Vigilante "lockdown breakers/name and Shame fb"

[AtAt123]

So today I learned that on our local fb groups people have set up a group and are encouraging people to go on their daily exercise and photograph people in their gardens if you feel that they could be breaking lock down rules . Then the photos and address would be posted in the public fb group and also would be sent to the police. Luckily this vigilantism was closed down really quickly but people are screaming and baying for blood from people that they assume have broken lock down.

It's almost as scary as the virus. If these pious "I quarantine better than you " people were in Europe during the 2nd world war under German occupation then I dread to think how many more people would have been killed for no reason. Instead of just looking after their own household half the nation seems to have become obsessed with curtain twitching and reporting people for any perceived flaws to an already over stretched police force.

The government caused this massive spread of disease by their inaction in dealing with it. And the government has turned it back on the people and relying on public shame to cover their ineffective treatment and prevention of spread. THEY allowed this to blossom and now for every good deed there is a bitter twisted person reporting people.

Aibu saying there should be no place for these antics when we should be focusing on our own household?

Arghh typos, I shouldn't rant while feeding at 6 in the morning! * being sat
*allowed

What I don't get is what they think it will achieve. Instead of actually asking the people they see themselves, they post on social media, what is the point of that? These awful people like to fantasise about "somebody" doing something about it but don't want to actually tackle it themselves. There are proper reporting channels if you have a genuine concern but because they don't, they just froth about it on social media. Awful, awful people.

I completely disagree with OP.
Whilst the Government have indeed not dealt with this quickly enough, the actions of those flouting the rules, is separate issue. Maybe even More serious?

And I don't see it as vigilantism. I see it as holding people to account.

People going to the beach, or Richmond park, or their second Scottish holiday home - were not obeying the rules. It was on the news, because most of us are staggered that people could be so ....... dumb? as to not 'GET' the rules.

Mind you, plenty of stupid questions on MN, proves the stupidity:

Thread: "Can't I take the kids to the park"?
Answer:" no you can't, you stupid woman! don't you know what the rules are? "

Beggars belief. I'm repeatedly staggered by people's stupidity!

It's grim how much pleasure some people seem to take in this. I guess it makes them feel important

And I don't see it as vigilantism. I see it as holding people to account.

But that is not what the OP is talking about at all! Talk about straw man!

@Oblomov20 but they aren't being "held to account" are they? They are having their photo posted somewhere they probably won't even know about. What's the point of that, other than for the vigilantes to froth about it and congratulate themselves on their "superiority". So many of these vigilantes have actually made up their own rules and are berating people for not adhering to these self-made restrictions. If you have a genuine concern, report it through the proper channels where something can actually be done about it rather than simply spreading vitriol on social media.

I couldn't believe what I saw on my walk the other day... Rabbits, coming out of different holes, congregating in groups, less than 2m, eating in public, running around together... Haven't they heard the rules?

One of my favourites was yesterday someone complaining that the roads were very busy and people shouldn't be out, but she was ok because she was going shopping.

Loads of hypocrisy it's ok for me to be out but not others.

Horrible, isn't it :(

We had the self -appointed village head mistress and her gang stood outside the village shop one day, (I think they'd actually drawn up a rota for "shifts"). They asked everybody going in what they intend to buy, who they intended to buy it for and whether or not the shopping trip was included in the daily exercise "allowance". After a few very choice words from people, the person in charge gave the village a stern talking to on the village FB page and was rounded on again. Today we've had "Don't forget to clap for Boris tonight....it will only be a minute so there's no excuse". I love the village FB page it keeps me entertained for hours.

Bloody hell, trapped, where do they keep the stock of pitchforks and burning brands? What on earth do these Captain Mainwarings gain from turning themselves into public laughing stocks? They must all have a very twisted sense of self.

"On a local FB group yesterday a woman posted that she had been out clapping at 3pm and only 2 other houses were out. She demanded to know where everyone else was."

Ah, that was the clap for the children. Was all over our local TV, but noone did it. Thankfully noone did the dancdxat 7pm either on Saturday.

Somebody took a photo of me while I was out walking with the kids a few days ago.
I loudly shouted "Excuse me, why are you taking photos of my children, are you a paedophile? I'm calling the police".
Usually I despise the types of people who accuse everyone of being a paedophile for no real reason but I felt it was justified in this case and may make the gentleman in question reconsider his own actions.

@YappityYapYap you have the work rule wrong. It is you can travel to work if you can not do it at home and you can keep a social distance when at work. It is not only essential workers who can work. Or at least that's what the rules are in Scotland. My DP is still working and a few people have tried to tell him that he shouldn't be working because he isn't an 'essential' worker. He isn't breaking the rules.

I reported my neighbours because they were having parties nearly every night with another set of neighbours. I would not report someone who was in their own garden minding their own business.

What really gets my goat though are the annoying twonks who post the sanctimonious "I haven't been outside today, how many others can post this too...." on facebook.
Usually posted by people who aren't shielding or anything, just trying to prove they are better at isolating than others.

Someone posted it the other day when they'd earlier told me in messenger that he'd been for a walk.

I don't use FB - but interesting to hear that it's not just nextdoor.com that is full of batshit crazies.

Even my local normal fb groups have pretty much resorted to this .
So much so I can’t even bear to go on fb now , it’s literally nothing but moaning about who was in what park , what such and such bought at the shop, why is this shop still open .. blah blah fucking blah

I got deleted off a fb group for calling out a guy for shaming people for being out. (Whilst out himself) this gives me the rage!
Another guy took a picture of our town centre and yeah there were people milling about except they were all 'fucking idiots' and he had genuine reason to be out 🤷‍♀️🙄

Also people who had been to the beach at the weekend and were 'pleased to see people listening and staying away' except them... they must be special beach goers who can go to the beach whenever!

Half my town are in walking distance of the beach so there could of been tons of people all there legitimately!

Def going to have to delete fb till this is over!!

Thought police are well an truly out there....

Yes, work doesnt have to be essential, you can go to work if you cant work at home. So if your boss doesnt provide you with a laptop, you can go in.

I got into a row with someone online who told me I shouldn't be out walking in public with my 5 children (all younger than high school age, some toddlers) as it is a 2-person in public limit.
Then she argued that if we were going to date go out we should space at 2m the whole way down the street!!!

I would report the post to the police if they're putting up names and addresses of people. This happened a couple of years ago in my local town when some kids were causing mayhem, someone posted one of the kid's address only it wasn't, it was someone's elderly parents and they got the ensuing abuse from the angry residents. The police dealt with that and I imagine they'll be stamping on this sort of thing too, it's really out of order.

Is anybody able to explain to me (in layman's terms) why it's not okay to be in your garden for a few hours during lockdown? I'll welcome any plausible explanation. I'm so confused

Just to clarify my PP I don't have a garden that I can hang out in so I'm not looking for any kind of justification, I just really want to understand.