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.

We have a man in our local town. It appears he's homeless due to the fact he choses to live an alternative non consumer lifestyle. He goes through the bins for food that is being wasted, reads the newspapers people throw away, doesn't beg or harass people just chats and shares whatever he has. I'm fascinated and slightly in awe of him tbh.

People who chose to harass others I have no time for, especially those who like to intimidate women with young children. My advice tbh OP would be to move out of London. IMO from living there for a few years, unless you're rich London is a shithole to live in and the police always have bigger fish to fry.

Bloody hell peak woke MN.

Why should anyone have sympathy for men actively engaged in harassing women and children?! Fuck that!

Anti social behaviour is a blight and hugely stressful to deal with. As others have illustrated it pushes decent people out of public areas because they become unpleasant and safe.

No one should feel unsafe whilst with their DC in a public place and implying the OP should be grateful for the fact she is not an addict rather than support her right to live free from crime is disgusting.

@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

Easy to have views like yours when these people aren't living on your doorstep. OP are you sure you can't move? I know Catford and it's and it's the arsehole of London.

I don’t blame you @Smokyk we have this in both the centre of Manchester and the small suburban town where I live.

In Manchester it got so bad before Covid that most people in my office stopped going into the city Centre for lunch.

I am deeply sympathetic to people with mental health problems and addiction, and I actively support a brilliant charity called
Coffee 4 Craig who work with street homeless and others 7 days a week and have a great track record of getting people engaged with services.

I am not however the least bit sympathetic to people who openly piss and shit in the street, who are off their heads and accost / abuse passers by (and it’s always women passers by) and who take drugs and leave paraphernalia around in public spaces. They take over areas like playgrounds and bits of public realm and treat the place like a communal toilet/dustbin.

The problem is that there simply aren’t enough police left to police, and although charities are doing brilliant work statutory agencies don’t have the resources to back them up.

I know exactly where you mean op. My mum and sister don’t t live too far from there. It is absolutely disgusting and my first sympathy goes to the women and children these men harass.

Sheffield is grim now. Got much worse since lockdown

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?

I wasn't disgusted with anything. That was OP.

I do understand why they don't have empathy and I also understand why the choose what they consider an 'easy' person to ask.

Easy to have views like yours when these people aren't living on your doorstep. OP are you sure you can't move? I know Catford and it's and it's the arsehole of London.

You don't know what's on my doorstep though. I haven't given any views other than I feel OP question of what to do about these people didn't show an ounce of understanding for said people. My view on people with addiction probably isn't much different to most, but my sympathies may differ.

@Fluffypastelslippers

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?

I wasn't disgusted with anything. That was OP.

I do understand why they don't have empathy and I also understand why the choose what they consider an 'easy' person to ask.

Why are you surprised that a person is disgusted to be harassed by drug addicts when quietly going about her business with her small child? How should she feel? Thrilled, entertained, indifferent?

As for your latter statement, does that excuse their actions, or make them any less harmful to others? Of course not. You purport to be so full of empathy and understanding yet have shown none towards OP.

Not all addicts behave like this. Addiction does not excuse this behaviour.

I know I will get hammered for saying it but sometimes I think our system allows people too many chances.

@DeepaBeesKit

Not all addicts behave like this. Addiction does not excuse this behaviour.

I know I will get hammered for saying it but sometimes I think our system allows people too many chances.

It’s a mumsnet crime to say this, but there must be a point at which adults with mental capacity have to stand on their own two feet, take responsibility for their own lives and decisions and stop expecting others to pick up after their continuous poor decisions. Some people can have all the ‘support’ in the world and not want to make any changes. How much should other people be expected to accommodate them?

I work with homeless people most days OP. I totally understand and agree with your frustration.
I think you are right to be disgusted. Both in the behaviour of these men and in the fact that we live in one of the richest countries on earth, but seemingly can't afford enough police officers.

A pregnant lady and her small child should be able to sit on a bench to rest in this country.
A woman should be able to walk home alone in this country.
There should be consequences to the mean who behave in an appalling manner in this country.

It isn't good enough at all.

To the men*

IWhy are you surprised that a person is disgusted to be harassed by drug addicts when quietly going about her business with her small child? How should she feel? Thrilled, entertained, indifferent?

Ok. I got it wrong.

I feel for the shop keepers as well. This sort of behaviour has closed businesses. A neighbour was a security guard on a Tesco express and has been punched numerous times by the same group of street drinkers. On one occasion he needed unpaid sick leave. They rob what they can and send whoever is in their way flying, pregnant/elderly as they run off. They are considered vulnerable, so know that they won't get a custodial sentence. They don't go to the ordered rehab programmes. There is no answer to some people. We shouldn't be subjected to the antisocial behaviour.

I do understand why they don't have empathy and I also understand why the choose what they consider an 'easy' person to ask

Do you empathise similarly with other criminal offenders who pick easy targets?

I'm currently talking to a lady who lives in a flat slap bang in the middle of the problem area I'm talking about, near the shops.

Her and her flatmate have been threatened with violence, propositioned for sex, burgled twice over the space over a few months during the day time. Her mental health is in the gutter and she's not coping.

She has reported it all to the police and the council only for nothing to be done, short of a new lock being put on the alleyway gate only to be snapped off again within a day or two.

These people have been sleeping in her garden and abusing her when she politely asks them to move on, she has found discarded used tampons and condoms strewn around the garden too.

The poor woman can't even afford to move so she's essentially trapped there, living in hell, scared to come and go from her home.

I wonder if the "have sympathy" crowd would still feel that way if it were them having to live like this?

@PegasusReturns

I do understand why they don't have empathy and I also understand why the choose what they consider an 'easy' person to ask

Do you empathise similarly with other criminal offenders who pick easy targets?

I don't empathise with criminality at all.

However I have said I am wrong so maybe ignore and move on?

Absolutely all of this.

I can almost guarantee that all of the people you're talking about will have mental health problems, or have been in care, or be victims of abuse, or have spent time in prison.

Every service that in the past would have been there to help them get out of the hole that they are in has been absolutely cut to the bone. Sometimes it's that they're so deep into their addiction that they don't want help, but often it's that there isn't any help for them.

Obviously they shouldn't be peeing in public or verbally abusing anyone, it must have been really scary for you op. But you can walk away, or avoid the area in future. They are trapped, this is their life.

Bloody quote didn't work!

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.

That's what I was trying to quote!!

An addicted walked out in front of my Daughters car and smashed the windscreen with a axe, do i have sympathy for him, do i hell. My Grandchildren were hysterical as was my Daughter.

However I have said I am wrong so maybe ignore and move on?

Maybe don’t expect someone who posts one minute after you “apology” to have read it?!

@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 think that your options are limited to two extremes - fund death squads to go round at night and pick them off, or, in the alternative, get more active in the political fight for a less unequal society.

It seem it's like this everywhere now. I work in a high street shop in Lancashire and there are so many of these addict on the streets. They openly come into the small shop I work in and steal stock from the shelves. They are very intimidating and have gone right into the face of a staff member and asked what she was going to do about it. O ve they realised that the shop was an easy target they flocked to the shop. Despite having CcTV the police wouldn't persue it as shoplifting was so rife in the area.

These same addicts are not homeless they are housed nearby however they took over the steps of a museum. They would use it as a toilet and also shout abuse at shoppers as well as drinking and using drugs all day. The museum had to close the entrance and use a rear entrance for visitors. This came to a head when the local BID team paid for 3 massive flower arrangment/wooden tub things. Obviously didn't solve the problem. Moved them elsewhere but at least the museum employees didn't have to pick up human shit on the way into work every day.