Do You Know Anyone Who Has Been Mugged Recently?

[gerry]

Thanks for your comments Mark. We once had a local police officer address the kids at school about staying safe - he said to just give up everything without a fight. Guess what happenend? the number of muggings rose even higher....easy targets. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it is terrible that kids think this is normal. My son started carrying a fake wallet around so that he had something to give up when mugged!!!

[Mark]

gerry Wrote:

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> My son started carrying a fake wallet around so that he had something to give up when mugged!!!

now that is a good tip

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

And an old mobile phone. (Both SAS tips - always give up quietly and walk away from confrontation - not worth getting hurt for)

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Lived in SE1 for 22 yrs and SE22 for 1 year so far. Never been mugged in the UK but had 2 guys try to mug me in Paris in 1989 late at night. I had a lot of money on me so fought like crazy and screamed so loud people blocks away heard me. A truck driver stopped and the guys ran off without my bag. I was a bit bruised and shaken but not really hurt.

The only other people I know who have had anyone try to mug them was my son when he was about 13 and they got his change but he refused to let them have his phone. He was with a couple of friends, one of whom was disabled, so didn't really want to fight the guys, but wasn't going to give up his phone. I think he 'bumped' into them again at a later date.

My 14 yr old daughter and a few of her friends were surrounded by a group of girls from another area, on our old estate and her friends ran to get help leaving my daughter on her own. The girls asked her to show them her phone but she told them that if they wanted it they had to try to get it themselves cos she wasn't going to give it to them. This delayed them long enough for help in the form of big brother and co to come steaming round the corner scattering would be muggers.

The only other incident I know of was a friend of mine who was cycling on Walworth Road about 6 months ago on her way to my house had a couple of youts try to mug her and steal her bike. She said they were about 14 years old and my friend was so incenced she grabbed hold of one of them by the hair and started punching his face in. She used to do boxing so there was rather a lot of blood. The boy's friend legged it and the one she had hold of started crying cos she was dragging him towards the police station. He managed to wriggle free and she went to the police station to report it anyway.

[gerry]

Peckham, Yes, good idea, except the next time the little thug sees you....you'd better be a very good runner!!! Let's work on trying to prevent the crime, not try and outwit the muggers!! When my son fought back, he was never approached again.....he felt brave and that has stayed with him...are we teaching our kids to act like cowards????

Chav, what stories!! Glad to hear they all fought back. I think the bullies need to be put in their places, or else they always win.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I agree with Gerry.

I would not want my kids to feel they have to walk around in fear. All of us have done Taekwondo and 3 of us have done boxing too. When the guys in Paris tried to mug me I'd been doing Thai Boxing for about 6 months and that was enough to help me defend myself. Unfortunately the world is not all pink and fluffy, so we do need to be pro-active if we don't want to be made to feel like victims.

[Cassius]

Lived in London 25 years and in ED for 21 - was mugged in Elephant and Castle about 8 years ago - a very frightening and painful experience and I have to admit that I avoided E&C afterwards at night for a while - but you can't let it change your behaviour otherwise they've won.

Did feel very frightened on a 63 bus one Sunday afternoon last summer when about 20 kids about 13-15 got on and basically talked loudly about what they would like to do to the likes of me (white, middle aged, reading a book!!) but I ignored them rather than let them know that they had succeeded in scaring me.

I think ED feels safer now than 20 years ago - there are more people around at night.

[Michael Palaeologus]

I'm Spartacus and so is my brother.

Wearing leather and carrying a pointy sword puts muggers off you know.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I've had quite a few intersting experiences on buses home over the years

I tend to sit at the back of the top deck and read my book too. Quite a few times groups of young 'uns do sit around me and sometimes start to talk about me or sometimes to me in a vaguely "threatening" way. Usually they are just messing with you - if you have any frame of reference handy or even a memory of what it was like to be at that age and shoot back something witty then they normally warm to you and either leave you alone or start to enage in a more friendly way

The only genuinely scary times have been when some just-as-obvious-asJack-Nicholson-atthestartoftheShining-bat-crazy guys gets on and starts shouting at people

[Ted Max]

I always keep a frame of reference handy.

[Cassius]

I'm five foot three and weigh 8 stone! They scare the sh!t out of me! They are bigger than me by the time they are about 10!

When I was that age I had better things to do with my time than sitting on the bus with a load of mates making threatening noises! (although I do remember a conker or two being chucked from the bus in the direction of policemen..........)

[ClareC]

I had my phone snatched off me by a guy on a push bike in Camberwell, Flodden Road at the roundabout end. The guys whom I was sharing a house with all had similiar experiences (some injured some not) in the same spot (which I discovered after the event!). The Met were really good, drove me round some scary places looking for the guy, also suggested meeting me at the tube at a similiar time of night a few weeks later so we could look for him again. Never did get caught to my knowledge.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I'm Spartacus.

[mockney piers]

I saw a phone snatch the other day in Brixton, woman holding it to her ear in a very snatchable fashion and the lad was cycling casually past and just took it, he didn't even speed off, just sort of moseyed.

I wasn't convinced he even wanted it, he was just doing it because he probably felt it would have been wrong to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Poor lady looked shocked so I give her a sympathetic smile and shrugged my shoulders in a way that hopefully said:

"I've every sympathy, but really that was asking for it, you're in the middle of Brixton and you were practically holding it out for passing kids when not 5 metres away is a poster specifically telling you not to even bother using it in the area, sorry luv, do you need a pat on the back?".

Though I'm not convinced she'd have elicited much more than "Tch, kids" out of it.

[Ted Max]

Rowdy bus behaviour can be intimidating but if you tell yourself that it's nearly always no more than a little territory marking, then you can deal with it.

If that doesn't work, you can twat them with your handy frame of reference.

[gerry]

Ted, I don't agree with minimising the thuggish behaviour. That is why it continues...with success on their part. No one stops it, they don't feel challenged.

[Ted Max]

If it gets thuggish then it needs to be stopped. My point was more that general rowdyness isn't always as threatening as it seems.

[gerry]

MP

Did anyone even challenge the young man who took it? Of course not, we have all become totally intimidated by these young thugs.

[mockney piers]

Nope nobody did. The opportunistic mobile snatch seems to be part of our urban fabric now, especially judging by the posters* that, if not quite ubiquitous, are certainly pretty commonplace in the suburbs.

*that's those "put your phone away" wall posters, not forumite posters. Just thought I'd clarify.

[gerry]

Where were the community wardens? Oh, I forgot, they only police safe areas.

[SeanMacGabhann]

quite the cynic aren't you gerry? On the one hand whilst I have sympathy with the events affecting the people around you, snide references to community wardens don't help. One guy gets a fine after chucking a cigar on the ground and all of a sudden they are a cure-all for every ill in society? I hardly think so...

I'm curious as to, having started the thread, you are able to balance the unfortunate events in your life with the apparant lack of incident amongst others and at least come to the conclusion that life "in general" isn't quite as bad as that experienced by you? It seems that no matter how many positive stories come forward you are obsessed by the negative. And I'm not saying you shouldn't (you have after all had a lot of bad things happen) but it can be a dangerous road to go down

[gerry]

Sean, I am cynical about crime issues, nothing more. I also don't believe a relaxed approach to crime is the answer. If that is obsessive to you, I don't agree.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm broadly with you gerry - even if I don't sound like it.

Tackling crime (and it's bad enough the phrase is associated with Blair never mind ignored thereafter) and the cause of crime are huggely important. But to talk about things like "the real East Dulwich" as if those of us who try to enjoy life despite the usual hassles (crime, money, transport etc) aren't aware of the whole ED picture isn't that helpful

The other point to make is that we are (almost certainly) all criminals in one for or other? Maybe not violent criminals but criminals all the same (with apologies to people who have never copied a CD, taken anything stringer than Fosters, exceeded a speed limit, thrown a cigar on the ground etc etc). So let's all be careful in any crime crackdown

[gerry]

I agree Sean. Certain elements of kids are growing up with little or no regard to others, and that is where I would like to see a crime crackdown...

[Mark]

gerry Wrote:

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> ...Of course not, we have all become totally intimidated by these young thugs.

speak for yourself gerry, not for everyone

> Where were the community wardens? Oh, I forgot, they only police safe areas.

Jeez, why are you knocking them? Do you expect them to appear at every sign of trouble in a Green Cross Code Man stylee?

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