Why aren't we discussing the kids running riot in London and Birmingham off the back of a TikTok trend? [title edited by MNHQ at user's request]

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

If there’s already a thread I couldn’t see it.

@EvangelicalAboutButteredToast yep same age range on Monday. But it was mainly males shouting and screaming in shops. Then the girls weren't far behind

Similar behaviour in my little town in the far south west. It seems there's a "cohort" of young people who went feral in lockdown and never re-engaged. They have been badly let down. Like many areas, opportunities and activities for young people have shrunk so there is very little to divert their attention from trouble-making.

Although they (and their parents) do equally bear personal responsibility.

Oh, there was an attack like this in Bangor in N. Ireland last week. I wonder if that’s what it was.

These are the kids we shut in at home with no oversight on family circumstances beyond the odd phone call from a social worker, during covid, aren't they?

They are no doubt school kids. A while ago I was in Westfield in West London when the schools came out. Suddenly masses of police appeared with dogs, and mobs of kids descended on the place. Obviously I made for the car park with the speed of light. Great shame for the shops and employees.

They and their parents have let themselves down - you can't blame feral behaviour on anyone else.

This kind of behaviour is not new, it’s not a COVID thing. The brunt of the blame lies with parents here.

2013 in London and other cities we had rioting and looting of shops by teenagers. I live near Croydon and shops were set on fire there.

I have worked in one of the worst schools in the country (preen!). I can tell you that trying to engage with a lot of parents is utterly hopeless. Conversations range from at best “What do you expect me to do?” to a plain “F off”

Actually my boyfriend who’s working in Caledonian Road area was in a park, there was a man with a dog and some teenage girls were copying the dog barking, jokingly suggesting a play fight with him and the girls had to be told by other park goers to leave the man alone as he got angry with them.

There's no deterrent, no consequences.
.Young ones feel untouchable like they can get away with anything, and they do. They have no respect either.

The UK is a cesspit and it will only get worse.

Been going on for years. My mum worked at a central London primary school and towards the end of her career it got more common for kids to make up that a teacher had hit them when this was wildly exaggerated. Parents then stormed down to the school threatening the teacher.

This was in 90s.

Someone else mentioned Bangor in NI. A group of teens attacked and injured a man and his dog while out walking. They were part of a search and rescue team.
Horrible.

My grandchildren in Australia were in far stricter lockdown and for longer but they certainly dont behave like this,But they have decent responsble parents..

This is the BBC reporting on Clapham
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm25yv7z3jko

And the Standard
www.standard.co.uk/news/london/chaos-clapham-m-s-teenagers-antisocial-behaviour-b1277207.html

The riots in 2011 were a lot of teens but there were plenty of adults involved and that was triggered by the police shooting of Mark Duggan. Initially a protest and then a free for all to loot

There was a similar gathering in 2023 in Manchester at the end of the summer term when loads of kids from various schools all met in Piccadilly Gardens and mobbed places. Shoplifting didn't seem to be part of the plan then but the tram system had to be stopped as boys were climbing on top of them. That case and the current issues in Clapham and the West Midlands are not like the 2011, there's no initial flash point. Just knobhead behaviour that's seemingly contagious

If there are any. Can you imagine doing this when you were that age? No. Because we had respect for our parents, others and the police. Why are people expected to live in shit holes because others think they can do what they like

I think this is largely due to COL pressures .The fact that many young people feel disappointed with lack of /cash/ opportunities and going on SM to express their worries .Word spreads and this sort of thing happens .I remember back in 2011 the riots then .They will have to clamp down ,but it will probably happen more and more with such a situation sadly

What has COL got to do with behaving like this? It is feral behaviour. Millions of people are struggling and don't behave like this. I am getting increasingly fearful of the future of this country. The decline has been in plain sight for a while now but the pace is accelerating at an alarming rate.

Generally, people don't riot when they are safe, happy and content.

We've had issues in Fife because of a combination of free bus passes and a lack of consequences: teenagers have arranged to meet up in specific locations and gone on a rampage.

A news report from last year. Mind you, as a child in the '60s I lived in that area [should be Stenhouse Street, not 'Road'] and I recall that some 'big boys' set fires in what was then wasteground.

https://news.stv.tv/north/police-attacked-during-appalling-disorder-involving-50-youths-in-cowdenbeath

The difference now is that our free bus system for youths means that that they're coming in from other areas.

The latest fad seems to be arranging to meet on the top deck (if there is one) and then wrecking the bus.

I was on a single-decker bus from Edinburgh to Fife the other month and some unruly teenage boys ignored other passengers and started up again each time the driver set off after warning them.

We expected that police would board at one of the bus stations, but no such luck. To be fair, there was no violence or vandalism but loud sectarian singing and swearing plus banging on the windows to the extent that the driver feared that they'd be broken.

Interesting that the Guardian didn't cover it.

@ThemUnsYouseUns that’s what I was wondering, if that poor bloke and his dog being attacked was part of this. At least four of buggers were arrested, I hope there’s more and there’s some sort of punishment.

I remember when I was a child in the 90s there were riots of mostly young people and ‘happy slapping’ teen gangs in the cities - even young girls.

In 1980, 200 teenagers violently fought each other on London trains.

Prior to that there were hippies and squatters causing problem.

There have been teenage and young people in the UK being violent thugs and running wild for as long as there have been inattentive parents, trauma and a lack of a big enough threat to keep them in line by attentive parents. Society is not breaking down.

It's become worse over the years. (I taught in Scotland from '84 until last year.)

In 2001, one of my teaching colleagues was punched in the stomach by a 15 yr old thug. He blocked the second punch.

The very respectable parents tried to have my colleague arrested. When the police said that there was no case to answer, they complained to the Director of Education and had my colleague doorstepped by a tabloid.

He was suspended pending an investigation and reinstated but eventually resigned because the boys at the school were targeting him.

No, the police didn't charge the pupil. At that time in Scotland, the Children's Panel dealt with under-16 crime and the police often didn't bother to pass details on since it wouldn't normally go to court.

Later, I was punched in the stomach by a boy from the same age group. The police 'lost the statements' and the boy's friends tarnished my name by saying that I was a homophobe. I didn't even know the kid until the day he ran into my room after another boy and then punched me in the stomach while I tried to phone for back-up. (I had been pregnant—though I wasn't showing—and was trying to protect my stomach by staying out of his reach, which was why I hadn't physically intervened.)

The only consequence was that, in spite of the 'lost statements', the police referred the boy to SACRO who then phoned me to explain that I'd 'got in the way' of a homophobic assault and that the boy wanted to meet me to apologise. I refused.

It was after that that some of his pals started to spread the homophobe rumour. It didn't stick, but it could have caused me a great deal of damage.

In my last year of teaching, a young woman teacher was punched in the arm. She was scolded by management because she asked for the culprit to be removed from class for a week. On the same day, a heavily pregnant Pupil Support Assistant was punched whilst walking down a corridor. Fortunately, her baby was okay.

Sentencing guidelines up here now mean that it is highly unlikely that anyone under the age of 25 will receive a stiff sentence and teenagers know that they're practically fireproof if they're under 16.