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.

I just asked my son if he has seen tiktok threads telling him to go and riot in Marks & Spencer and he burst into laughter. He watches tiktok so I assume you do have to be looking for them or in that kind of scene! He does wear black though, as do most kids these days so I don' think that can be classed as threatening.

I believe the various communities of these teens participating in this need to step up, take ownership and responsibility and do better.

I’m sick to death of it. The capital is over-run by feral little shits!

They face no consequences and it’s the same kids from the same feral parents every single time.

Not really, are you someone who grew up locally?

“…….They have been badly let down……”

They have been badly brought up @AlphaApplethough I do see that you added
“…..they (and their parents ) do equally bear personal responsibility.”

Yes, all those strapped-for-cash kids carrying smartphones worth hundreds of pounds…at least social media is free for them in these hard times😒

Is it just local kids or do messages spread and they travel in? I mean you might not know but just wondering generally.

@EasternStandard likely to be a mix.

Now are some feral? yes. Is lack of punishment a factor? yes. Social media? yes. It’s also boredom though and the fact some of them have nothing to do & parents who won’t or are unable to monitor them.

In a neighbouring town, kids were throwing fire extinguishers out of an empty office block windows!! Appears we have no law and feral youths.

I was in the middle of a crowd of roller skating, shouty teens today in Central London. Some 25 young men mostly. I stood still and must have looked alarmed because one shouted " We are not going to attack you." Ok then!

I expect it's only a matter of time before there are virtually no physical shops at all due to the current levels of shoplifting.

As far as I’m aware shoplifters (not the gangs) and kids get no jailing or anything nowadays - maybe community work but I’ve never seen criminals doing anything like that.
So how many hours should a police person put towards collecting interviews, eyewitness statements, watching hours of cctv for a pointless court case?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/12/uk-food-shops-report-massive-rise-in-pensioner-shoplifting#:~:text=in%20pensioner%20shoplifting-,This%20article%20is%20more%20than%2010%20months%20old,different%20level%20of%20crime%20now.

not just the young carrying out that!

Yes and previous generations were kept busy with what? Not much tv, no gaming, no internet , oh yeah, books. And radio

@rosycheex I went to youth clubs & plenty of illegal raves in the 90s which meant sleeping the next day! I certainly didnt spend my school holidays indoors reading books!

I think shops should have normal sized doorways and security standing opening it and closing it - not exactly ye olde greengrocers but WE are all paying for the shoplifted goods. Certainly not the shareholders as Tesco and ? Sainsbury’s had record Xmas seasons - why do shop doors need to be metres wide making it easy to steal ditto no staffed tills -
Fix the doors, man the tills you b***

@EvangelicalAboutButteredToast i'm absolutely horrified by this but it has been going on for a very long time

I think the authorities try not to speak about it because it runs the risk of more people going down there.

I left London nearly 3 years ago now. Before I left, I heard a member of staff in a shop - probably late 20s - talking on the phone to his mates about where they were choosing to go and cause havoc that night.

There was a barmaid in the local pub who had to stop working in McDonalds - in a different area - because it was such a norm to go and terrorise the staff there in big groups and just take all the food.

This problem has been a long time in the making and as far as I can see the top politicians ignore it - while local police, business owners etc are really struggling.

I'm aware that there's a balance to be struck in terms of not inspiring kids to actually go down there

If you remember the 2011 riots, the coverage seem to stop dead at 10 pm and they just kept repeating the same stuff. I had been out in London that night, we all went home very quickly and I had several messages telling me they had seen trouble in their area if they were getting home around 11? It was absolutely everywhere.

The press were definitely asked to stop reporting because increasing numbers of people were just going everywhere they could.

Absolutely nothing happens to these kids. The age of criminal responsibility doesn't seem to mean anything. They're bright enough to understand that the bigger the crowd, the more cover they have

I presume all the people posting have seen issues at Southend Beach with the machetes that happened a couple of years ago?

I've also known it to happen in really nice parts of London. I had a security guard who works for an agency tell me that increasingly, nice areas were being crossed off his list as well.

I get really annoyed when people say that these problems exist on social media. They don't. If your workplace is in central London, you will have staff from all over London and they can all attest to these problems.

Also, another reason it doesn't get discussed on here

Just my opinion

A lot of people on here say that they don't go out in the evening. If you talk to people who are regularly going through London in the evening, they have a very different experience

I think, if you live in the outer suburbs, it's a lot worse - obviously central London has theatres and restaurants and tourist and everything like that. It does get targeted, but I think these kids prefer areas outside of Central.

Because the girls can’t run as fast as the boys or fight back. That pesky biological differences thing that we’re not supposed to acknowledge.

With any luck the arrests of the girls will lead to tracing others there, though.

I am out in London 3 times a week late at night, usually alone. So far nothing untoward except jeering or whooping, but maybe I have been lucky.

I think you are genuinely missing how much kids do this for entertainment

The cost of living etc is irrelevant in this situation. It's the complete lack of deterrent and the fact that their parents were raised with no discipline and they now think that's a normal way to raise their kids from
minute one. They have zero expectations of their kids and if they were told that their child was part of this, they would probably say "it's just a big group of kids having fun".

The girls who were caught have been charged with shoplifting. They weren’t just hanging around.

Do people really think it’s a good idea to give 16-year-olds the vote? Because you can’t say, Oh, they’re only kids with no youth clubs one minute and then the next believe they would make a decent voting decision.

Is this happening in other countries or is just UK youth? If so, what's happening in our society?

The sort of feral kids that do this stuff don’t want to go youth club and play table tennis.

I lived in central London during the 2011 riots. Lots of kids involved, lots of looting. Sorry to ask but...where are the parents?