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.

We have them here, ‘naice’ market town in the SE. Fatal stabbing the other day, which most people knew would happen eventually.

They are children. And they appear to be untouchable by the police. Loads of vandalism, knife crime, theft. It’s horrendous.

I don’t know, but they just shout back at the police, “I’m under 16, you can’t do anything F off” they know they’re ‘untouchable’

Town in North East Scotland - it's happening here too. 'Police attend disturbance in McDonalds' regularly features in our local newspaper.

I'd bring back borstal and give these kids a short sharp shock. Their parents are doing them no favours at all -

Yes, recently starting to happen in my town in West Yorkshire.

No but then I don't live in broken Britain where parents have tibwork around the clock to heat their homes instead of being able to parent

Glad he's safely home OP

so what did they do? My friend says the go behind the counter.

I'm thinking they might put in barriers and maybe even a turnstile type thing to enter. I hadn't realised these kids were so young though, it's mostly over 16s in her place. Is it time to have "night in the cells" for 10 year olds?

Sadly these kids are right, they are untouchable.
There's no deterrent, being arrested and judges not punishing them is a badge of honour.

This has worried me as my dad lives there (Cwmbran) and he often strolls into town for exercise. It wouldn’t take much of a shove for him to go down. 😔

I wish he’d move to where I am - none of this stuff.

Yup. I'm in the NW and they are in bikes or scooters here. Been going on for years, I've had real issues with them banging on my windows, throwing stones etc. which sounds nothing but when you can't open your blinds or relax because you're waiting for the next thud...

I had a firework put in my window a couple of years ago, they don't know who lives here and if there had been a baby when it exploded they would have killed them
I also had to pay for new carpet...

It doesn't sound like nothing, sounds terrifying. Is it one of those things where people know who it is but there's no legal recourse?

Planning permission for a Macdonalds in my town has been refused at least 3 times, and we don't have a KFC either, so thankfully we don't have this problem. I've heard rumours that they are going to apply yet again, for a drive-through on an industrial estate, which will please the people who've just spent £500k for "penthouse" flats overlooking said estate. I doubt if they'll get it on traffic grounds, as the area is frequently gridlocked.

And we don't seem to have a significant problem with groups of kids hanging around in the evenings or after school anyway

There are advantages to living in a small town in a national park, even if it means you have to drive 10 miles to get to a decent sized supermarket, M&S or any other relatively mainstream shop.

@EmmaEmerald the police do what they can but then they grow out of it and the next generation start
Basically v low level ASB all the time

I don’t doubt that every generation thinks that youth behaviour is much worse than it’s ever been, but it does SEEM worse at least.

I live in a rather insalubrious area and the McDonalds nearby can be horrendous - the abuse the staff put up with is awful. The town centre ones are worse, I popped in on my way somewhere because I was starving and I was struck by the moody feeling and circling security guards. Now I know why.

I guess the police need to crack down harder but they’re playing a game of under-resourced whackamole.

They seem to be older too. I mean knocking on windows and running off is the kind of thing you expect off 9/10 year olds
But when they're 15/16, dressed all in black and hammering on the windows, they don't seem to get its more intimidating and you're more towards harassment than simple knock and run that a kid does

Also at 15 shouldn't they be drinking cider in a park and chatting up girls or playing x box or whatever rather than doing stupid shit?

I sometimes feel I must lead a very sheltered life as I have never heard of this before. There are no fast food places in my town. Perhaps that's why.

It sounds truly dreadful.

Granny I think one reason it seems worse is overpopulation

I'm in London and a friend who grew up in one of the most notorious gang spots moved to a carefully chosen area when he had kids. He's been flabbergasted to watch it turn to shit. I just think everywhere is doing that, there's not that much division of area unless you are very well off.

I find that when I speak to people who haven't been to my bit of town for years, they don't believe me. But interestingly, one such couple came to visit me here, my late father brought them and we went out for dinner locally. They were shocked walking up from the station and even more shocked walking back from the high road after dinner. He said they were practically silent on the ride home!

Oh that's a bonus - fast food outlets are definitely a hangout for these types.

All fast food stores with problems to shut to all except deliveries/drive through after 6?
Or curfews for the under 16s unless out with an adult.

But dont forget poverty begets crime. Kids with no money and depressed self medicating parents will get into trouble.

They really need to start policing again properly or there's going to be blowback. There was a case near me recently where a teenager was being relentlessly bullied by a gang including the home being attacked, they did that one night and the father lost the plot and chased them in his vehicle and ran two of them over, breaking their legs I think.

He's in trouble - of course he is - but every single of the many comments below the article supported him. People are fed up. A minority are turning towns and cities into vandalised, litter-strewn, violent shitholes with seeming impunity.

Gangs of under16 around our NW town. large groups rampage around train station and have stoned buses. A while back I had my windscreen bricked while driving. Frightening but luckily did not shatter. Will be worse when weather improves. Do wonder what parents are doing and where they think the little darlings are. Police using dispersal orders but hard problem to deal with.

Is this more a small town thing then?

Yes. And as a PP mentioned the point at which it started to become a noticeable trend coincided with lockdown and Covid restrictions. But it's a lot of factors - extension of County Lines, city gangs expanding out of the cities into small towns with less experience of dealing with gangs and fewer resources to deal with them, copycatting driven by social media, etc.

We don't have as much associated crime/violence in our small town, but we do have significant increase in antisocial behaviour, and a rise in gang associated graffiti tags. Youth workers have been updating local schools and colleges on the tags to watch out for (this will be different for every town).

where my mum lives few miles outside of my town)there’s a big co op and on the way home my 20 year old dd and her younger sister dd3 who is 12 popped in to get some bread and milk whilst I sat in the car and waited.It was 7 pm.

they came out upset and dd3 was crying. They’d been followed round by a group of kids aged between 11 and 14/15 shouting that my dd3 was a dirty p* and other horrible racist slurs. My dd3 has Romany ancestry though her dad .

the shop said that these kids were a menace, the police can’t do anything and their parents didn’t care. They are well known on my mums estate.

dd3 gets it all the time, stuff shouted to her by little shits in town. Makes me mad

Your last post sort of spells out why this is happening. I'm 50 and it wasn't that long ago that it didn't take the police over an hour to attend a violent offence because they were dealing with a separate incident elsewhere. We used to have enough police on the streets that it didn't matter because the perpetrators were still outnumbered. Now it's the other way around. We don't have enough police to deal with situations they should be able to get to straight away. Turning up over an hour afterwards is as useful as just not turning up at all. You couldn't go anywhere without police on the streets before, not you struggle to find one when you need help. We had an incident where lives were in danger and after half an hour of 999 calls not being answered and residents risking their safety getting people out of a collapsing building we eventually managed to flag a passing police car down who were just driving past and weren't actually coming to help us. Is a dismal situation. I desperately what to see police back on the streets the way we used to, not driving through the area at high speed and too few in number to police effectively when they are needed. I mean how did we get to a place where the police can't attend a violent incident where members of the public are in fear of their safety for over an hour because they don't have enough officers to deal with two incidents at the same time?

A friend had their car window shot out, thankfully no-one was in the back.