Feral teenage gangs - what can be done to protect us?

gurramok

Last night on Ringsend Rd(between Pearse st and Ringsend bus garage) in Dublin I was in my apt at the back and I heard constant screaming from teenage kids at the front.

Now me thinking, they are noisy kids playing whatever they get up to and they always trot about while passing on the main road. I could hear girls screaming and fella's shouting, all about 15 yrs of age. This went on for a few minutes and when I finally went to look out the front window to see what the commotion was, i couldn't believe what I saw and heard. Squad cars lined up at the neighbours gate with the family next door at their gate in tears while a bunch of scum teenagers laughing and joking at them with about a dozen Gardai between the 2 sets.

From what I could make out especially from the teenagers mocking impersonations of a fight, punches were thrown from the teenagers at the father and kid(yeh, he's about 8). Now, whatever happened initially between the 2 groups over maybe words exchanged, there was no justification for a mob like that to pick on a father & mother & child huddled together with the father under severe distress while his wife and kid were balling with tears on the street.

I asked the neighbours afterwards what happened and they wouldn't say, I reckon they just want to move on and deal with it privately so i didn't pursue it. They were still crying over what happened. They are foreign(think Polish) so maybe their English was not great and they were probably still in shock. Very nice people, the last you'd think of who would of been involved in such an incident. It was such a sight to see the mother and child still crying about 30minutes afterwards when i did approach them, i'll never forget it and i''ve seen some nasty crap over the years while growing up in a deprived area.(yeh for the smart aleks i'm not really from D4 :P)

The Gardai(fair dues to them for being quick in response) moved the perpetrators on after a few words and they headed on their way towards Pearse St flats. No arrests though:mad:.

Thing is, do these kids have no moral awareness of what they just did?
I asked myself, was this a racist attack? If the family was Irish and local, would they not have been so persistent in picking on them?

It might seem fun to them having a few punches with a strangers family and bragging about it to each other but the damage they caused to that family is immense. Its not the first time i've seen teenagers up to no good picking on strangers, it makes you think how often this harassment goes on. I've seen security guards in shops locally been picked on by groups of teenagers 'for the fun of it' and co-incidentally all those security guards were foreign.

Vandalism along the busy road has occurred in the past few weeks, like bus shelters and panes of glass on the nearby bridge put in(there goes anyone else's safety as protective barrier on McMahon bridge is made of glass). Rumours from speaking to other neighbours was that it was passing teenagers doing the damage.

Should there be a law thats enforced restricting large groups of teenagers congregating at that hour of night(incident happened just after 9pm) like in the US or something else done to prevent teenagers harassing people?

kraggy

Ireland's gone to ****.

If I were in government, I'd have it that 16 year olds and younger have to be accompanied outside by an adult after 9pm. If not, slap a big fine on the parents.

Once money comes into things, parents aren't long copping on.

I'm really beginning to hate Ireland. The amount of scum in our country is worse than Britain at this stage. I've lived there. It's not as bad as Ireland.

Hank_Jones

Personally I think that if they are caught doing anything untoward, that the Gardai don't feel they can prosecute them for, then they should be forced to clean the streets or something regarding community service.
That way they would meet different people, who weren't complete scumbags like them, and possibly make them think twice about what they are doing when out with their scanger mates.

gurramok

Yeh, i've been to lovely derelict Birmingham and Manchester and its nowhere near as hostile as it is in Dublin.
I was the only neighbour that opened the door to the situation albeit late on a busy road. I've wondered, if I had came across the incident sooner by a few minutes, what would have the scums reaction to me been Irish if they had confronted me as well?

Or perhaps the incident was not racist in that they would have picked on someone if they looked different in any way.

I've a down to earth local accent to compete with the teenagers ones, would they have backed off as i was local(could be naive here ) or would they have just picked on me as well?

Hank_Jones

gurramok wrote: »

I've a down to earth local accent to compete with the teenagers ones, would they have backed off as i was local(could be naive here ) or would they have just picked on me as well?

Let me look into my crystal ball and see...

Hmmmm.....yessss

They would have probably told you to fcuk off if you had intervened as teenage scangers generally don't give a fcuk what any people say to them.
And I'd imagine that it was an inicident relating to prejudice, as a lot of young people aren't properly educated on other nationalities and races, they therefore think of these people as ''different''.

Sofiztikated

Tl;dr

The only thing you candour about feral animals is ensure no food is left lying around, so as to not attract them into your garden, and use a hose to spray them to scare them off.

R0ot

Summary Executions anyone?

Pighead

R0ot wrote: »

Summary Executions anyone?

The Citizen is dead. Chaos ensues.

FlutterinBantam

Them Winter Gardens can be tough enough!!!

Seriously, there is a nest of flats in behind the Fire Station area there, most of the scangers originate from there.

If you dont believe me take a stroll down there any night.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Nodin

gurramok wrote: »

Feral teenage gangs - what can be done to protect us??

Tucking your trousers into your boots would be a start.

Dartz

2 words;

Battle Royale

El Siglo

Teenagers are pretty bad nowadays, however there's nothing a sack, few cinder blocks and a river couldn't sort out.;)

jonsnow

write a strongly worded letter laying out your concerns to the Daily Mail

Kiera

Its disgusting. Those little feckers wouldn’t dare start that crap with their own or with a group of Polish guys.

The poor father couldnt do anything for fear the little runts would jump his wife and kid. Intimidating little pricks. :mad:

bonerm

I blame the Education system tbh. My parents raised me right and I'm a decent enough person now(imho) but when I entered secondary school (in a new area) there was an element there (who am I kidding - the majority) of scum in the place and they were given the run of the place so long as it didn't interfer with the teachers cushy-lifestyle. I was a good kid but I found myself veering towards this element in order to fit in /survive so I can see how the majority of little tykes who get involved in this type of behavior aren't genuinely bad and are only trying to get by. Doesn't excuse it of course.

I think if the teachers there had been allowed to take these trouble makers (myself included) aside and knock seven shades of **** out them that they wouldn't have been so anti-social (both in and out of the classroom) but of course that wasn't an option.

That was over 10 years ago now so I can only assume that in this nanny-state we live in that the level of behavior has deteriorated further as a result of this kid-gloves approach. Anyway, the jist of this post? Bring back corporal punishment in the classroom.

beng128

kraggy wrote: »

If I were in government, I'd have it that 16 year olds and younger have to be accompanied outside by an adult after 9pm. If not, slap a big fine on the parents.

Once money comes into things, parents aren't long copping on.

It thould really be all 16yr olds that have an IQ under 100 hould not be alowed out after 9, cos there are till a few decant teens out there.

Pighead

bonerm wrote: »

Anyway, the jist of this post? Bring back corporal punishment in the classroom.

Balderdash. That just means the teacher will take the easy option and beat little Johnny black and blue instead of trying to get to the root of his problem and find out what is making little Johnny act like a spanner.

As Yeats (or maybe it was that bird from the Cranberries) once said: When the violence causes silence. We must be mistaken.

Dravokivich

bonerm wrote: »

I blame the Education system tbh. My parents raised me right .

How is the education system to blame if you reckon your parents did a good job raising you?

The problem is that they know nothing is goign to happen to them for their actions... these scumbags can walk around and fuck with everyone they please and nothing is going to change that because there are no repercussions for their actions...

this is where the problem lies...

not with schools...

Their parents most likely don't give a fuck.

- Drav!

Ordinary man

Hit them in the pocket. I believe any law breakers should lose all entitlements to dole etc for life. If they want to act the bollix why should society eer give them anything. Same with the adults.

Whippersnapper

They don't get enough love and attention at home, they come from homes where there are a lot of issues and they don't know how to handle it. They take out all their anger and frustrations on strangers. It's not solely down to education. If your parents treat you well and instil moral values in you then an unruly element in school will make no difference.

Intothesea

Few months on a building site in the deep mid-winter might help :pac: The unapproachability of welfare system reform; fearful (from lowered sense of social cohesion) and passive (thanks to perceptibly ineffective policing) attitudes towards troublemakers and lack of faith in the law are primarily making this possible, I think. The antidote is social organisation, responsive policing and obvious and apparent just laws and punishments. I'm not sure if your native accent would beget a more positive response, but by the sounds of it it's only a matter of time before it doesn't. Sad stuff.

Dravokivich

Whippersnapper wrote: »

They don't get enough love and attention at home, they come from homes where there are a lot of issues and they don't know how to handle it. They take out all their anger and frustrations on strangers. It's not solely down to education. If your parents treat you well and instil moral values in you then an unruly element in school will make no difference.

All the scum I've known... and trust me I've worked in a few shiteholes, never had problems at homes with their folks...

Agreed, thats where the problem is though, if the parents dont show a sense of responsiblity and pass it onto their kids, the kids aren't going to get that from no-where.

The kids are scumbags because the parents are scumbags...

- Drav!

dolliemix

bonerm wrote: »

I blame the Education system tbh. My parents raised me right and I'm a decent enough person now(imho) but when I entered secondary school (in a new area) there was an element there (who am I kidding - the majority) of scum in the place and they were given the run of the place so long as it didn't interfer with the teachers cushy-lifestyle. I was a good kid but I found myself veering towards this element in order to fit in /survive so I can see how the majority of little tykes who get involved in this type of behavior aren't genuinely bad and are only trying to get by. Doesn't excuse it of course.

I think if the teachers there had been allowed to take these trouble makers (myself included) aside and knock seven shades of **** out them that they wouldn't have been so anti-social (both in and out of the classroom) but of course that wasn't an option.

That was over 10 years ago now so I can only assume that in this nanny-state we live in that the level of behavior has deteriorated further as a result of this kid-gloves approach. Anyway, the jist of this post? Bring back corporal punishment in the classroom.

So your parents raised you well.

Then you choose to act like a delinquent and go with the crowd of delinquents

You're acting like you're a victim here. Take responsibility for your actions and choices and then your bitterness might subside.

Claiming that teachers should hit children is wrong. Claiming that teachers have a cushy lifestyle because they don't hit children is crazy

BraziliaNZ

yup, was outside Sin É on New Year's Eve having a cigarette (one of my last ones ever hopefully) and some 14 year olds from inner city (I presume) started throwing snowballs at clientele and bouncers outside. Some guy told them to eff off and then they come over and start throwing punches at the guy, calling the black bouncers "n*ggers" etc.
They are absolutely fearless little b*stards that hate society.
In fairness they come from awful families, no one really gives a crap about them, so they're angry little feckers. What can we do? I wish I knew.

stovelid

Don't rent/buy in shit areas then, you cheapskates.

OutlawPete

I think things have always been f**ked.

In the 80's when I was a teen there were lots of scumbags doing similar ****. Council estates where you couldn't walk through.

I went to discos (not nightclubs now) but just straight Discos were guys were bottled in the face.

I used to drink in the Iveagh Rooms from the age of 15 and there was killings outside the place every night of the week. Oi Skins battling rockers, skas.

If anything, I feel safer in Dublin more now that I ever have.

dolliemix

bonerm wrote: »

I blame the Education system tbh. My parents raised me right and I'm a decent enough person now(imho) but when I entered secondary school (in a new area) there was an element there (who am I kidding - the majority) of scum in the place and they were given the run of the place so long as it didn't interfer with the teachers cushy-lifestyle. I was a good kid but I found myself veering towards this element in order to fit in /survive so I can see how the majority of little tykes who get involved in this type of behavior aren't genuinely bad and are only trying to get by. Doesn't excuse it of course.

I think if the teachers there had been allowed to take these trouble makers (myself included) aside and knock seven shades of **** out them that they wouldn't have been so anti-social (both in and out of the classroom) but of course that wasn't an option.

That was over 10 years ago now so I can only assume that in this nanny-state we live in that the level of behavior has deteriorated further as a result of this kid-gloves approach. Anyway, the jist of this post? Bring back corporal punishment in the classroom.

The majority of kids don't behave this way but some choose to and some come from difficult backgrounds, are genuinely angry and frustrated but don't don't know how to express it. You come from the first group.

So your parents raised you well.

Then you choose to act like a delinquent and go with the crowd of delinquents who have genuine problems at home

You're acting like you're a victim here. Take responsibility for your actions and choices and then your bitterness might subside.

Claiming that teachers should hit children is wrong. Claiming that teachers have a cushy lifestyle because they don't hit children is crazy

extra-ordinary_

Sorry OP, am I missing something here?

You didn't witness what happened and you don't exactly know what happened, but you're deciding to just go on a rant about the local teenagers?

meditraitor

Dravokivich wrote: »

The kids are scumbags because the parents are scumbags...

- Drav!

If the parents are scumbags then almost invariably the offspring will be little scumbags,
But there are other reasons for scumbag kids, bad parents are not always scumbags just bad parents with problems that keep them from giving the kids the upbringing they need. Respect and honesty for a start.

Most of the little scumbags I know are from broken homes, children of people with mental/drink/drug problems and of course scumbag parents....

The answer to this is ................................................

gurramok

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

Sorry OP, am I missing something here?

You didn't witness what happened and you don't exactly know what happened, but you're deciding to just go on a rant about the local teenagers?

Put two and two together. When I first looked out the window, they were shouting abuse at the family in full view of the Gardai and bragging amongst themselves how they threw their punches Mike Tyson style.

I don't know what caused the incident, but i sure know what happened at the end of it, the teenagers were 100% involved. Read the 2nd & 3rd paragraph.

And they ain't local.