Friday 9 September 2011

Does This Just Sum Up Modern Britain?

Some residents said they heard screaming, but were so used to hearing trouble they did not look out of their windows.

One resident said: “We heard a group of blokes shouting and one girl kept screaming at about 2.30am but because we are so used to it, I didn’t even get up to look out of the window.

“It’s like that every Friday and Saturday night around here. This morning the police had placed lots of yellow evidence markers on the road and were taking pictures.”

A female resident said: “There was a load of shouting at about 2am. I didn’t look. I didn’t get up because we are quite used to it around here. I could hear one girl particularly loud.”
Hopefully, this still just sums up parts of it.

But I suspect those parts are spreading…

22 comments:

  1. "Does This Just Sum Up Modern Britain?"

    Yep.

    I hope Mr Ruas is OK, and I hope the feral teenage* scum who beat him up go away for a long time**.

    * shock!
    ** some hope.

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  2. 15.... at 2.30 am. Yes, that sounds like Britain.

    There have always been rough parts of this country (of most countries, of course) but the disease has spread. It's now an epidemic.

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  3. This is one of my really big bugbears, Kids screaming at the top of their lungs, for no reason whatsoever.

    A couple of weeks ago, 2 young girls on the street were just screaming for no reason, I went out and asked what they were screaming at, and got the answer "Nothing". So I told them to bleedin well pack it in.

    A few minutes later the father comes knocking on my door wanting to know why I'd just shouted at his little princesses. I told him, "Because they were screaming for nothing". He then came over all with the usual "Nobody tells my kids what to do".

    So having got my hackles up, I proceeded to tell him a little story of a 15 yo girl I once knew, who was raped, and then strangled with her own socks, in a churchyard after the local youthclub.

    The houses opposite had heard screams, but paid them no mind, as what with the youthclub, hearing screams was a regular occurrence. There was much wringing of hands, and "If only we'd known" and "Why did no one go investigate?".

    I also said "Now what if one day someone leaves my gate open, and my Staffie gets out and gets hold of one of your little princesses, and starts shaking her around like a rag doll?".

    "Your kid could be nothing more than a soggy lump before anyone comes out, all because you think it's OK for them to scream over nothing".

    He mumbled something about seeing my point and sloped off home.

    Bottom line is people really are that stupid, and have been for over 30 years to my knowledge.

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  4. Perhaps the neighbours should poison your attack dogs now, you sound like a bit of an unpleasant character.

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  5. I don't think this tells us anything much. It could have been in the papers 50 years ago, 100, or 200. We always like to believe things are getting worse though, so declare such incidents proof of that.

    When my great aunt died, my mum and I were clearing up her stuff, and there were loads of old newspaper clippings, births marriages and deaths, things like that. I started reading the snippets on the back, out of curiousity. One recording her birth, from 1906, from a Liverpool newspaper, reported on the back (small story, not a great splashy headline) that a dead baby had lain on a flat roof for three days, having been flung out of a window by its drunken father; neighbours overlooking this (think, tenement buildings) thought it was a discarded doll until somebody bothered to look closer.

    That's a 100 years ago. Nowadays, we'd all be talking about "broken Britain" and "where were social services?" and, "this wouldn't have happened in the good old days" and so on.

    Does it sum up modern Britain? It sums up the urban scene at any period in history recent enough to consider.

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  6. So why do you feel I'm an "unpleasant character" Gallo?

    Is it people like me warning of the danger of kids crying wolf, puts you at a disadvantage when trying molest little girls or something?

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  7. Ian B - You missed the point. Liverpool 10 years ago? Of course. Glasgow 75 years ago, certainly.

    This was in Bournemouth. The disease has spread and what was once largely an urban problem now infects the entire country.

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  8. "So why do you feel I'm an "unpleasant character" Gallo?

    Is it people like me warning of the danger of kids crying wolf, puts you at a disadvantage when trying molest little girls or something?"

    Approaching and shouting at kids, and when their father comes to remonstrate with you you oh so subtly threaten to set your attack dogs on his children.

    "I also said "Now what if one day someone leaves my gate open, and my Staffie gets out and gets hold of one of your little princesses, and starts shaking her around like a rag doll?"."

    If even half of that is true the police should be visiting you.

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  9. Does This Just Sum Up Modern Britain?

    Not so modern, 20 years ago I moved to a flat above a parade of shops, 4 doors down from the pub , 6 away from the offy, with a chip shop and late night kebab between, bus stop over the road.

    After getting up for the 20th time in the middle of the night because of girls screaming in the road outside (which turned out to be 'horseplay'). I just gave up.


    wv. midsob

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  10. Visiting my mum, who live 5 houses away from a pub, I forgot how much street noise is created between 10.30 and 12.30 by people quietly making their way home from a swift half.

    As my dear old mum is going deaf she doesnt notice, but it sounded like an episode of jeremy kyle was being filmed outside.

    It did get a little beyond the pale when after an argument a pub goer went home, got his car and ran over the chap he was arguing with, leaving him in the street surrounded by screaming peers.

    Even with that it took the arrival of blue lights to signify it was anything other than the usual thur/fri/sat pub noise.

    That was around 10 years ago .....

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  11. @Gallovdiian
    I don't think Budvar is being unpleasant - he is pointing out the old adage of people crying wolf. If in doubt read your Aesop's fables.

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  12. Gallo, quite why you'd think my story is in some way untrue I don't know, but the murdered girl was killed in Bournemouth also, in the church yard on the corner of Southbourne Rd and Stourvale Rd (for those that know the area), in about 1980.

    She was the best friend of my then girlfriends sister, hence I still remember the incident after all this time.

    That aside, I didn't approach any girls, I live next to playground (it seemed a good idea when we moved in 12 years ago when the kids were small) and shouted over the fence. The father had come over because the kids had gone home saying "That nasty man shouted at us", and when asked why, being kids had replied "For nothing".

    As for the so called "Veiled threat with my attack dogs", please point out where I threatened to set them on anyone, use as much white space as you like. I used my dog as an example as he knew it, if one of his kids had been attacked by a dog it wouldn't have been one of mine but one of the plethora that always roam the streets, but like most things, there wasn't one around when I needed one.

    Now back to the point at hand, it doesn't matter what colour, creed or culture you're from, a scream is a sign of imminent threat, danger or attack anywhere you go in the world (well apart from the Sq/ft you happen to be standing on obviously).

    What any normal person would see as a valuable life lesson, you see as an opportunity to poison a dog. What is it with you and your obsession with killing dogs? You were wittering the other week about how they ought to be put down. I had a look to see if I could find the post but I can't. There were other posts of yours though whenever Jools posts something regarding dogs, you have to pile in with comments about licensing and eugenics.

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  13. Of course no-one did a bloody thing. No-one ever does.

    Boy oh boy has this been a week full of downers. I'm off to the pub to knock the barbiturates back with a couple of pints of mouthwash. So fuck you very much, week of 3rd thru 11th Sep 2011. On Monday I will blearily curse your name.

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  14. Small towns, especially resorts, have always been 'nasty' and with random acts of violence of a sort more at home in Castle Milk (the Scots where will know where I mean).

    Starting with the inbred local fishermen through to the 'Carnis' from the sea front tourist traps and the youth who spent half the year having to claim dole and the members of the Young Farmers who come in to the 'city' to drink at the weekends.

    The difference, to the cities, was and is in the amount and regularity not the 'quality' of the violence. You get a knifing most weeks, hell most days, in some parts of London but only once a month or two in Upper NoseBleed By The Sea.

    Mates of mine, all streetwise and 'handy', used to come up to Norfuck from the rougher parts of North London and they always reckoned it was more dangerous to pick a fight in Norfuck than Kings Cross.

    Although that might be because it's hard to punch someone in the head who hasn't evolved far enough to enough brain to hemorrhage....

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  15. Try reporting such incidents to the police. You get a Gadget on he line telling you not to worry your little head.

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  16. "15.... at 2.30 am. Yes, that sounds like Britain."

    *glumly* I know...

    "This is one of my really big bugbears, Kids screaming at the top of their lungs, for no reason whatsoever."

    This generation is faulty. It has no volume control.

    Behaviour I regularly witness would have earned me a very uncomfortable time when I was their age, yet today's parents don't even seem to notice....

    "We always like to believe things are getting worse though, so declare such incidents proof of that."

    True. But as Uncle Badger points out, you now get it in areas where it would once have been utterly unthinkable.

    "Of course no-one did a bloody thing. No-one ever does.

    Boy oh boy has this been a week full of downers. "


    Ahh, yes!

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  17. "...and they always reckoned it was more dangerous to pick a fight in Norfuck than Kings Cross.

    Although that might be because it's hard to punch someone in the head who hasn't evolved far enough to enough brain to hemorrhage...."


    SNORK!

    "Try reporting such incidents to the police. You get a Gadget on he line telling you not to worry your little head."

    I did wonder if that was why the neighbours took the view they did...

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  18. Hands up all those who think Gallovidian should become a PCSO.

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  19. When I phone plod I always add that I think one of them was waving a knife. That gets some action.

    I've had several discussions with Plod about that. However, they know and I know, that if someone does get puncture wounds and there was a call telling them about a knife and they didn't turn up. I record my calls just in case and told them so.

    Amazingly not had any trouble in our street for a long time now. I suspect the rapid response made them move elsewhere.

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  20. Louise barker. Poor, poor girl .

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  21. Budvar, was the girl called Louise Baker??

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  22. I'm pretty sure it was, but it was 40 years ago. Hell this was posted 2011..

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