What to do about antisocial youth behaviour?

newmug

Hi folks.

I dont know where to start with this. Basically, I live in a rough housing estate. There is a group of kids, about 15 of them, who roam the estate every night causing trouble. The unbelievable part is their ages, oldest 18-20, youngest 3-4! Its unreal. They drink and smoke, they push each other out in front of oncoming cars, they break anything they can, they put grafitti everywhere, they threaten people, they're always out till about 1am even on school nights, its just a nightmare.

A few weeks ago, I came home to find 2 of them sitting on my wall. They were about 8 years old, one of them was smoking. They asked me was I a Guard, I said no while I got my stuff out of the car. They asked me was I a doctor, I replied "do I look like one?" They sensed the sarcasm, and said they'd burn my car, called me a ba$tard, then said they were goin to go off and get some petrol and come back and burn my house, and that they hoped I'd still be in it.

What are you supposed to do with kids like this? Where are their parents, they're the real scumbags. In my day, you were inside doing homework after school, and whatever time you got to play outside, you were in the minute it got dark. If I call the Guards, I'll be the neighbourhood snitch and there's prob feckall they can do anyway, the social workers are constantly coming around but it seems to do no good, where do normal people turn?

Its the kids themselves I feel sorry for. They're going to end up in lives of crime, waste and misery. If they were taken off their parents, I doubt it would make much difference at this stage. In the end, dont the HSE say kids like that are better off with their own parents anyway? I despair.........

Fuinseog

newmug wrote: »

Hi folks.

I dont know where to start with this. Basically, I live in a rough housing estate. There is a group of kids, about 15 of them, who roam the estate every night causing trouble. The unbelievable part is their ages, oldest 18-20, youngest 3-4! Its unreal. They drink and smoke, they push each other out in front of oncoming cars, they break anything they can, they put grafitti everywhere, they threaten people, they're always out till about 1am even on school nights, its just a nightmare.

A few weeks ago, I came home to find 2 of them sitting on my wall. They were about 8 years old, one of them was smoking. They asked me was I a Guard, I said no while I got my stuff out of the car. They asked me was I a doctor, I replied "do I look like one?" They sensed the sarcasm, and said they'd burn my car, called me a ba$tard, then said they were goin to go off and get some petrol and come back and burn my house, and that they hoped I'd still be in it.

What are you supposed to do with kids like this? Where are their parents, they're the real scumbags. In my day, you were inside doing homework after school, and whatever time you got to play outside, you were in the minute it got dark. If I call the Guards, I'll be the neighbourhood snitch and there's prob feckall they can do anyway, the social workers are constantly coming around but it seems to do no good, where do normal people turn?

Its the kids themselves I feel sorry for. They're going to end up in lives of crime, waste and misery. If they were taken off their parents, I doubt it would make much difference at this stage. In the end, dont the HSE say kids like that are better off with their own parents anyway? I despair.........

what you describe is commonplace and you need to do something about it. they might be testing you by saying they will burn your car or they might go ahead and do it. if they are under 18 they have no consequences to suffer.
have you bought there or are you renting?
I believe in Britain there is talk of making parents responsible for their feral kids. in this country the guards can do very little.
I would invest in CCTV, though the hooded ones cannot be easily identified, you can still provide evidence of anti social behaviour. a light sensor is good as well. I would also invest in a baseball bat and an alsatian. scumbags do not like dogs especially vicious ones.

looksee

We had a similar, though not as serious, a problem a few years ago. On a very quiet, 'well behaved', older estate one family of young fellas were a nuisance. They hung about making a row, throwing eggs at houses and ge erally making a nuisance of themselves. I went round to the house to talk to the parents, the father - a teacher! - very rudely told me to ... remove myself.

The problem only resolved itself as the boys grew up and left home or found other things to do.

I would mention to the Gardai that the threat had been made - just so there is a record of it, I know it will not do any good. You might consider sealing your letter flap and having a box on the wall if you are concerned about safety.

I know someone is going to come on and make well-meaning comments about getting to know the kids and getting them on your side, which is a great theory but could easily rebound with accusations to you. You would want to do it as a group rather than as an individual.

I can't offer any useful suggestions, other than perhaps getting other people on the estate to have a meeting and see what you can come up with, but that would need careful handling too. Would there be any interest in setting up a neighbourhood watch scheme on the estate? This makes communicating with the gardai much easier and more organised, and a patrol car on the estate at intervals might help.

irishh_bob

newmug wrote: »

Hi folks.

I dont know where to start with this. Basically, I live in a rough housing estate. There is a group of kids, about 15 of them, who roam the estate every night causing trouble. The unbelievable part is their ages, oldest 18-20, youngest 3-4! Its unreal. They drink and smoke, they push each other out in front of oncoming cars, they break anything they can, they put grafitti everywhere, they threaten people, they're always out till about 1am even on school nights, its just a nightmare.

A few weeks ago, I came home to find 2 of them sitting on my wall. They were about 8 years old, one of them was smoking. They asked me was I a Guard, I said no while I got my stuff out of the car. They asked me was I a doctor, I replied "do I look like one?" They sensed the sarcasm, and said they'd burn my car, called me a ba$tard, then said they were goin to go off and get some petrol and come back and burn my house, and that they hoped I'd still be in it.

What are you supposed to do with kids like this? Where are their parents, they're the real scumbags. In my day, you were inside doing homework after school, and whatever time you got to play outside, you were in the minute it got dark. If I call the Guards, I'll be the neighbourhood snitch and there's prob feckall they can do anyway, the social workers are constantly coming around but it seems to do no good, where do normal people turn?

Its the kids themselves I feel sorry for. They're going to end up in lives of crime, waste and misery. If they were taken off their parents, I doubt it would make much difference at this stage. In the end, dont the HSE say kids like that are better off with their own parents anyway? I despair.........

have you any friends in an garda siochanna , unless something is serious , you need pull with the guards for dealing with things

how willing they are to act depends on who is doing the complaining

newmug

Pull with the Guards? To be honest, it actually sounds like the only option!

The Guards are nearly afraid to come into this place. We've had our front window broken twice, other houses have had front doors kicked in, there's a green where fights between adults seem to be organised, its an utter hellhole.

But these kids are unreal. They roam around shouting, just pointlessly shouting, at each other and at other people all the time, unitl the early hours of the morning. During school hours, there's still always a handful of them prowling the estate. Sometimes we come back from being somewhere and the back outside tap would be on full blast. I know its not a big deal, but it means the fcukers were in my back yard, and they just couldnt find anything better to do than flood the place.

The parents, the parents, the parents! I honestly think you should need to do some sort of competency test to be allowed to keep your kids. Simple things like, not engaging in fights, would be the criteria. I know two sets of parents from some of these youngsters. One set lives across from us. I've only ever seen the father twice - once when I was trying to drive out my driveway, the 3 year old member of the gang kept standing in my way on purpose. The father was standing in the doorway of his own house and let a roar at his son to "get out of the fcukin way". The second time I ever saw him was when he came out of the house like a tazmanian devil to beat up the other father I know. They're married to two sisters, one of whom was a "working girl" once upon a time. I knew the other father from before as I used to work with him, but the only time I saw him in the last ten years was that fight I just mentioned, whereby he came up the road plastered, and tried to throw a concrete flower basin at the first lads window. The two mothers (the sisters) tried to split them up, and ended up getting beat themselves from the two fathers, everybody hitting anybody!!!

Our little one wants to stay in her Grannys all the time because she's afraid. I dont blame her. These people are out of control. These kids have no chance, and in the meantime are terrorising normal people. I cant understand how they're not being taken away by the state into foster care, and how the parents are not being jailed for abuse.

Fuinseog

irishh_bob wrote: »

have you any friends in an garda siochanna , unless something is serious , you need pull with the guards for dealing with things

how willing they are to act depends on who is doing the complaining

the guards have little or no power, because we do not want them to have too much power. this kind of anti social behaviour would not happen if we had strict police and police take their orders from politicians so maybe lobbying your TD would be the way to go

Loserville

newmug wrote: »

Hi folks.

I dont know where to start with this. Basically, I live in a rough housing estate. There is a group of kids, about 15 of them, who roam the estate every night causing trouble. The unbelievable part is their ages, oldest 18-20, youngest 3-4! Its unreal. They drink and smoke, they push each other out in front of oncoming cars, they break anything they can, they put grafitti everywhere, they threaten people, they're always out till about 1am even on school nights, its just a nightmare.

A few weeks ago, I came home to find 2 of them sitting on my wall. They were about 8 years old, one of them was smoking. They asked me was I a Guard, I said no while I got my stuff out of the car. They asked me was I a doctor, I replied "do I look like one?" They sensed the sarcasm, and said they'd burn my car, called me a ba$tard, then said they were goin to go off and get some petrol and come back and burn my house, and that they hoped I'd still be in it.

What are you supposed to do with kids like this? Where are their parents, they're the real scumbags. In my day, you were inside doing homework after school, and whatever time you got to play outside, you were in the minute it got dark. If I call the Guards, I'll be the neighbourhood snitch and there's prob feckall they can do anyway, the social workers are constantly coming around but it seems to do no good, where do normal people turn?

Its the kids themselves I feel sorry for. They're going to end up in lives of crime, waste and misery. If they were taken off their parents, I doubt it would make much difference at this stage. In the end, dont the HSE say kids like that are better off with their own parents anyway? I despair.........

Physical violence, or the impending threat of such from anyone, be they 12, be they 112 is not an easy concept to manage.

You are in a very bad situation. You are dealing with individuals that appear to have no fear of retribution, not from the law, not from their neighbors, and certainly not from you. Effectively you are up against a force which has convinced itself that it has nothing to lose. You state that the local police will be of no use, and you are right. You state also that a neighborhood meeting will surely serve to encourage more victimization, and you are right again.

I cannot believe what I read here. "Barricade yourself inside", "block up your letterbox", or words to that effect. Become a prisoner inside your own home. Jesus Christ, if your situation is so bad that you must allow an animal or group of animals to make you and your family prisoners in your own home, perhaps you should leave this place, at any cost and right quick.

There are times in life when one encounters human beings that are more animal than they are human. It is much worse when one is forced to live alongside the particular species you describe. Sometimes to effectively manage such an animal, one must consider becoming an animal oneself.

If you threaten to set my home alight with my family inside, and I am led to believe that you might, you had better do it right then and there, as the moment you make such a threat you are then gazing upon your last day upon this earth. I care not if you are 16 or 62. If you are a child I will take you home, having done that, if I find your parents subscribe to the same point of view as that expressed by their child/children...they as the parent will meet their maker on the spot, or I will, or we both will.

Furthermore, if I live, I will stand before any court and happily explain to a judge and jury the ins and outs of my motivation for putting said animal out of his misery and then let the chips fall where they may.

Animals need to know where they stand with some humans. Either you fight your corner, or you take your family to a place where you are not faced with such abhorrent violence. If you stay, be prepared to stand your ground with this particular virus.

You sound like a human being that would prefer not to become an animal, either living in a cage or fighting with other animals outside your cage, and as such you have three choices:


1. Take your family and leave
2. Take your family and leave
3. Take your family and leave

zero_hope

With forced sterilisation these problems would be over within one generation. However Irish people have very irrational delusions regarding "the sanctity of life". Therefore your problems will be worse each generation. You have only yourselves to blame.

irishh_bob

Fuinseog wrote: »

the guards have little or no power, because we do not want them to have too much power. this kind of anti social behaviour would not happen if we had strict police and police take their orders from politicians so maybe lobbying your TD would be the way to go

the guards can act like the gestapo when they choose to , take it from me , was involved in an ongoing feud with a blow in to rural ireland who had friends high up in the guards and you wouldnt believe the stuff i got charged with and questioned about

if you had pull with a superintendant or chief inspector , that problem would be dealt with in jig time , an garda siochanna is deeply political , anyone who has had any real dealings with them knows this

newmug

Well I have zero connections either in the guards or politically. Anyway, that shouldn't be the way to go. We need a radical overhaul of the law in this country to deal with such situations. The way it is at the moment, these people are seen as the "victims" in society. Its a case of the tail wagging the dog.

And @ Zerohope, I dont know about forced sterilisations, but you are right about the situation only getting worse over the generations, and about only having ourselves to blame. But where do you start? I feel like draughting a new constitution which will require parents to value and cherish their children above all else, or face jail. Somehow that has a familiar ring to it.............

Jorah

The little shi.ts need disciplining. School institutions need more power. If their parents are unable to teach them the correct morals, school is the only other place they're likely to get it.

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

mikemac1

Have you a local councilor?

Yes many of our politicians are useless but some are superb

We've an independant councillor in our area and he's superb. The superintendent might ignore me and my neighbors but won't ignore the councilor

Or there was waste ground beside us, a developer had plans to build an apartment block but with the recession it never happened and it became knacker drinking central. The councillor managed to force the developer to clear the site, fence it off and nobody is going to go drinking in empty mucky ground.

Talk to your councillor