Group of teenage boys & girls near East Dulwich station & up towards Dog Kennel Hill (Lounged)

[Scruffy Mummy]

Well, I grew up in rural Nova Scotia near the ocean and you couldn't pay me to return to live there frankly! Yes, it's cleaner and there is less violent crime - but young people were pretty disaffected, bullying was rife in the local school, it had the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy, and the so called friendly and close knit communities was actually riven with petty disputes. Gossps ruled the roost, everyone knew your business and racist/sexist/homophobia was rife.

Give me dirty ole London anyday thank you very much! Bullying and intimatidation of teenagers by there peers is everywhere - it's horrible but I don't think that if you move somewhere else, you'll escape it.

[andrewc]

On the subject of safe places to live. I was brought up in West Sussex where each village had a gang and would

threaten to terrorize the next village's disco on a Friday night.

I prefer the safety of East Dulwich.

[Asset]

There is quite a large bobby and psco presence in East Dulwich Grove at the moment - could be related.

[pk]

falcao Wrote:

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> Someone said in an earlier thread that groups of

> teenagers have been seen in the East Dulwich area

> and they definitely look like they're not from the

> area. How do you spot that then?

i was going to ask exacting the same

[ratty]

Good riddance to those who want to leave

> London..you are probably not Londoners anyway.

Thanks for your kind words. For the record I am from Globe Town!

[Fuschia]

Keef Wrote:

The simple fact is that you get

> horrible bullying little shits wherever you are,

> and unfortunately dealing with it is part of being

> a teenager at school.

But by and large, teenagers didn't carry knives etc, when we were at school.

[*Bob*]

Fuschia Wrote:

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> But by and large, teenagers didn't carry knives

> etc, when we were at school.

By and large, teenagers don't carry knives now.

[Keef]

Exactly right! Although a problem may seem big, your vast vast vast majority of teens are just normal teens getting on with being moody pains in the arse. The ones that might carry knives are a very small minority.

When I was at school there were kids who would carry knives, it just seems to be more news worthy these days.

[ratty]

Keef Wrote:

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it just seems to be more news worthy

> these days.

Because they use them more regularly. Sorry, but I work with drug users and on the peripheary with gang members and the levels of violence and violent crime have increased hugely amongst the young.

[Brendan]

Just because ?It is worse in other places.? or ?It was just as bad back in my day.? or ?I?ve lived in a crime free place and it was boring.? Doesn?t mean we should tolerate crime of any sort or at any level. If one person is mugged in 5 years that is too much.

Where does the tolerance end? I?ve stood at the gravesides of too many friends and relatives to want test that boundary.

This is why I have a problem with the narrow minded ideology that is western liberalism and get annoyed when people pigeon hole me a liberal. It seems to imply that I subscribe to a whole lot of short sighted idiocy. I don?t tolerate misogyny, nepotism or racism. Why should I tolerate violent crime?

[Keef]

In response to ratty

Perhaps, but the fact remains that your average kid has nothing to do with all this. I doubt numbers have changed much at all in terms of personnel, but maybe they think a lot less before actually using a knife these days.

For the record, I work with a lot of teenagers in pretty shitty areas too, so I'm not just making stuff up as I go along.

[Fuschia]

ratty Wrote:> Because they use them more regularly. Sorry, but I

> work with drug users and on the peripheary with

> gang members and the levels of violence and

> violent crime have increased hugely amongst the

> young.

Indeed. Trust me, life as a teenager is pretty perilous these days. People are naive if they don't realise that, and that it impacts on East Dulwich.

[Fuschia]

Keef Wrote:

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> Perhaps, but the fact remains that your average

> kid has nothing to do with all this. I doubt

> numbers have changed much at all in terms of

> personnel, but maybe they think a lot less before

> actually using a knife these days.

>

> For the record, I work with a lot of teenagers in

> pretty shitty areas too, so I'm not just making

> stuff up as I go along.

Where I work (E London) Knife crime and violent mugging amongst young people is a real problem, and on occasion young people are threatened with guns too. You're not telling me that Peckham is any better!! Only a short bus ride away.

Your "average kid" isn't carrying a weapon, agreed... but they sure run the risk of running into someone who is!

[*Bob*]

I think there were actually more knives around a generation ago than there are now. Everyone seemed to have one (of one kind or another). I even had one myself. I'd spend the afternoon chucking it at a tree like a fool, trying to get it to stick in.

The difference now is that there are a very small minority who are much more willing to stick them in a person, rather than a tree. And such cases, fatal or otherwise, always make the press.

[Keef]

I don't know if Pechkam is better or worse than where you work. I do know that there is no need to scare monger and make out like the streets of Peckham are like some 80s Bronx gangland, because I can absolutely promise you, Peckham was a lot lot worse years ago when the North Peckham estate was known as "Front Line", and there was regular gang warfare.

[MadWorld74]

I've lived in Clapton (Murder Mile), Tottenham, Tooting, Dalston and Clapham.

ED is by far the safest.....................

[Asset]

Edinburgh was the murder capital of Europe a few years ago and recent stastics showed that per capita you are still more likely to be stabbbed there than here.

Interesting, as it came out top place to live in the recent Channel 4 programme.

Not sure what my point is but I think there is one somewhere.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Don't mess with us Narm birds!

[MelbourneGr]

It's a certain group of kids. Influenced by money, rap music and being a bad boy. "The world owes me" / "Untouchable" / "I can have what I want" attitude. When I see kids behaving in such a way, I'm not afraid to show my disgust.

What these kids need are role models. Another option is to do it the old fashioned way, a good clip around the ear!

[MadWorld74]

oh yes...a good 'clip round the ear'.....just run fast MelbourneGr as they fire their guns at you!

[????]

The liberal pussyfooting around a (the?) major but unmentionable issue on this forum is hilarious

[ratty]

???? Wrote:

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> The liberal pussyfooting around a (the?) major but

> unmentionable issue on this forum is hilarious

Eh? Please clarify.........

[*Bob*]

Here comes the race card.

[????]

Nope - just pointing out the many coded references to 'it' in several posts on here

[blinder999]

???? Wrote:

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> The liberal pussyfooting around a (the?) major but

> unmentionable issue on this forum is hilarious

what can you mean?

liberal pussyfooting around in the Guardian