Anti-social behaviour

I have CCTV cameras on the back & front of the property and another camera in a light at the front that records sound. They don't care. Sadly as you can see from my story & Paul's story this country is in such an upside down mess at the moment the youths know that the law is very much on their side. Kahu I live in a beautiful four bedroom detached house in an "idyllic" position by a gorgeous nature reserve. Unfortunately we have had some very rough families moved into the previously very decent council estates near our homes.

Nearly 5 years ago now when I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest child Terry used to work nights. We were having terrible problems then - they kicked in 17 panels of our concrete fence. The one evening I rang the police twice with no response so I knocked the window to try to prevent the youths from smashing the fence. Their response was to run round the front of the house & try to kick in my front door. There was 9 of them - all bigger than me.I rang the police for help & no response again. I rang my next door neighbour and he came out & shouted them away from the door. Terry came home from work & he & my neighbour rounded up some of the youths & sat them on our drive. I rang the police for the 4th time & told them & they were here in 3 minutes in case my husband hurt the youths. The one youth accused my husband of assault & he hadn't laid a finger on him so Terry said if he was being accused of assault he would break his legs in front of the police if he wanted but the youth then admitted Terry hadn't touched him. At that the police warned Terry that threatening to break his legs was actually assault but they would let it go in the circumstances! The nexy day I found out at hospital that if I had gone into labour from all the stress I would have haemorrhaged. The above incident was never logged as a crime - in fact they told me the youths could have returned for one more kick at my door before they would consider it to be harrassment. I could no longer stay here alone at night so Terry had to take a £5000 drop in pay to work days as at the time we were not in a position to move. The one youth in the group had been arrested twice for knife crime so we were very lucky.

The police turned up last night after my official complaint. They have promised to honour the dispersal order & patrol around here now. We will see if it helps. We showed them the tapes of the other night.

Unfortunately the Guardian Angel scheme couldn't work in our country as we are not allowed as citizens to take the law into our own hands. In this mad country if a burglar breaks his leg falling down your stairs while he robs your house he can sue you!

Stephanie! That is disgraceful! Thank god you haven't come to serious harm from these thugs.

I've seen pictures of your house and it looks absolutely lovely and the area delightful. It's hard to believe that just a hand full of the "wrong" people can bring down a neighborhood so quickly.

I went to look at a studio apartment and when I walked in to the building a saw two suspicious looking people hanging out in the hall way and it was clear to me that they were doing a drug deal or some such nefarious thing. They looked at me and I just turned around and walked out. I didn't even want to see the apartment any more. For this gem of a place the landlord (slum lord) was asking $750.00 per month.

I later learned that the building in question is a notorious "crack house". Yet one block on either side the streets are tree lined, the yards immaculate and the houses charming.

I am sure that just like in your neighbourhood, Steph, the presence of this one bad apple brings down the property value of the entire area.

Your comment about how a burglar can sue you if he gets hurt while breaking into your house is a sad commentary on our times. It's the same here. In fact, a Massachusetts state trouper whom I used to know, told me once, if someone breaks into your home and threatens you with a weapon and you try to defend yourself, you had better kill the s.o.b. and pull his sorry butt into your house before calling the police. Because if you wound him he can sue you...and he'll most likely win. Arrrgggg!!!

Two very nasty situations described in detail here, but what are our Governments and/or the Police doing about it....Nothing!

It has to stop,  but where does one begin?

Schoulder to Schoulder time Ron !!

Here in Colorado,we have a law,,,the "Make My Day "Law.

Whereas if someone even starts to come in your door,and you feel threatened,you can shoot to kill,no questions asked.( il like this law)

Hey I wanna go to Rick & Ron!! I can help I have my gun license,,I know that scary isnt it;;lol

  I hope things get better Stephanie thats just horriable the crap your are having to put up with !

I think Terry must have the patience of a saint, Stephanie.  It's so sad that it's the good guys, and one trying only to protect his family, who get threatened with arrest.  Something's very, very wrong with that picture.  I hope now that the police have seen what's going on, they'll keep up the patrols.  Citizens aren't supposed to take the law into their own hands, but if the police don't do anything, are law abiding people just supposed to submit when criminals come calling? 

Do the police over there carry guns yet?  If they don't and If they're feeling outnumbered by the crooks, maybe it's about time they did.  I'm not a gun freak or anything like that, but to me, the thought of law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs without weapons just makes no sense in this day and age.