Is this gang thing happening in your Town Centre?

[GangsinTown]

I’m really concerned. There are gangs of young people dressed in black with hoods and caps that are frequently in our Town Centre going into McDonalds and KFC late at night trashing the place for no reason. I’m talking throwing tables and chairs, smashing windows creating as much carnage as possible.

My son works at McD’s and this has happened twice in the last month. His friend who works on the other side of town in KFC has also experienced this. It’s just happened again tonight and my son’s manager was punched in the face whilst pushing a thug out to lock the door to protect people inside. Customers are terrified asking to hide behind the counter.

He said it happens everywhere because these are young teens (under 16) who think they’re untouchable from the law because of their age, they record it on their phones then post it all over social media - mainly Tik Tok for kudos.

I’m now terrified for my son going to work. We live in a small town, it’s not a large or capital city where maybe you’d expect higher crimes rates.

@MsJD school probably, huge issues with vaping in schools including dealing

It is getting worse though, I read an article the other day that under 18 crime is on the rise and one of the age groups crime is really on the rise is under 10s but no one knows/nothing can be done as they’re not the age of criminal responsibility. Gangs use them to run drugs, there’s been a rise in rape and sexual assault committed by that age group and it’s getting worse year on year.

I think the difference is that now electric scooters, bandanas over faces and hoodies up are a "fashion" and town centres are no longer full of adults enjoying a drink in the evenings like they were 20/30 years ago - there are empty shops and empty pubs, which leads to youths thinking they can take over a town and do what they like. There does seem to be a "gang fashion" atm.

The smell of weed everywhere is awful. You used to smell it occasionally, but now it pervades whole areas, at all times. Apart from the stench (it makes me feel sick - worse than Lynx!) it is worrying that swathes of people must be permanently stoned, and by all accounts this exacerbates some behaviours.

18 year olds buy the vapes and sell them to under 18s at inflated prices.

I know it’s a free country but I’d ban TikTok as I can’t see anything to commend it. The arseholes posting Nicola Bulley clips should be put in the stocks.

I remember starting to smoke at 13 and I didnt manage to quit until I was 40. I would have averaged a packet a day for 25 years. At today's prices, thats 100k.
They are not being done any favours. We used to get them from cigarette machines that were everywhere back then.

Im old , and really there was nothing like this when I was young in the middle of the last century

W must be similar ages, but that sentence made me suddenly age visibly 😂

Definitely not a thing where I live. Sounds very intimidating OP

And on another thread an OP is asking if she should be upset by a TA making her 4 year old sit on a chair and reflect on his behaviour.

I feel for teachers and TAs I really do. There seems to be no effective way of making kids behave at school so they think they can behave just how they want out of it.

No proper discipline allowed at school and a 'my little Johnny is a good boy and never does anything wrong so I won't dscipline him attitude at home' attitude.

Add in the influence of arseholes like Andrew Tate and we have a huge issue with youth. Social media has a lot to answer for

It's getting worse but it got better for many years before that. Thirteen years of Conservative government usually makes poverty worse and crime - including youth crime - rises.

I live here too. The dispersal orders in place aren't doing anything are they. I won't go near certain parts of town after about 5pm these days. Bus station, McDs etc. A young woman I know had her wing mirrors kicked off in the drive thru, whilst her 3 year old and 9 year old children were crying in the back.

Yes happening too much in West sussex towns. We have reported many times as they threatened our staff with knives

and it is 100% getting worse. I do question the motives of people who deny it and say oh it's always been like this. No, it really hasn't.

Since they can't buy them legally they steal them from shops - many shops now have them out of display in the main shop so they just grab a few and run - very little chance of getting caught.
There was an MP proposing vapes should be kept behind shutters like cigarettes etc - I think that's a good idea.

Is this more a small town thing then? (Genuinely no disrespect intended). I just can't see them getting away with this here - we're London, zone 2/3, plenty of local crime and antisocial behaviour but if they tried it in our local Mc'Do's they'd get the shit kicked out of them by the 10/15 delivery drivers hanging round the entrance.
This is not to say our local kids aren't up to worse....just cant see them being so overtly twattish.

I don't know how vaping got a reputation as harmless. It's different to smoking but that doesn't mean that it causes no health issues. I'm sad that so many kids are vaping.

I know this area very well, may even live locally... it is a nightmare situation. Unfortunately every time the police put an ASBO in place it pushes them to the neighbouring areas which has a hugely negative effect on those residents. However I think the delivery drivers intimidating any women that walk past are worse than the teens. Profit over people though... Mcd's here won't fork out for any more security!

There’s a real conflict. On one hand, the local town is desperate for people to shop there and to open new business and keep the existing ones. But no one wants to go into a town centre where, even in daylight, there are gangs of 10-15 year olds roaming the streets and trashing shops and open areas.

The train station is a no go area, the e scooter kids wildly dangerous and they damage whatever they can because they can.

Yes we have this problem currently. Live in a very leafy, small town and we've got a huge problem with young kids trying to "act hard". Lots of issues with knife crime, ASB etc.
the police are pretty good here to be fair and they have upped foot patrols, but they just give them a warning and they're free to go.
The parents literally don't care. There were some kids who destroyed the kid's playground last summer and were shouting homophobic and racist abuse. Someone put a very simple post just saying this was happening and warning people, and the abuse they got from the parents underneath in the comments! "My kids have every right to be doing this blah blah blah". It's just sad. And shocking.

I live in a town that is very heavily reliant on tourism and the police are quick to deal with stuff like this - it started in 2019 with kids riding scooters and bikes up escalators and trying to take over the pedestrian areas - they were quickly identified and nothing similar has happened since. However the asb has moved to a couple of shopping precincts on the outskirts of town, where police presence is low, so it doesn't go away.

Nothing at all like this happened in the (rough) areas I grew up in 70s/80s, other than the odd rumble between rival local schools. So much has changed since then.

I saw {and heard} a group of squeaky~ voiced kids trying to act tough and being disruptive milling around a Macdonald's at around 7pm when walking through a seaside town last year.

I feel sorry that the workers have to put up with such inane behaviour.

Yes he’s home safe and well thank you, it took the police an hour to get there as they were on the other side of town where something similar was happening in KFC only worse as they were trying to beat up customers!

I absolutely hate our town centre and avoid it at all costs, but popped into Asda as a one off yesterday when I took him to work. All you can hear is F this and F that, kids pushing and shoving passed, and a whole group of kids (they must have been only 10 or 11 yrs old) actually sat / lolling across all the trolleys in the trolley park vaping. How intimidating! This was at 4 in the afternoon. I hate it

Unfortunately most of his shifts are late ones, but someone’s got to do them.

I don’t agree things have always been like this, certainly not in my area, I felt safe going into town with my friends when I was a teen, never experienced anything like this.

My poor younger teens, they used to love popping into McD’s or KFC after going to the cinema in an evening, I won’t be letting them anymore.

I urge you all to push it with your local MPs, shout about it on social media etc. we need Police on the streets and we need youth workers back in communities. The pack mentality can be very alluring in young people and with limited consequences more young people will get seduced by the excitement and kudos this behaviour brings.