To wonder whether the media headlines about teenage gatherings in Clapham have been a bit exaggerated?

[Carla786]

I live near but not in Clapham. I understand it must be very scary if you are in the area, having these crowds of teenagers suddenly turning up.
But AIBU to think the media are exaggerating the danger? I have heard there was some looting and one girl arrested for attacking a police officer but overall there doesn't seem to have been mass violence or theft. Just a lot of teens, some of them disturbingly masked, gathering in one place in big numbers because of some TikTok trend.

I honestly wonder if all the media coverage was unhelpful in the sense that it may have given them the reaction they wanted.

AIBU?

As I said, educate your kids not to follow socials like sheep. Don't be a reform voting idiot and do whatever someone you never met and probably doesn't exist tells you to do. Critical thinking.

You’re not showing a lot of it. What if the parents are shit? How do they teach their kids not to be shit? Who teaches them?

Yes. And do away with the "human rights" garbage for prisoners. If they want to behave like animals, treat them like animals.

Having seen the footage, I think it has been grossly UNDERreported

Oh crumbs. You’re serious! Maybe find someone else to chat to. I think you sound silly. FYI. None of what you say will work.

I have often thought that such fast food chains should have to supply their own security (not to mention litter pickers) to deal with the behaviour of their numerous awful customers.

I think every town in the country has a group of teens and wrong-uns that hang around outside McDonalds. It is a magnet for bad behaviour where I live.

We don't have a Macdonalds, and I have no idea where local teens hang out. I've never seen any sign of groups of kids hanging around when I've driven through town in the afternoon/evening, so it must be somewhere pretty discreet.

I can't think of any shops here that they'd want to loot, either, with the possible exception of the booze aisle in Tesco. I can't see teens stripping Sea Salt or White Stuff of their stock, somehow.

It has always been the same outside McDonalds as long as I can remember, going back to the late 80s when the first one near me opened. Where did neerdowells hang out before McDonalds?

They do in most McDonald’s in town centres or problem areas. HTH.

Have you read the statement by M &S? The assaults on staff in the last week alone are horrific. Ignoring these attacks and hoping they'll go away if they don't get attention smacks of the gentle parenting approach that's created these little shits

Lots of things on the news are not as they seem. 2020 proved that - stock photos of people “flocking” to beaches, the photo of the long walk in Windsor great park taken at an angle to look as if people were crowded together - and I’m still anticipating a confession of “actually, some of the videos in early 2020 involved actors”. There were plenty of actors available who had had their work snatched away.

I took part in the anti-lockdown protest marches, and saw with my own eyes how big they were: easily hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even a million. What did the BBC say? “A couple of hundred conspiracy theorists on Speakers Corner”. Yeah, right.

Another staff member was head butted and hospitalised according to a news report yesterday. Elderly people and parents with young children were frightened and intimidated. It isn't acceptable or excusable behaviour at all.

This is awful. I just heard a headline on what Iceland security are asking for

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/iceland-lord-walker-of-broxton-shoplifting-truncheons-pepper-spray-retail-crime-b2951681.html#

I hope they will be dealt with as harshly as the rioters last sumer.

@Carla786 ive seen the videos on social media, surprisingly it doesn’t seem to have been reported much in the news.

I wonder why. What was the been demographic of the rioters?

What do you mean by that, exactly?

Are you implying it hasn't been reported because they were largely ethnic minority?(The videos I've seen were quite blurry and didn't give much detail, but some pps I've read say they were mostly black. We need more info to know for sure though)

What long walk in Windsor Park?

They should be punished, definitely! I'm just not sure how helpful the media attention is.

Don't be silly. It would be very easy for the CCP to manipulate algorithms to spread this stuff on TikTok. We know they do that with divisive content like 'gender wars' stuff.
The Chinese company who started TikTok deliberately designed it to be addictive and disruptive. The Chinese version of the app that Chinese teens use was designed to be much less so.

If juvenile incarceration works so well, how come it doesn't seem to improve recidivism rates much?

I agree criminals should be jailed but locking up huge numbers of teens isn't a very hopeful future, especially with birth rates falling. We need to fix the root causes.

I agree

See my post on page 1. That was horrific but not to do with the Clapham gangs, it was separate.

That may be so, but you've gone from "just a lot of teens... gathering in one place in big numbers because of some TikTok trend" (in your OP) to a major, concerted attempt to bring down Western civilisation.

Locking young people up will probably make their lives worse but I don’t agree that this is a media issue.

I just heard M&S line of ‘epidemic of violent theft’ and the Iceland response below. It’s a problem that needs to be looked at not downplayed.