AIBU to ask what is happening in Middlesbrough at the moment?

[Netcurtainnelly]

What's going on in Middlesbrough anyone live there?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gmrz8d31mo

This house fire may be linked to criminal activities at the weekend, where the policemen were killed.

Just before the crash on Saturday somebody's house had been rammed with a vehicle doing extensive damage to the house? They set out in their car trying to find them and retaliate.

It said it's happened to other houses as well?

Is this all linked to drugs?

It's horrible. Where's it going to end? Why would you want to be mixed up in all that?
Is it worth your life?

That's impossible. It's a hugely lucrative market seemingly with no limit and the drugs are used by people in walks of life.

Yes it seems to be impossible to stop. Yet there are democracies such as Japan and Korea who don’t have the drug problems that exist in UK and USA.
Yes, I’m sure there are drugs in Japanese and Korean nightclubs but certainly not on the scale of UK.
I don’t know about other European countries.

With plenty on nice middle class drug users fueling the market and seeing no harm in it.

Yes this is what annoys me so much. They take their drugs oblivious to the background of harm

I’ve seen posts literally calling the 2 police murderers.

That actually made me feel sick.

The death of these lads off the back of the house being rammed seems to have led police to a lot of OCG and that in itself will have a knock on effect.

In certain areas of society you have to pay for commiting a supposed wrong.

I hope the families of the police officers killed have been protected too.

The police abandoned the chase when the car joined the A66. The 2 police officers killed were travelling to another completely separate incident and it had no link with the original car chase. But of course it’s easier to blame the police 🤷‍♀️

Which they already have!

Live a short distance from Middlesbrough and that area has always been rough. As mentioned a lot of county line activities.
Alert recently went on local fb page, those roads involved are likely to be extra busy because part of the a19 is closed due to an oil spill earlier today. Hope we don’t have a repeat of events.

They aren’t oblivious, they just don’t care.

I think the families' point is that the "boys" were chased onto the A66. If there hadn't been a chase, they wouldn't have been going the wrong way on that road. Not that any of that changes the fact that responsibility lies with them.

They just see it as an occupational hazard.

If they're in prison, they'll be out soon anyway, they wont be in for long

God good that’s a scary scenario I honestly didn’t think of the safety of the murdered policemen's family. The situation is just getting worse by the day.

It was mentioned on one of the local Grangetown FB pages that one of the policemen who was killed in the A66 crash used to live in the house that was set on fire today. His family are no longer there. If that’s true, it’s another innocent family devastated.

It was a related incident. They were after the car that had rammed the lad’s house.

I'm shocked they managed to arrest so many so quickly. Shows how they can get off their arses when it's one of their own. Had the innocent people been a random family, not police, I'm not sure there would have been so many arrests so soon.

I always thought those claims of two tier policing were bollocks, but it's true. Police victims get better and swifter justice than we do

There is something quite intense going on in Middlesbrough.

I've seen the "gangs" called traveller-linked. I'd be interested to know the origins of it all, it seems quite different from the London gangs.

There does seem to be a "war" going on as quite a few different houses have been rammed this year going back to April.

The boys/men who died in the crash with police were running away from something at speed and deliberately went the wrong way down the highway as they know police will call off the chase if they do that as it's too dangerous. Unfortunately, they collided with another police car that wasn't involved in the chase and all those people died.

Honestly, anyone who drives dangerously on purpose is a total cunt in my book and it's infuriating to see social media posts from family members blaming the police for the crash

Omg! So they are targeting the families? Is it coincidence? Did they have an old address/ information?

Why would anyone want to set alight the policeman's ex house.

We need to cut down the supply of drugs and the number of people taking them. It only ends in misery all round.
I was reading that way back and addict could get their drugs from a chemist, there were no dealers or anything, but Jen again there weren't many addicts.

The trouble is, and you see it on this forum quite a lot, people are castigated for 'judging' others. We all know who the wronguns are, the chavvy types, no class, no job, nicking stuff, thinking the rules dont apply to them, feral children, you can tell by looking half the time. But apparently we mustnt judge because we dont know whats going on for someone.

Well you normally can tell pretty accurately.

one house and four shops rammed in Middlesbrough in 2025, and 6 houses rammed this year already

I watched a video about it, local residents are seriously pissed off as even outside of the property damage, their cars are being damaged and all sorts in these rammings and high-speed chases. Sadly they were too scared of reprisals to speak publicly on camera.

It does sound really lawless and awful and I can't understand how it's been allowed to carry on for so long

It will all be linked in a round about way.

One car rammed dad’s house. Second car went out to get revenge. Second car ended up killing the police. Family and friends all blame the police for some stupid reason. Flares, Bally wearing youths on bikes and quads celebrating life and then a house fire all so close.

17 people arrested now isn’t it? A family member of one of the five was recently done for driving down the very same road going the wrong way as well.

I dont think this is a new problem for Middlesbrough. It's had huge problems for decades.

It's still devastating though. I know Middlesbrough well and there are many lovely people who live there

And former Cabinet ministers.

From what I read, I think they believed the family still lived there.

Edited to say I have no idea whether any of that is true, just what I read.

It's outragous that the parents are going down this route. Do they think should just let the criminals do what they want and not try to catch them or bring them to justice. How dare the police attempt to catch them. Their own poor decision making couldn't possibly be to blame 🙄

@PetiteBach if that’s true it just shows the type of mentally those people have.

That why would want to burn out a victims family for merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being crashed into.