anything to do with crime.
In places close but not our area, there have been thefts, murder, drive by shootings, attempted kidnappings and rapes.

This is what happens when police budgets are cut, when the people who are supposed to protect the community are unable to enforce the law effectively because they don't have the funds.

I'm very lucky I suppose, that my "bad" area has a fantastic community centre (which we petitioned to keep open) run by volunteers, which hosts youth club, self defence classes, dance classes, over 50s coffee morning, breakfast club, food club (the volunteers have been in touch with a charity which provides food and the people on our estate can go and pay as we feel for whatever food is provided that week, meaning children are not going hungry, families can afford to eat etc)
And many many more things, such as trips to the zoo, the nature reserve, theme parks. Places a lot of the children here otherwise wouldn't be able to visit because of the poverty here, but they provide these days out for next to nothing, often paying out of their own pockets to ensure the children don't miss out.
I think this is what makes our "bad" estate good.
Despite its reputation, there is less crime and a better sense of community than other areas within our city.

The people here pull together and rally around when someone needs help.

You area, I'm afraid, sounds very bad indeed!

Nonetheless, cuts have much responsibility here and you're right that many areas have suffered.

I live in an extremely naice area. In the last few years there have been some high profile and appalling murders. One was apparently related to the Russian administration. The other due to a deranged person who kidnapped two innocent women and caused untold trauma on one and killed the other.

What to make of this? I’m just not sure. There was also a drug related murder within a mile of us last year. In a way that’s the only one I can make sense of.

So YANBU, it’s very scary. Yet random. Unless you belong to a demographic which targets you.

That definitely sounds like a bad area to me..!!

Report what you see to police, especially drugs. Even if they can’t be there immediately, they need the intelligence. I have done this after seeing street dealing.

2018-19 data:

Commenting on today’s figures, Mark Bangs from the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice said:

“The picture of crime is a complex one. Overall levels of crime have remained steady, but this is not the case for all types of crime. For example, overall levels of violence have remained steady but we have seen increases in violent crimes involving knives and sharp instruments. We have seen increases in fraud and overall theft, but decreases in burglary following recent rises.”

YANBU, there seem to be a lot more people around with no manners, who are anti social and have no consideration for others. Also, the roads are so congested with traffic and roadworks now that it's enough to give anyone a bit of road rage, although that's no excuse for the aggressive, tail gating behaviour that so many drivers exhibit these days.

I think that drugs are much more widely available than they used to be, and this is a big factor. Also, there seems to be a lack of discipline in schools (the teachers have few effective means of discipline so the kids have become fearless), and often no real discipline at home, so there are more young adults with no self discipline and a sense of entitlement who resent having to work for low wages, when they see many people seemingly becoming millionaires, just for being famous on social media.

The PP who spoke about community spirit is lucky - that seems to be quite rare these days.

It is scary. All you can do is try to get along with your immediate neighbours, in the hope that you can look out for each other. Also, remain vigilent when walking around, as it's easier to avoid confrontation than to deal face to face with an aggressive person looking for their next drugs fix. Crossing the road in good time is the wise thing, in any neighbourhood, when you see someone dodgy ahead.

Yanbu to feel scared, it's awful how some places are going.

I'm not sure if things have actually got worse, but thanks to social media people are much more aware / panicked about what's going on.

43Crabbitstick, totally agree.