Do you step in when you see antisocial behaviour?
A woman in Leeds has suffered burns after being attacked with bleach. She's doesn't yet know if her sight's been permanently damaged. She was targeted because she'd told a group of teenagers to be quiet in a cinema.
We've all been in similar situations: noisy neighbours, dangerous drivers, people who drop little, rowdy behaviour. Do you step in? Or is it just too risky?
Nicky'll be talking about this on the phone in from 9am.
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I was on the Tube when four youths got on and sat opposite me. They were sitting with legs apart and leaning over, spitting on to the floor. I said 'that is disgusting' and they gave me a long glare, everyone of them, which was quite intimidating. No-one else around said anything to them and all looked away. When the boys got up to leave two of them spat at my face. I looked round at my fellow passengers only to be told it was a good job one of these yobs didn't have a knife.
It is risky but if you don't make a stand these feral kids will intimidate everyone to the point where we will have the society we deserve. I feel very sorry for the woman in question, but she probably was standing up for the principle of respect for others being eroded by these type of bullies.
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Yet again it comes down to the parents. They should be bringing their kid up to have respect for others but in this age of 'rights and no responsibilities' nobody cares.
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There is an underlying issue. I think that public perception is that those who intervene are often more strongly rebuked for going too far than the youths who caused the incident in the first place. The public needs to see that youths who become violent are locked up for a significant period of time in a facility where they have no access to mobile phones, viseos, games and all the other electronic instruments that are turning them into brainless anti-social thugs.
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It goes without saying one hopes this lady recovers and her sight isn't permanently impaired!
If feasible one should step into sorting out anti social behaviour but it's not that simple. There's no hard and fast rule but it all depends on factors that prevail at the time; what type of person are you; are you assertive and physically fit; what numbers are involved; what could be the consequences of your actions, how will it affect your family if with you etc?
Judging on how this incident has been reported so far, ideally she should have sought assistance from the cinema officials to deal with this rowdy group. She had her husband with her and the fact that she intervened rather than him conveys the impression that perhaps she's quite an authoritive person anyway in normal life which unfortunately might have worked against her in this situation!
It was because she was in a family group that goaded these thugs into carrying out later this cowardly attack because they knew they'd be vulnerable.
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Hi Nikki,
Would it not be better if we did step in when we see something wrong? And would it not be even better if those around us who agree with us would join us? Like what happened in Belfast when the Romanians were being attacked. If enough of us stand up we will present a united front.
We are the majority. We should let the minority of anti-socials know that we are bigger than them.
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I hate the term 'antisocial'. It doesn't fit. Technically who is being anti social, a group of teenagers with their firends or an elderly person looking out the window and tutting at them. According to society that would be the teenagers even though they are socialising.
If i see someone driving stupidly I usually manage to make my feelings known. In the cinema, usually with friends we'll simply shout 'shut it' (or words to that effect) if people are annoying us.
The other thing I hate about the reporting of anti social behaviour is that, unlike any other age group, the word teenagers becomes part of the headline, as if it is only tennagers that do the above activities. i see a number of incidents of poor driving, litter dropping and drunken behaviour carried out by people in their 30's or 40's. The fact that the example in the blog is about teenagers reinforces this. In fact, this example of throwing bleach is an extreme case. The problem with us teenagers being labelled in this way, is that we then simply decide that everyone has given up hope and we simply do what is expected of us. If the older generation look back to their teenager years, did they participate in the following: underage drinking, recreational drug use, hanging around in groups on street corners etc. I'm pretty sure that the activities performed by young people today are simply the 21st century equivalent (look at 70's and 80's rockstars!). Agreed there are fewer limits (parents, peers etc) on people performing these so called anti social acts but this is a natural step. Most people rebel against society at this age to some extent to test the waters of independance. In a society that is becoming increasingly controlling it is only natural that the extent to which people rebel is greater.
Sorry this is a bit of a rant/ramble but as a young person who is fed up with being labelled a menace I think the idea that teenagers are all troublemakers needs to be dealt with.
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The Hess - I don't think that any reasonable person thinks that every teenager is a violent thug but the case under discussion this morning does seem to feature 2 young people. We all rebelled against society but it tended not to include being violent and abusing other people which seems to happen a lot now. The area and social economic group a person comes from also plays a huge part in the problems.
Most young people are great. I work with some young volunteers who are lovely kids and all have great plans for their futures. Many young people are fine and will 'grow up' to be decent adults sadly, it's always the loudest and most badly behave kids that get the attention.
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zeldalicious, i agree with what you are saying to an extent. Yes, the vast majority of the public accepts that most teenagers are decent people but whenever people begin to accept that another batch of statistics are released saying that x% more violent acts are conducted by teenagers etc.
However, is there a difference between loud teenagers who listen to tinny dance music on their mp3 phones (which, I'll admit is annoying) and people who throw bleach into someone's face. I think the answer is a resounding yes. The trouble is, people assocciate groups of teenagers hanging out with gangs and crime, and immediately react negatively. Look at the mosquito device. No other group in society would have this punishment forced upon them because of a small minority of the population. It's a bit like inventing a device that only causes pain to black or asian or white people because one or two have committed a minor offence. It is a sweeping accusation that society would not accept against any other group; but teenagers are fair game. I agree that parents need to do more to raise their children with a decent moral compass, but if society (and mostly the media) is to provide the labels and rolemodels for teenagers then surely these are what us young people will look to. What examples of people succeeding are there, other than those 'celebrities' from reality TV who probably couldn't even spell celebrity.
The other problem is that in schools, where discipline should also be enforced, teachers are unable to control children because they have no powers. My mum is a teacher, and she has to refer someone to a head of department or depute head simply to give them lunchtime detention. The number of times children can simply turn round and act agressively towards a teacher because they can makes this situation part of the problem. What there needs to be is a line in the sand where teenagers are bound to hang around and occasionally cross, but for those who just go 'too far', such as the group in the example above, there needs to be a brickwall of discipline and consequences preventing them from going any further. Currently we lack that brick wall.
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The-Hess
I agree with much of what you said. I was a teenager in the late 1970's and I participated in underage drinking, smoking weed, hanging around street corners, helping myself to the pick and mix in Woolworths, urinating in public, dropping litter, answering back to teachers, got into fights and much much more. Furthermore, most of the people I associated with behaved in a similar way. Thirty years later, I recognise that much of my behaviour was pathetic and I no longer behave in such a way. I know that teenage 'anti social' behaviour is not a 21st Century phenomena, it occurred in the 1970's and it probably happened to some extent in the 1770's.
There are heaps of reasons why I developed from anti-social teenage rebel into a middle aged and almost respectable member of society. I clearly remember being reprimanded by older people when they witnessed my behaviour and I believe that this contributed to changes in my behaviour.
If I witness anti-social behaviour I will challenge it in a friendly non confrontational way. Most young people respond by taking their feet off the train seat, picking up the litter, turning the music down etc. I've experienced refusal and a degree of mild verbal abuse, but I've not been attacked.
I agree with the point that you make about older people behaving in an anti-social way. Generally when someone exceeds the speed limit, parks on a double yellow line or occupies a parent/toddler supermarket parking place they are often portrayed as being the victim of an overbearing nanny state
I think the media reports this issue in an over the top and hysterical way. It tends to focus on the 'anti-social' teenage behaviour rather than the positive contribution that many young people make.
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I'm glad that people who aren't teenagers agree with me. Perhaps it too is a age thing. Those with younger children tend to look down with scorn on teenagers. Then as their children become teenagers, those parents turn the teenage image into a joke (in bed all day, moping around the house, constantly moaning etc) then as they become older they revert back to the teenage hating form.
I agree with ziplewis about taking feet off seats etc, most of the time when I'm on the train, young people will behave if they are told to stop doing something, either by another passenger or the ticket man. Most will apologise.
Even I look back on last night and think I acted foolishly, but would I change it? Would I f..., it was fun at the time, nothing particularly bad happened, most of the time, us teenagers simply want to have a laugh.
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The_Hess,
I think you are getting bogged down with semantics and I don't agree that all young people are getting tarred with the same brush. I think that what people are trying to say is that there is a trend towards certain groups in society becoming more and more disrespectful at a younger age. Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence realises that not all youths are causing trouble, and if they use the word 'teenager' we could exercise some judgement as to what point they are trying to make, and that the emphasis is not on 'teenager' but 'antisocial'.
I don't know what the answer is. I was on the bus one day and young kids (about 10 yrs old) were on the top deck running up and down noisily, throwing things and causing absolute chaos. The driver had already been up to tell them to behave but they just continued .
After a while I thought I'd go up and have a go at quieting them down but again to no effect. I was absolutely flabbergasted at their complete lack of respect for elders!! after a while they came down, sat in front of me and just kept staring at me and giggling and i was getting so angry with them...i would never have dreamed of acting like that at their age.
Blame the parents.
after i got off the bus i was so angry i stuck my finger up at them (not sure why I did this) and they just did the same thing. i told my fiance what happened and he said i shouldn't have got involved they could have had knives or whatever. anyone brought up properly does not automatically think 'those 10 year olds might have knives' but it's so true.
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Just before 9am this morning you had a lady on talking about cycling to power a film. Have you got a web-site address for her organisation so that listeners could find out more information about this renewable energy idea?
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Harriet:
First off: What happen to this lady that was talked about in your
posting is simply horrible...And, I hope that there will be help for her
in the recovery process.....
~Dennis Junior~
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Are you mad? Kids (and even adults) know that they can get away with whatever behaviour as even if they were confronted by a person in authority it would probably just make them partake in antisocial behaviour moreso.
Anyway, what is the point in having laws when they are not enforced?
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