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.

My friend works in McDonald's and they had to close the other night she's got a sicknote for 4 weeks and is desperately looking for another job while she's off she's doesn't want to go back

I'd like to think that as they get older they'll look back and think "Wow, that was really pathetic of me, all we did was embarrass ourselves and make life much harder for everyone we assaulted, the people we terrified, those who had to clean up the wake of destruction we left in our trail" but something tells me they won't, I don't think the sort of person capable of this behaviour is capable of such a 180 degree switch on their views.

I don't think they will switch their views no, and if it's this bad now, what next, when current teenagers become parents? Can it get even worse?

It’s very sad although unsurprising that this seems to be happening all over the country. Our McD’s has now employed security guards. Interestingly whilst visiting KFC with his friend (who works there) they asked my son to come and work there (you can start today they said), it’s a pound less per hour so he declined. He told his manager back at McD’s and they instantly gave him promotion- currently training him up to be manager. Both places must really be struggling to get employees!

There’s a lot of delivery drivers always congregating around both establishments working for UberEats and Deliveroo which is a different problem- they are so rude to staff, speaking loudly and aggressively in their native tongue knowing no-one can understand them, parking in all the disabled spaces, ogling young teenage girls and generally intimidating women (in general) it’s grim, really grim.

I’ve told DS to look for alternative employment. He’s more suited to driving a fork lift / working in a warehouse. I avoid our TC at all costs, it’s like this during the day, but worse at night.

Local gang to us were riding their bikes into everyone/riding straight at cars etc. Eventually somebody filmed it and put it on the local FB page where people named them
Parents came on to stick up for them and were blasted.only one parent apologised and said they are dealing with it
That was a colourful night on FB

My ds is at an independent school. Recently a boy vandalised the school toilets, his parents were presented with a very large bill. The boy was punished but I was glad the parents were hit where it hurts too.

That’d stop stuff like this

Yes this happens regularly in a kfc in my area. The manager regularly has to lock the doors apparently as they trash the place. I posted a thread about the Uk being a dump lately, which I should have mentioned this in. The country feels lawless lately.

Lots of troubles around our small town too with teens causing disruption in shops. Gangs of them reported frequently. The local yr6 youth club was invaded by some older kids and scared the hell out of them.
Making it very hard to give our yr6 child a bit more independence with that going on

The police are basically a joke these days, kids test it's what they do and they never get punished so just act up more and more.

This was terrible. The young lad who was stabbed staggered into the McDonald's & collapsed on the floor. I know a group of young people with learning disabilities that were there - they were traumatised by it as would have been the many families that were there at the time. The local situation really is getting out of hand.

Surely any school kids filming themselves breaking the law/disturbing the peace/causing criminal damage/fighting etc should be suspended from school.

There's no authority anymore. The government have lost control of just about everything.

I agree, and yet on this very forum we get told constantly that kids should be out on their own, learning to be independent, that we shouldn’t be holding them back blah blah…
But sometimes it just isn’t actually safe!

What happened to borstals? Do gooder twats and now look where we are.

The problem is there’s always an excuse for appalling behaviour, often backed up by some kind of diagnosis. Parents are never held to account either, so they become arrogant and entitled. Not to mention that smacking or even shouting at little darlings are genuinely considered forms of abuse.

We’re talking about the failings of entire generations here; people who loathe authority and have gone ‘non contact’ with their own parents and grandparents (probably for trying to enforce some) and get their ideas about parenting from the internet (ie, each other).

We’ve gone beyond the point of no return, I’m afraid. We’ve treated kids like emperors, allowed them to rule us, and now we are reaping what we have sowed.

Most horrifying of all is the thought of what THEIR kids will end up like. I truly shudder to think.

Whoa, let's not blame the police let's blame the bloody parents
The police have less and less power to do anything-not their fault
Make parents financially responsible for their children's actions

I'm tempted to blame the parents - but, where did these parents come from? Why are they such bad parents? Is it their parents fault? Or the parents of the parents? There must be more to it.

The parents @DuesToTheDirt , we've got too used to passing the buck
You have children, you parent them
They misbehave you take responsibility for them

Why are we paying for a police force then? What are the tax payer actually paying for?

Iphones allow them to run rings round teh police.
Also why you get overcrowding at gigs etc - someone finds a free way in, they tell everyone else.

Yes this.

Clearly there is a problem, but it is not a new one.

Yes, Britain was a utopia when we had borstals. FFS.

We need to invest again in ALL the things that help:
Social services
Youth services
Schools
Police
Courts
Drug/alcohol services
Probation services

The Tory government has basically defunded all services.

That's the attitude, make it someone's eles problem
There are hardly any police, parents need to take responsibility until a child is 18
Hit people where it hurts and I'll bet they'll be less likely to vandalise and intimidate people for jollies again

There’s a cultural issue in some cases where parents really don’t care. It gets passed down to the dc. Encouraged even.

I was gobsmacked on Nextdoor recently. Someone posted a video of a gang of teenage girls trashing his corner shop. People were coming on saying how awful it is, and what little shits these girls are, and then someone posts outraged because people are badmouthing her sister! She was basically insulting anyone who dared to condemn these girls, saying her sister is only young so it didn't matter. Unbelievable.