Kids Ruining My Area

NoobSaibot5

Hi everyone, I live in the Dublin City Centre about 10mins away from Cork Street. I'm writing here because I need advice on what to do with some neighbourhood troubles I've been having in this area.

We have a local spar which is relatively new to the area (it's about 4 years old) in which a lot of locals have been hired. Unfortunately the shop has very little security and as a result, children under the age of 16 do steal from there quite a bit, completely unchallenged, due to the fact it's a rough area and their families are close by. As a result of this the Spar generates a lot of problematic teenagers who run riot on my own doorstep.

Within the last 2 months I've had to defend a woman from being mugged outside of it before (whilst the staff looked on, doing nothing) and recently my mobile phone was almost robbed out of my own hand by a gang of youths. I had entered the store to purchase some beer and was followed by the gang upon leaving to my own front door (the staff again done nothing to remove them from the premesis). It was only from the intervention of my own family did they back off, but since I also work locally it hasn't prevented them from causing me harrassment in my own job or starting trouble with my parents and family.

This area is getting so bad that I'm strongly considering moving out from it, a crummy little bedsit in a better area would be far more appealing than feeling unsafe in the locality I was born and raised in. In the past, the area had it's problems with adults causing problems, but these days it's gangs of kids running riot. Shops are pestered by them, the police seem discouraged to do anything about it due to the fact they're all minors and can't be prosecuted, and the residents of the area are constantly being harrassed by them. It's becoming violent, unsafe and incredibly hostile, and what's terrifying is that the adults are being terrorised by minors. At least if an adult attacks you, you can defend yourself. If you were to strike a child back while they tried to rob you, it can result in you being charged with a criminal offense.

I'm basically here pleading for solutions. What can be done?

I was half tempted to compose a petition from the residents surrounding the Spar vowing to refuse purchasing from the store until security stepped up and improved, since that shop in particular attracts so many of these youths, but it's not the only establishment in the area that suffers from this problem.
Plenty of neighbouring shops and takeaways are also terrorised by these gangs of thugs and are defenceless due to their young ages, I'd have at least 15 places to threaten with that sort of action in order to accomplish anything.

I was also considering appealing to my local Gardai station with a petition to step up patrolling Gardai in the area but from experience with calling for help with the guards before, I can guarantee they're not interested. People have been attacked and beaten up by gangs of 14 year olds within eyesight of a main road and even with the garda being notified it's a good 20minute wait before they bother their arses showing up. I'm completely at a loss at to what to do. All I want is to feel safe in my own area and to find some sort of solution where we can bring more stability and protection to those in my locality.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do or who to go to in an attempt to make things better?

chris85

NoobSaibot5 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I live in the Dublin City Centre about 10mins away from Cork Street. I'm writing here because I need advice on what to do with some neighbourhood troubles I've been having in this area.

We have a local spar which is relatively new to the area (it's about 4 years old) in which a lot of locals have been hired. Unfortunately the shop has very little security and as a result, children under the age of 16 do steal from there quite a bit, completely unchallenged, due to the fact it's a rough area and their families are close by. As a result of this the Spar generates a lot of problematic teenagers who run riot on my own doorstep.

Within the last 2 months I've had to defend a woman from being mugged outside of it before (whilst the staff looked on, doing nothing) and recently my mobile phone was almost robbed out of my own hand by a gang of youths. I had entered the store to purchase some beer and was followed by the gang upon leaving to my own front door (the staff again done nothing to remove them from the premesis). It was only from the intervention of my own family did they back off, but since I also work locally it hasn't prevented them from causing me harrassment in my own job or starting trouble with my parents and family.

This area is getting so bad that I'm strongly considering moving out from it, a crummy little bedsit in a better area would be far more appealing than feeling unsafe in the locality I was born and raised in. In the past, the area had it's problems with adults causing problems, but these days it's gangs of kids running riot. Shops are pestered by them, the police seem discouraged to do anything about it due to the fact they're all minors and can't be prosecuted, and the residents of the area are constantly being harrassed by them. It's becoming violent, unsafe and incredibly hostile, and what's terrifying is that the adults are being terrorised by minors. At least if an adult attacks you, you can defend yourself. If you were to strike a child back while they tried to rob you, it can result in you being charged with a criminal offense.

I'm basically here pleading for solutions. What can be done?

I was half tempted to compose a petition from the residents surrounding the Spar vowing to refuse purchasing from the store until security stepped up and improved, since that shop in particular attracts so many of these youths, but it's not the only establishment in the area that suffers from this problem.
Plenty of neighbouring shops and takeaways are also terrorised by these gangs of thugs and are defenceless due to their young ages, I'd have at least 15 places to threaten with that sort of action in order to accomplish anything.

I was also considering appealing to my local Gardai station with a petition to step up patrolling Gardai in the area but from experience with calling for help with the guards before, I can guarantee they're not interested. People have been attacked and beaten up by gangs of 14 year olds within eyesight of a main road and even with the garda being notified it's a good 20minute wait before they bother their arses showing up. I'm completely at a loss at to what to do. All I want is to feel safe in my own area and to find some sort of solution where we can bring more stability and protection to those in my locality.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do or who to go to in an attempt to make things better?

Have any of the incidents been reported to the Gardai yet. The first thing is to report any hassle to the Gardai and will get noticed more than you coming to them with loads of past stories which the Guards cant do much with.

Is there a community group in your area you could make contact with, or perhaps you could set up a neighbourhood watch program if there is not one already in the area.

chiefwiggum

if one of those little scummers attcked me or mine i'd knock them into next week and wouldn't give two f**ks what age they were!!!

Dave!

I'd probably contact your neighbours and urge them (and you do it yourself) to go to the local Gardai and report every incident (preferably to the same Garda or two). Hopefully they'll feel a bit of pressure from it, and might stick a Garda or two on patrol regularly enough to disrupt the kids.

Horrible situation though, hope it gets better for you!

Gavin "shels"

Which Spar is it?

Get onto the Community Officer from Kevin St/Sundrive Garda Stations, tell him/her of the problems and possibly get onto the Spar shop.

NoobSaibot5

chris85 wrote: »

Have any of the incidents been reported to the Gardai yet. The first thing is to report any hassle to the Gardai and will get noticed more than you coming to them with loads of past stories which the Guards cant do much with.

Is there a community group in your area you could make contact with, or perhaps you could set up a neighbourhood watch program if there is not one already in the area.

Not every incident has no. The woman being mugged was, I had to give a statement in my local police station and as informed the youngest in that crowd of 4 was only 11 years old. The night it happened with myself I refrained from calling the police because my father happened to witness things happening and scared them off (it was a completely different gang of people to the gang that mugged the woman, btw), and at the time I figured being freightened off would have made them cop on a bit.

It hasn't though. Recently I had them shout abuse into my job whilst I was training a new member of staff to work the till (which was obviously very embarassing and humiliating), although again my father was nearby and had caught them and freightened them off. I figured that by the time I'd have called the police and they'd have arrived, the youths in particular would have been long gone, because generally that's the case in my neck of the woods. The police seldom show up on time and by the time they do all they have to work on is a generic description of "young lad in a hoody". I hate to say it but in this area, they're useless, which is probably what puts people off reporting incidents like this to begin with.

The neighbours on my street in particular have been hounding Dublin Corporation for security cameras on both ends of the street to offer some semblance of protection for the residents but it's failed to come into fruition despite them requesting it for at least 6 years. I'd actually be more inclined to contact a local TD, but at that it's not a guarantee they'd even do anything for us around here.

chris85

I would get in touch with Community liason in the Guards for the area and try set up some type of neighbourhood watch which can work with the Gardai.

Also hound your TD about it more and more. They do get things done when asked enough about it. Contact your local TD and also get in touch with minister for children and minister for justice about it. They will be looked at. Their emails are on government website.

RMD

Community Liaison Garda is your best bet by far. The Garda are poorly funded and poorly staffed, a bunch of rowdy príck kids wont be a priority call. Once the CL Garda is fully in the know of what is going on, a greater emphasis will be placed on dealing with it.

cormy

+1 to the good advice already given re: getting onto the community liaison officer at your local station. I'm going to suggest something somewhat unorthodox that you also might consider as being worthwhile:

Some years back I heard or read about a technique used by shops in some part of the UK to disperse loitering 'youths'..... classical music! Instead of playing the radio or whatever, as usual, in the Spar shop, maybe you could suggest they play classical music... Loudly... Particularly near the door.

From your posts above, am I right in thinking you/your family have a local business? Maybe this would be the best avenue to approach the Spar owners from - as in, business to business (maybe you could make it a neighbourhood/street-wide thing).

Anyway, an unorthodox approach I agree, but the OP is looking for suggestions so I'm putting it out there.


More recent article from U.S. on the effectiveness of this technique

chris85

cormy wrote: »

+1 to the good advice already given re: getting onto the community liaison officer at your local station. I'm going to suggest something somewhat unorthodox that you also might consider as being worthwhile:

Some years back I heard or read about a technique used by shops in some part of the UK to disperse loitering 'youths'..... classical music! Instead of playing the radio or whatever, as usual, in the Spar shop, maybe you could suggest they play classical music... Loudly... Particularly near the door.

From your posts above, am I right in thinking you/your family have a local business? Maybe this would be the best avenue to approach the Spar owners from - as in, business to business (maybe you could make it a neighbourhood/street-wide thing).

Anyway, an unorthodox approach I agree, but the OP is looking for suggestions so I'm putting it out there.


More recent article from U.S. on the effectiveness of this technique

That classical music idea sounds class

whatnext

cormy wrote: »

+1 to the good advice already given re: getting onto the community liaison officer at your local station. I'm going to suggest something somewhat unorthodox that you also might consider as being worthwhile:

Some years back I heard or read about a technique used by shops in some part of the UK to disperse loitering 'youths'..... classical music! Instead of playing the radio or whatever, as usual, in the Spar shop, maybe you could suggest they play classical music... Loudly... Particularly near the door.

From your posts above, am I right in thinking you/your family have a local business? Maybe this would be the best avenue to approach the Spar owners from - as in, business to business (maybe you could make it a neighbourhood/street-wide thing).

Anyway, an unorthodox approach I agree, but the OP is looking for suggestions so I'm putting it out there.


More recent article from U.S. on the effectiveness of this technique

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyne_and_Wear_Metro
Stations
Metro pioneered the playing of classical music in some of its stations to deter vandalism. In 1998 Frederick Delius's Incidental Music to Hassan was chosen by Metro to be played over its public address system as a deterrent to vandals.[9] The Director General of Nexus was quoted as saying: "The aim is not to soothe but to provide a background of music that people who we are aiming at don't actually like and so they move away. It's been pretty successful." In 2005 the London Underground began to follow Metro's example.

Lawrence1895

Gavin shels wrote: »

Which Spar is it?

Get onto the Community Officer from Kevin St/Sundrive Garda Stations, tell him/her of the problems and possibly get onto the Spar shop.

That would be interesting to know indeed.

Would it be the one on Kevin Street/Patrick Street by any chance?

I'm working in the area (off Clanbrassil Street), and a few years (2.5 years approx) ago, I witnessed a guy in a wheelchair, being surrounded by 6 or 7 kids, let them be 10-12 years of age. Shouting abuse at him, trying to push him out of his wheelchair.
Luckily enough, I came around, I guess, that saved him.

So I took some footage on my mobile (two of those little wan**** even posed in front of the camera), went to the Gardai with it. They were 'looking into the matter', so I was told.
At least, I didn't see the ringleader ever since.

Gavin "shels"

Lars1916 wrote: »

That would be interesting to know indeed.

Would it be the one on Kevin Street/Patrick Street by any chance?

I had guessed the one opposite the Coombe Hosp till I seen that it's 10 mins from Cork St. If it's the one on Patrick St that's a disgrace, especially with the garda station 2 mins away.

old hippy

chiefwiggum wrote: »

if one of those little scummers attcked me or mine i'd knock them into next week and wouldn't give two f**ks what age they were!!!

And continue the spiral of violence. Contact the garda and your local TD and local paper.

mikemac1

Not sure if Eric Byrne TD cover that area, he has a good reputation around Drimnagh, hard worker locally

There are no shortage of wasters in politics but you will find some stars. I bet there is a hard working councillor in your area, use them and they are happy to work with you

Report everything.
If you walk down the road, get hassled three times then report three incidents. If you need to call or drop in the station five times a day then do it


The garda on the phone or on the desk recording this may not care
But management live and die by stats and when the stats look bad the super shouts at the sergeants who shouts at the gardaí

If you don't report then you don't get the resources

Squeeky wheel gets greased first

Fuinseog

RMD wrote: »

Community Liaison Garda is your best bet by far. The Garda are poorly funded and poorly staffed, a bunch of rowdy príck kids wont be a priority call. Once the CL Garda is fully in the know of what is going on, a greater emphasis will be placed on dealing with it.

I know that spar and I know the guards can do little. little scumbag steals,gets arrested, brought to court and given another chance by the judge.lets in your face or takes his revenge.

dsmythy

old hippy wrote: »

And continue the spiral of violence. Contact the garda and your local TD and local paper.

And in the year it takes for them to respond in any way just take it I guess...

chris85

dsmythy wrote: »

And in the year it takes for them to respond in any way just take it I guess...

Excellent contribution of no constructive argument. We are not stating the OP should just take it we are providing options such as community groups, guards, papers, TD's which may be off assistance.

Lawrence1895

I would consider the following option: Get a digicam, take some pics of those little brats, and post them on Youtube. Title: 'The biggest heroes in town, we are only able to mess with those, weaker than us'

AnonoBoy

Lars1916 wrote: »

I would consider the following option: Get a digicam, take some pics of those little brats, and post them on Youtube. Title: 'The biggest heroes in town, we are only able to mess with those, weaker than us'

Descending to the level of children is not the way for grown adults to deal with situations like this.

I can see the Herald headlines now: "This monster began an online bullying campaign against these innocent teenagers. Will your children be next?"