Kids in masks - threatening

[OutAndAbouting]

Just wondering here what anyone else would have done in these circumstances.

Today I was in town. It was chaos, given half term. There was a group, at least a dozen, of kids, perhaps 13-14, who were wearing gold masks. (Am I outing?).

I'm just wondering what anyone else would have done to react to this? I found it incredibly threatening. I did approach the kids and speak to them, querying whether or not their approach could be threatening or illegal. I later found a policeman who was patrolling. He went to investigate.

Would anyone else find this threatening or am i being over cautious?

Your self-perception

Gold face masks? Liberace with a cold?

Did Liberace sneeze glitter or is that an urban myth?

I think that you mean that I woluldn't have gone anywhere near them.

I don't know even know what woluldn't means.

I don't think I would have paid any attention to them I would have minded my own business
I think going up and giving them a lecture you were the one being intimidating not them. And then you went and tattled to a police officer for them merely existing with a mask on
Believe it or not people are allowed to exist in public even if you don't like how they look

If they're so threatening why on earth did you speak to them?

Because the drug dealers and takers have got her/his back and won't let anyone hurt them, doncha know?

I think there is some drugs floating around, I blame the goldfish

@MrsTerryPratchett

Well going from banning masks to making religion illegal is the only overreach I'm seeing here.

Perhaps you live in an idyllic area where this kind of thing isn't a problem and you don't have to deal with it? Seems like it to me. Sadly not the case for the rest of us. Your "let the violent youths run around in masks intimidating people because imposing dress restrictions is wrong" is very tone deaf to those who have to encounter it on a daily basis. Police do little about it because you deal with one group and 10 others appear.

Not sure your airhead insult is holding up and if anything is ironic, but feel free to make some more insults, I hope it makes you feel better.

Agreed.

Same in our local town - big bunch of kids on bikes with balaclavas doing weelied in the high street, shouting swearing and being obnoxious, and yes, intimidating. The police do nothing

If you found it threatening, why did you approach them?

Sounds like you were the one looking for trouble. Being a busybody approaching the kids, telling them their Halloween antics could be illegal, wanting to shit them up and frighten them into stopping their fun because you didn’t like it. You said there was a police officer nearby. Don’t you think he would’ve stepped in and stopped their fun if it was against the law?

It’s that time of year. They could be seen as being anti social if it were at another time of year or if they were being actively menacing, but again, easy to walk on by and let the authorities deal with them.

True, I can't imagine why she "tattled" to a police officer about them, bizarre really. Whenever I have seen large groups of teens/young men wearing balaclavas and full face coverings they are always out in large numbers doing charitable work or helping the local community.

The most recent instance of their highly valuable work includes about 30 of them wearing balaclavas setting fire to abandoned mansion opposite my house, which caused me to have to keep all my windows closed in mid-summer in almost 30 degree heat, for 2 days, with 2 young children. The police, for some reason investigated, but weirdly couldn't identify them as all CCTV in the area showed them wearing their masks! So, being the hard and helpful workers that they are, they went back the following week and set fire to it again.

I just don't know how my community would survive without the help of these kind and gentle souls who contribute so much to it. Yet here people are hounding them for their behaviour when all they are trying to do is simply exist in public and people are reporting them for how they look :( almost as if people only feel the need to wear masks and hide their identity when they're up to no good, ay

No I'm not lol I'm from a major city in England. Really not surprised to hear that though, they're the same everywhere across the city. Can't believe there are people on this thread acting as if they're innocent kids out playing nicely and the balaclavas, bikes and knives are just dress up. I suppose when they're the ones getting robbed at knifepoint or have a brick put through their window, they won't inform the police, as that would be "tattling" and these are just kids out playing and minding their own business. 🙄

There is a world of difference between balaclavaed-up criminals and 13 years olds celebrating Halloween in a town centre in the middle of the day in the presence of police officers. Obviously.

My DH freaks out at this kind of thing all the time. He’s the type convinced that if he drives into town and goes to “the other side” that <they’ll know>. We were raised during the troubles, luckily for him he somehow managed to marry a pagan who has no side and who gives no thought to any such things and probably looks permanently like I’m in witch costume. Dd1 and I wanted something from town once near Halloween and there were teens out in masks and DH was horrified, I walked past and made a “ nice xxxx lads” comment and we got a simple happy collective “Yeoooooo” and they didn’t bother us. On our way back they gave Dd2 some of their sweet haul and called her by her costume name which made her day.

Nobody ‘just exists’ in society without affecting others. Covering your face fully is not impact-free. And in fact, there is every reason to think the impact is quite intentional in this case. That’s not to say there can’t be legitimate reasons for wearing face coverings, but it’s absurd to imagine large groups of young lads with faces intentionally hidden aren’t going to be intimidating for many or most people. It’s also absurd not to recognise that such groups are often engaged in other activities that cause people to be intimidated.

If young males don’t intend to cause alarm, then they can wise up and think about why wearing masks in public might be problematic.