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 have both personal and professional experience with addiction, so i can certainly feel some sympathy, however i also live in a deprived area, and its not uncommon to see discarded syringes etc on the street, this is an area where w lot of children play out, i have had people banging on my door asking for change and cigs, its fine to feel sympathy but idont need it impacting on my or my kids lives

I would ring your local police station about your experiences. We have a similar problem where I live and every once in a while the local superintendent cracks down on the ASB like a tonne of bricks and the worst of it stops. The aggressive begging stopped for us a while back for good, the Super must have made a real impression that time in the handling of what is going on. I am off the opinion though that I prefer seeing addiction out in the open and in people’s faces (and believe me it is in my family’s face because we live only doors away from the main addicts hangout in our town) because underlying every addiction is a person who cannot cope with life without a substance and if they are hidden away then people will never even try to address the root causes of their damage.

I have an addict in my family and thinking you can change them is the road to madness sadly.

I also live on the edge of a deprived area and see some of what as been described regularly too. Most in my area have a 'home', they live HMO'S funded by the taxpayer and provide them with shelter. I do think these places need staffing/wardens to ensure that ASB doesn't hace to be tolerated by their local neighbours. It create ghetto's on residential areas.

Drug and alcohol abusers do need dealing with before local communities take it into their own hands! We all need to pay more tax and insist on the services these people need. If you don't live in area like this you really can't understand the toll on mental health it can have on you.

I agree, it can be really intimidating and horrible when you’re out with children. It’s one of the reasons we left London. I now feel safe walking around at night. I didn’t before.

I’m not sure why anyone should be expected to put up with that to be honest. It doesn’t mean I don’t have sympathy with addicts, but neither should I have to be verbally abused & intimidated.

Lobby your MP. Lobby your mayor. Lobby your local councillors. Lobby. Lobby. Lobby.

And be prepared for your council tax to go up to pay for it. But get lobbying.

Our local bus station was taken over by abusive addicts a few years ago. School children, elderly people and vulnerable people could no longer use it. Only men were able to use it at night time.

Sympathy for them? Nah, my sympathy ran out a long time ago when I was shouted at by one of them (I have mental illness and ptsd) and my autistic ds was harassed for cigarettes. We haven't been back into town since. Why do they get freedom of movement and we don't?

Your first post said they’re pissing up the wall when you didn’t get enough sympathy it changed to your daughter being exposed to male nudity. Which is it? Is your daughter the wall?

She’s not going to know what crack is she’s certainly not going to know someone is drunk when they high five her either. It’s a shame other people’s chaotic lives make you feel uncomfortable for those 5 minutes.

Good luck with your petition though.

I get your frustration, I was so fed up with this anti social behaviour in our city I moved out when I was pregnant as I didn’t want my kids to grow up surrounded by this. I still work in the city in an office overlooking a multi-storey car park that was perpetually full of tents, absolutely stank of urine, full of used needles and from our office we regularly watch open drug deals and people injecting drugs! Me and my colleagues run the gauntlet to our cars twice a day, not fun in the dark winter months! We get accosted for money or cigarettes and are shouted at, it’s so intimidating. The police move them on but they just come back and charities perpetually offer help which is rejected. How do you help people that don’t want help?? Sorry but my sympathy is limited and I just don’t know what the solution is!!

@Smokyk

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.

The Tories cut funding to charities by a third as soon as they were elected and have been cutting them down to the bone since. Lots of organisations that would be helping these people are either gone or only resourced to fight fires with their budgets.

It's horrible to see open drug and alcohol abuse in the streets but that's what happens when you vote Tory. They have a short life expectancy so if you hold tight, most will be dead from addiction and violence.

The majority of the people you see will also have mental health problems but there is very little mh help nowadays because of Tory cuts. If you complain there's little in the way of help. I believe some places actually find homeless people so perhaps you could petition to fine them for drunk and disorderly behaviour.

@Fluffypastelslippers

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?

They are not tone deaf, they are desperate addicts.

It's absolutely disgusting.

What is the answer? A petition? Or do us normal locals just have to accept it is what it is?

You 'normal' locals should probably count your blessings as you go about your day.

When you asked what the answer was I though you were meaning in terms of helping these people

Count their blessings as they’re made to feel unsafe & harassed by drug addled (mainly) men? Are you being serious?

Sympathy for them? Nah, my sympathy ran out a long time ago when I was shouted at by one of them (I have mental illness and ptsd) and my autistic ds was harassed for cigarettes. We haven't been back into town since. Why do they get freedom of movement and we don't?

I can relate one hundred percent to this, I have PTSD and an autistic child too (although my DS is only little, he finds them frightening)

Unfortunately a large part of my PTSD stems from male violence, so being approached then verbally abused by strange men really triggers me. It takes me quite a while to calm down after something like that and makes me feel quite ill.

I'm so sorry you and others have had to put up with that.

@Blanketsnpamphlets

Your first post said they’re pissing up the wall when you didn’t get enough sympathy it changed to your daughter being exposed to male nudity. Which is it? Is your daughter the wall?

She’s not going to know what crack is she’s certainly not going to know someone is drunk when they high five her either. It’s a shame other people’s chaotic lives make you feel uncomfortable for those 5 minutes.

Good luck with your petition though.

It's both!

The bloke stood up from the bench he was sitting on, took out his penis and pissed up the wall right as I was passing with my two year old daughter!

Do one with your condescending tone.

Ignoring these problems is not necessarily being kind quite frankly, you are just leaving people to publicaly spiral their lives out of control and damage their minds and bodies whilst also destroying the town centres, parks and localities and make everyone else feel unsafe, ignoring is a lose lose position .

My local town now have 3 live in addiction centres. In theory it should work well but unfortunately between the hours of 9am and 9pm all the patients are just chucked out on to the street. This means they are in the town centre harassing locals and getting drunk.

We definitely need to be helping these people but the current centres are not working and are just a waste of money.

Its not just about helping people, people cant be forced to accept help for addiction if they dont want help.

@LaBellina

That’s disgusting behavior OP. I can’t understand that people say it’s excuseable behavior to harass a pregnant woman and toddler and whip out your penis in public in full view of others to piss against a wall. I don’t care if you’re an addict. My sympathy for these men ends where their harassment of women and children begins.

I also think the police is mostly useless but a newspaper article or even a YouTube vlog by someone with a lot of followers might help. Public outrage often helps to encourage the right authorities to step in.

Thank you

@Blanketsnpamphlets

Your first post said they’re pissing up the wall when you didn’t get enough sympathy it changed to your daughter being exposed to male nudity. Which is it? Is your daughter the wall?

She’s not going to know what crack is she’s certainly not going to know someone is drunk when they high five her either. It’s a shame other people’s chaotic lives make you feel uncomfortable for those 5 minutes.

Good luck with your petition though.

Well clearly the man had to take his penis out to piss up the wall

And the child won't know that the man has taken crack or is drunk, but she will be disturbed by adults behaving like that

And fuck off with the passive aggressive shit about the OP being made to feel uncomfortable for 5 minutes. Where I live there are a lot of hostels and so we get a lot of people hanging around drinking and taking drugs. The local asda has blue lighting in the loos to deter people from shooting up ( apparently makes it more difficult to find a vein). The addicts can be lovely. The same people the next day can be aggressive and threatening. I have a lot of sympathy for addicts but I would prefer to be able to go to the supermarket without being shouted at or have people trying to intimidate me into giving them money.

@Teapiggies

Count their blessings as they’re made to feel unsafe & harassed by drug addled (mainly) men?

Yeah. I didn't say this. I said count their blessings, it's very obvious I wasn't meaning what you said and even more obvious I meant because they don't have those lives.

Please don't try to put words into my mouth.

Are you being serious?

I was indeed. The penis thing I actually missed and while it's not ok I am still shocked that OP post was concerning ridding the area she uses of these people, rather than accessing help for said people.

[quote Fluffypastelslippers]@Teapiggies

Count their blessings as they’re made to feel unsafe & harassed by drug addled (mainly) men?

Yeah. I didn't say this. I said count their blessings, it's very obvious I wasn't meaning what you said and even more obvious I meant because they don't have those lives.

Please don't try to put words into my mouth.

Are you being serious?

I was indeed. The penis thing I actually missed and while it's not ok I am still shocked that OP post was concerning ridding the area she uses of these people, rather than accessing help for said people. [/quote]
It isn’t OP’s duty to access help for these people. Her duty is to ensure she and her children are safe. Stop trying to make out the drug addled men making her feel unsafe are the ‘vulnerable victims’ and that OP is some pearl-clutching neurotic mother.

I have very little sympathy for addicts who choose to inflict their ASB on the general public. I have professional experience of dealing with people in dire situations and can rightfully say some of them don’t want to engage with help. Some areas in the city center have become no go areas as the street drinkers have taken over and no one wants to be harassed, people are performing sex acts in the open while under the influence, there are used needles and faeces strewn around the park. The area needs tourists and locals to enjoy it and spend money there but all of this puts people off.

I don’t know what the answer is though.

*It isn’t OP’s duty to access help for these people. Her duty is to ensure she and her children are safe. Stop trying to make out the drug addled men making her feel unsafe are the ‘vulnerable victims’ and that OP is some pearl-clutching neurotic mother.

I didn't do this.

@Fluffypastelslippers

*It isn’t OP’s duty to access help for these people. Her duty is to ensure she and her children are safe. Stop trying to make out the drug addled men making her feel unsafe are the ‘vulnerable victims’ and that OP is some pearl-clutching neurotic mother.

I didn't do this.

You said:

I am still shocked that OP post was concerning ridding the area she uses of these people, rather than accessing help for said people.

I didn't say it was her duty and I certainly didn't call or even insinuate she was neurotic.

And yes I do think it's a shame that the OP was disgusted by the presence of people who need help rather then having a single shred of empathy. That doesn't mean I think she is neurotic or responsible for fixing it though.

@Fluffypastelslippers

And yes I do think it's a shame that the OP was disgusted by the presence of people who need help rather then having a single shred of empathy. That doesn't mean I think she is neurotic or responsible for fixing it though.

Are you disgusted that the drug addicts didn’t have any empathy for a pregnant woman and child, and instead decided to harass her? Because they do have a choice - it’s very rare you see them harassing a 6ft4 tattooed bloke. I wonder why that is?