shops are a prime haunt for gangs of thugs who insist on wreaking havoc by smashing nearby bus shelters phone boxes and the like. some shops have outside cctv but surely if the whole area was permanently surveyed by these cameras this kind of pathetic needless vandalism would be dramatically reduced

??????????????????????????

What shops?

Where?

What bus shelters? (thing is, bus shelters don't need to be near shops for some little scroat to put the glass through)


What area needs cctv?

can you clarify, please?

(incidentally, I agree with you, that the smashing of bus shelters and phone boxes etc , is totally needless, and pathetic, and the perpetrators are not punished anywhere near harshly enough...)

P (puzzled???) T

talk about an over exaggerated title! you dont happen to work for the sheffield star do you?

I dont think kicking in bus shelters or smashing shop windows is gang warfare, maybe if you were in the 60's!

I think "Gang warfare" is a stupid title for this thread, although if you read the daily express then I'm sure that's the kind of thing you think if you see a couple of teenagers on the street walking along, as is their legal right.

Bus shelters have always been smashed up by young cretins. In the 1980s they used to have metal/plastic safety glass, but now we have these posh glass ones, I suspect they are easier to smash.

And for some reason empty shops have always attracted vandalism. I noticed a shop at heeley bottom which has just gone vacant, which has had all three of it's glass panels put through. I doubt this kind of thing would trouble a latter day Mooney gang.

firsly i used the phrase 'gang warfare' loosely.
secondly i'll give you a for instance and you'll understand why!
gangs gather regularly at my local shops,and the other night i witnessed them making vile racial and other taunts to a certain shopkeeper.
when he protested and suggested they move on one particular thug told him i'll get some more mates and we'll torch your *******shop...then we'll come back for your *******family.
fortunately he didn't torch his shop,he did however hurl a large concrete wall capping through his shop window,much to the amusement of the 'gang'.
i apologise if my title caused offence,but strong feelings provoke strong words.

we can hardly breathe in the city centre without being filmed from every angle just in case of any trouble.
it seems logical to me to cover obvious trouble spots such as small local shopping centres and the like with cctv. we all know the haunts ,and so too do the police

That is indeed a shocking story. But sounds to me like some teenagers showing off to their mates.
I would suggest to the shopkeeper that he plays some slow classical music outside the shop, and youths will not hang around. This tactic has worked well in other parts of the country.

I hope you have been to the police with your description of the youth you saw putting the concrete through the window.

No amount of CCTV footage can make up for people standing up for their local facilities, and coming forward with evidence.

Yes I wouldn't consider a gang problem unless you had distinctive groups who were beating each other up or extracting protection money from shops. Gang crime is all about control, hiarachy, organisation as well as threats.

I wouldnt bother replacing the bus shelters after the yobs had smashed them...whats the point ! just as long as there is a bus stop pole there what the hell lets the scum bags get wet next time its peeing it down(Everybody suffers i know that but its the only way to curb it)

Well the problem with that is if everything in the district is wrecked and graffiti scrawled, then the place gets more and more wrecked, and scrawled.

In parts of the country, where they have cleaned up damaged areas and made them attractive again. They tend to stay nice.

The main problem is that people don't want to deal with these youths. There is little provision for them, no youth clubs, nowhere to hang out, no slightly older youth leaders for them to look up to. When I was that age I used to go to youth club at a church and play snooker/darts listen to records etc..

You are spot on about the classical music approach in getting rid of yobs.
I read about it having a dramatic affect on Leeds railway stations when played over the tannoy between announcements some years ago.
The vandalism halved almost overnight.

In my last house (which was rented off council) we were plagued every night that it wasn't raining with a huge gang of teenagers that gathered in a residents car park at the side of my house.

I used to put Classic FM on the car radio loud & leave the windows down. ( the car was safely on my back yard & the big gates shut of course :thumbsup: ).

R E S U L T .

They cleared off. Scum will not have culture.
You can't educate pork. As they say