Would You Dare To Confront Some Of Today's Yobs?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293193/Face-grandfather-savagely-beaten-yobs-daring-confront-vandalised-local-park.html

What causes 'some' of the youth of today to be so violent, I say 'today' because no matter what some of you might say, it never happened when I was a youth?

[jim360]

AOG, do YOU really believe that everything has steadily been getting worse since the dawn of time? Even assuming that things were better in the 50's and 60's say, there were people of that time bemoaning the end of a Golden Age of the behaviour of youth.

There were a quote I remember, sadly unsourced as it is presumably in a book at home and I am away, some quote that ran along the lines of how the youth of today fail to respect their elders, they stand on street corners intimidating those who pass by and engaging in all sorts of immoral activities - which came from the mouth of some Ancient Greek. Given that, and similar quotes you will find down the ages, is it really so hard to believe that in fact the problem today is more open coverage?

[Kromovaracun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Hill_(gangster) - again, notorious for his deployment of extreme violence.

Perhaps AOG thinks he was actually of a more humane breed, though, and simply doesn't count. After all he did seem to look down on murder when compared to mere mutilation:

"I was always careful to draw my knife down on the face, never across or upwards. Always down. So that if the knife slips you don't cut an artery. After all, chivving is chivving, but cutting an artery is usually murder. Only mugs do murder"

[pdq1]

National Service tamed many of the yobs of yesteryear and many came out decent citizens. The yobs of today just watch films about violence and influences how they think. Going to prison makes them even more violent as they pick up the wrong things. Instead of creating a massive new TA force he should have used the opportunity of putting many of these unemployed louts into useful work.

[factor-fiction]

If Ripper Street is fairly true portrayal of life in Victorian England then the parks and streets seem a much safer place now than then.
When was the Golden Age I wonder

[emmie]

I actually do think it's worse now, and i will give you my version of events so to speak. First off the gangs that have been mentioned, the Krays, the Richardsons, were thugs, nasty, vicious and were involved in some pretty heavy stuff.. I too know that world, i didn't know them personally, but any number of people who were from the same background, area, families. The fact is most of those men were gangsters, but what they didn't do was go and batter some pensioner for a few quid, that was not their way, their areas of criminality were illegal gambling, racketeering, prostitution, but rarely drugs. They were not nice people for the most part, so not excusing them at all.

Nowadays drugs a large part of the problem, how to get it firstly, and if you have no money, you burgle someone's house, or beat up some poor pensioner and nick it. if they are on drugs they don't care a toss who gets hurt.. add in the fact that youths have access to more guns, knives on the streets than ever, the last time there was a knife amnesty thousands were handed in...
I never had a problem ever with walking around London, either alone or with a mate, not ever, but i do now.
The photo of that poor soul is horrible, and there are plenty more where he came from...

[emmie]

if you really want to know what London was like at it's absolute worst then look up Covent Garden 1700's, a cesspit in every sense of the word.

[Khandro]

The violence in Victorian England (ah! I remember it well) was mainly to do with robbery I think, gentlemen carried weapons, sword sticks and even pistols, now outlawed. I think this kind of gratuitous violence is fuelled by a cocktail of Alcohol and drugs (now cheaper than booze), and where did all this crap about 'respect' come from?

[emmie]

i believe that came from America, the black gangs like the Cripps and the Bloods..

[emmie]

sorry to disavow you, but the biggest problem then was prostitution, vice..

[tonyav]

f you really want to know what London was like at it's absolute worst then look up Covent Garden 1700's, a cesspit in every sense of the word.

Would that be what that painting / drawing ' Gin Alley ' is about em.

[emmie]

certainly part of it, Hogarth s depiction of the inhabitants,


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane

[naomi24]

I think some people are missing one vital point here. Lots of examples are being given of gangsters running protection rackets, etc., but those people weren’t in the business of attacking and robbing ordinary people – who at the time often didn’t possess anything worth pinching. They were after far bigger pickings. Sqad and AOG don’t have selective memories – they’re telling it like it was - people were safe to walk home late at night. I can’t match them in age, but as a teenager I too lived in the East End of London and having missed the last bus, have often walked home from the West End without problems – but I wouldn’t do it now! There is no doubt that for the ordinary man (or girl) in the street the world has become a far more dangerous place.

[tonyav]

Ah yes em gin lane, don't know why I thought gin alley.

[emmie]

Naomi, exactly my points

[naomi24]

Em, it seems strange to me that those who weren't there think they know better than those who were there. They don't.

[emmie]

and i did know lots of faces! they were by and large charming, well dressed individuals. I didn't care for their profession mind you..

[naomi24]

:o)

[Kromovaracun]

"I think some people are missing one vital point here. Lots of examples are being given of gangsters running protection rackets, etc., but those people weren’t in the business of attacking and robbing ordinary people"

True.

There are, however, plenty of recorded examples of gang violence against ordinary people (along with thousands upon thousands of records of looting from the sacred Blitz generation), which (in my own case) was the contention I was responding to.

But hey, I'm sure their victims or their families would be delighted to hear that none of it ever happened.

[emmie]

i don't doubt it did, but i also don't doubt, going on fact of actually living in this city, how many people live here now, that it is a lot worse. As any number of us have pointed out, we knew the East End, it was always a tough area, either from visiting or living in it. If i looked at the numbers of young black men who have died in the last five years, through gang related crime, or been innocent bystanders, caught in the middle it would be truly shocking.