Drug/drink addicts around the town centre, begging, urinating in public. General A.S.B

[Smokyk]

Does anybody else have a similar problem locally to them? I live in Catford (S.E London) and I'm honestly sick of the sight of it.

Whenever I go to my local Tesco I'm hounded by drug addicts for money. I can't sit down on a bench for 5 minutes to rest my legs without being approached (I'm 8 months pregnant)

There are a group of drinkers that sit near the Costa all day every day, spilling booze all over the place and pissing up the walls in full view of passing children (including mine) making the area smell like a urinal. There are signs saying it's a no drinking zone but they take no notice.

Yesterday we walked past one of these men openly smoking crack at the side of a shop making no effort to conceal it.

Another bloke, drunk as a skunk and in a group of several tried giving my DD (2) a high five and terrified her.

How tone deaf need you be to approach a lone pregnant woman with a toddler when you're out of your head and in a group?

I've been asked for cigarettes and verbally abused when I've said I don't smoke.

One of the well known beggers even harasses people inside cafes.

It's absolutely disgusting.

What is the answer? A petition? Or do us normal locals just have to accept it is what it is? I can't move.

I actually have an addict in the family by the way, unfortunately it's my mother, so I'm not devoid of sympathy and understanding and probably have alot more insight than those bleating on about "be kind"

But it's just not acceptable is it?

My DD (aged 21) works in the local city and no longer goes into the centre on her lunchbreak for this very reason. She was absolutely terrified when a very drunk man followed her demanding money.

How is this acceptable?

I live in se London and Catford is particularly bad for this kind of thing.

I would ignore the guilt tripping posters OP.
You are perfectly reasonable to not want to deal with men exposing themselves to you and your toddler and harassing you, esspecially in your current pregnant state with a toddler in tow. People who think you’re unreasonable should give their head a good wobble. Or swap houses with you if it isn’t all that bad! See how long their sympathy lasts….

I was walking down the high street once and saw a syringe just lying on the pavement

@LaBellina

I would ignore the guilt tripping posters OP. You are perfectly reasonable to not want to deal with men exposing themselves to you and your toddler and harassing you, esspecially in your current pregnant state with a toddler in tow. People who think you’re unreasonable should give their head a good wobble. Or swap houses with you if it isn’t all that bad! See how long their sympathy lasts….

Completely agree.

I'm with you OP. Have a bit of sympathy but go and piss in private and go and be a desperate addict somewhere else so I can walk around without feeling scared

OP it's not acceptable and you can feel compassion for someone while not wanting their behaviour anywhere near you or your kids!

Report, report, report - especially if it's the same people in the same place, that should make it easier for the ASB team to find them and get them some assistance while reducing the behaviour. You actually have three different options where you are, it seems -

Council antisocial behaviour team: lewisham.gov.uk/organizations/antisocial-behaviour-team

The Met has a Safer Neighbourhoods team for Catford, their website shows their patrol routes and contact details: www.met.police.uk/a/your-area/met/lewisham/catford-south/

Finally there's a local assembly for Catford, one of the topics they are supposed to cover is antisocial behaviour: lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcouncil/localassemblies/catford-south-assembly

I would be on the phone reporting to all three teams.

Just seen your post on the local FB page op! I agree with you entirely

Perhaps the 'Wow. just wow!' and posters are happy for town centres to become no go areas because of anti-social behaviour, but I agree with you OP that it's not acceptable.

@ConsulTremas I once organised a petition to stop badly thought plans for introducing a string of parking measures in my town.

No idea how it would help here, isn't it all down to funding in the end?

I think what helped is that I developed a questionnaire, got out there and approached the people using the areas affected and wrote a report on the findings to present to the council.
(basically I did their job for them)

My sympathy ends when they are committing indecent exposure and harassing women and children.

Guarantee they wouldn’t do it to men.

I'm relieved some of you can see where I'm coming from, I'm actually in disbelief at the amount of people on the Facebook post blaming it on everything except the people doing it. I wonder how they would feel if it were their children being scared?

Budget cuts aside, it's not the government's fault that people are exposing themselves in public or smoking crack in broad daylight where families with children are shopping.

@ThreeLittleDots

There needs to be more police on the streets. Addicts will only accept help when they want to change, and services can only do so much. I do sympathise but especially whilst services are so stretched, some places are simply no-go zones.

You’ve got Teresa May to thank for the lack of Police on the streets. The numbers have never recovered from when she decimated them.

@Xiaoxiong

OP it's not acceptable and you can feel compassion for someone while not wanting their behaviour anywhere near you or your kids!

Report, report, report - especially if it's the same people in the same place, that should make it easier for the ASB team to find them and get them some assistance while reducing the behaviour. You actually have three different options where you are, it seems -

Council antisocial behaviour team: lewisham.gov.uk/organizations/antisocial-behaviour-team

The Met has a Safer Neighbourhoods team for Catford, their website shows their patrol routes and contact details: www.met.police.uk/a/your-area/met/lewisham/catford-south/

Finally there's a local assembly for Catford, one of the topics they are supposed to cover is antisocial behaviour: lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcouncil/localassemblies/catford-south-assembly

I would be on the phone reporting to all three teams.

Thank you that's very helpful, I certainly will do.

A petition isn't probably going to do very much. They sound in desperate need of help and an outreach service, but at the same time addiction and mental health shouldn't be an excuse for poor behaviour, especially around children. If it were me I'd probably look into what's available locally in terms of services, charities, community groups who could help and see if they needed any assistance/donations. If there was nothing available I'd be questioning why and that it's likely services needed commissioning/funding in that area. Likely reporting ASB as people have suggested above would help towards that, as would bringing it up with your local mp and council.

@ThreeLittleDots

Those addicts are someone's child/ sibling. Could very easily be your child in the future

In my family, an addict adult child was forced to leave the home as he was abusive and violent. It is not fair for others to tolerate abuse in any setting.

It's usually only people with zero lives experience of addiction who say things like the above.

I have plenty of experience of addiction sadly. It was MY child my deceased child. Don't make comments about what I post, when you don't know the facts.

The solution, stop tax evasion and maybe higher taxes for pay for mental health care (not 6 shitty CBT sessions and addiction support. More police wandering around town centres to stop the harassment and keep an eye in the vulnerable addicts.

There are some alcoholic/addicted people like this where I live - there are particular benches they congregate on - but they don't seem to bother other people, or perhaps I've just been fortunate. I was asked for a cigarette and said truthfully that I didn't have any with me, and the bloke said 'Thanks, God bless'.

More police wandering around town centres to stop the harassment and keep an eye in the vulnerable addicts.

This would be helpful I'm sure.

It's very rare I see a police presence in the town centre unless they're attending something specific.

I have plenty of experience of addiction sadly. It was MY child my deceased child. Don't make comments about what I post, when you don't know the facts

Sorry for your loss.

People will unfortunately comment on what you post in a public forum, and of course they don't know the facts if you choose not to disclose them.

I did however say the word 'usually'. IME people tend to say comments like "what if it was your child?" if they feel somewhat guilty or responsible for addicts, either on a societal or personal level.

My family member also died, but I don't try to encourage undeserved sympathy towards abusive addicts.

There used to be a homeless alcoholic in my city centre too, he always was ‘patrolling’ the huge parking place in a dark part of the centre and would kindly ask for a bit of money or a cigarette which I was happy to give him as indeed his presence kept the number of thefts and smashed car windows very low in that area. He wasn’t causing any nuisance and told me several times that if someone harassed me, to shout his name and he would come and rescue me . Genuinely a nice bloke with a lot of bad luck in life. Not all addicts are bad but the behavior the OP describes is horrific.

@HarrietsChariot

Not much help but we have that problem here too. These days I just ignore them, sometimes they shout abuse for ignoring them but why should I care?

Mind you nothing as bad as this "classic" from Worthing a couple of years back.

Can't help grinning that one of the men involved said to police on being shown the video of himself - "well yes it definitely looks like me"

Probably shouldn't joke.

Same here. And I live in Cumbria.

They piss and shit everywhere, harrass people for money and have full on fights in between waiting for their not very discreet dealer when they've begged for enough.

They aren't even homeless, on the rare occasions one ends up being prosecuted their address will be in the paper and their poor neighbours have spoke up. Its almost like the police have given up and left town to rot...... I don't know what the answer is but I do think people who give them money should be fined because it's making the situation ten times worse!