About 6 cars were damaged between early hours of Monday morning in Laurel Gardens
some idiot went along the cars scratching them with a knife or some kind of tool .

It is believed that is was some one from the estate behind Laurel Gardens as the same
incident happened about 7 months ago this has been reported to the police so if any one
has any information please report it.

Cheers

Absolute disgrace this happened.
People have no respect, even if you are not into cars like myself it's still your property and should feel safe to leave it wherever you want..

I had mine done in, in a very respectable area as well, apparently there had been a few targettings prior to mine.. Now I have fancy smancy alarms and 24/7 video surveillance.

While I can provide no information I wish luck in your quest for justice, not that anything will come of it..
Only thing I can suggest is to put video surveillance up as well but you should really not have to do this.

Do the NTC neighbourhood wardens venture this far?

That is terrible news and sad. Why anybody should want to damage other peoples property is beyond me. Those people need to be caught and seriously punished.

They do it because they can . It is like some badge of honour to the low life that exists at that end of the pond and though we may have difficulty in comprehending their actions ,they certainly do not have the same problem in knowing the effect it has on the victim.

One wonders what change ,if any , the re-introduction of conscription would have ?

Oh move out of the 19th Century.
Giving a load of already angry and bored teens and adolescence guns and knives will not help. You can't solve or eliminate crime simply by removing the people (and I'm not implying all crime is done by young people at all, I'm just speaking relatively).

Some of the ideas in the 19th Century weren't all bad. Discipline has declined over the years. I took history whilst at school and even though I agree we are more civilised now that doesn't mean we should dismiss everything from the past.

Bloody heck! Top post!

For starters young man conscripted personal did not enjoy the privilege of ordnance as afforded to their regular contemporaries . Though they were trained in the use of, it was under strict supervision.
What conscription did achieve was to instil an element of self respect in those who had come from a less than auspicious background and , along with the available training , empowered their future prospects.

I have never met a single person who enjoyed their time squad bashing . white washing the fence or 101 other menial tasks but they did appreciate civilian life a lot more after demob.

Why shouldn't we remove those who offend from society ? The man who said " to err is human to forgive divine " must have been on the magic mushrooms or never had his house burgled .

That's a fair point. But discipline has declined throughout all age ranges, I hate to say it but I'm more often going to be barged infront of/past/out of the of an old lady that I am a 18-20 year old. That may just be me but it's what I've personally seen.

On the topic of young people, as some may know I am probably the youngest on this forum, I'm 21, so it's a lot fresher for me RE "what it's like to be young". And frankly if you give young people something to do then all of the trouble that they cause goes away. I know that some kids who would be abusive, go to parks and beat up kids (normally beating up me ) but when a local youth club started that I attended for a while, it all sort of stopped because we were all having a good time.

There are just some bad kids you can't help, from the fact of how they are raised or they choose bad friends, but that as can be said for everyone of any age range.
I am not EXCUSING them from their actions because of their boredom but it's very easy to cast judgement without UNDERSTANDING them.



I will admit I struggle to understand the entire first paragraph. So I can't really discuss it.

So moving on from there, I'm sure there are people who enjoyed national service, who perhaps went on to serve in the army in one way or another. Some don't. It's not a life for everyone, for example while I don't have much of a problem with authority if a short bloke started shouting at me for little to no reason I'd probably go cry in the corner with a tub of ice cream.

Sometimes you offend me, does that mean I can remove you from society? No. Everyone (unless you are a criminal ) has rights to be able to go to the shops, to have fresh air, spend their time in whatever way they see fit.
I've had my stuff nicked before, mostly it was a kid I went to school with called Tom. He would steal my fountain pen and then I would have it returned 15 minutes later with all the ink missing and the tip bent. Luckily they were 48p from the school shop.
But do I want to remove him from society? No.

What sort of "higher being" can dictate who to "remove from society"? Who has the right to be able to judge that sort of decision? Not you or I, or any living being, that's for sure. Fate will decide. (Jesus won't because he doesn't exist).

The majority of people I went to school with (even those kids who were bullys or thugs during secondary school) have since turned around and most, if not all, are in some sort of education or employment. I haven't spoken with all of them but from seeing on Facebook, some of the people you least expected are actually doing very well for themselves.

There is just as much of a problem to society caused by the older age ranges as there is the younger.. have you seen Hot Fuzz? Everyone on there was really old.
And to simply shoe-horn every teen into national service is a very ancient view and not keeping with that of a modern Britain.

Paradoxically I tend to agree with your philosophy and as stated in my first posting " is conscription the answer "? Not it is .
Had it been a continuous process then it could be answered far easier ,but at what age would you start and who would be exempt . With reference to the age aspect , I agree that maturity does not in itself breed a responsible adult but those "oldies" that offend , both socially and personally , no doubt did not fall into the little angel bracket when young.
In an ideal society there would be adequate work available for all school leavers which would go an awfully long way to alleviate the problem . Now this is not going to happen so we have to think outside the box as they say and some form of enforced work may, and I reiterate , may be the answer.

Over to you .

I suspect the reasons there was less vandalism or theft along time ago, was that fewer people had things to vandalise or nick! Apparently one of the worst times for Britain for criminal behaviour was just after the war; the country was full of hungry, bored and skint trained killers.

The police have been really good they have even been round the estate knocking on door and asking questions I don't think we will ever find out who did it but it might make them think twice now the police have visited the area.

The age question is pointless. A better answer would surely be, those who commit crimes, not "major" crimes but light assault, theft, basic and low cost vandalism, eg graffiti, would be the ones put into National Service, NOT every 18 year old aside from those who lick their own elbows, and I'm looking at Andy here as we all know you tried!

Enforced work is not a suitable answer I believe. Problem is, having been in "work experience" schemes, you end up as quality labour that is FREE. I worked at Motor Parts Direct for like 4 months. 3 days a week, 8 hours a day. Not much you say, but at my own expense to get there and back, lunch etc, and received £30 EMA for it - WHICH HAS SINCE BEEN TAKEN AWAY! Less than £1.30 an hour.

None of the work experience landed me in my highly paying position that I am in right now.

Now I enjoyed my time there, and as such, I now get very good prices on all of the bits I buy, so in some respects it's paid off in the long run but, the point is work should be rewarded with money. And by making people work for free, or an unsuitable wage, especially from a young age, will teach bad working habits.

Ultimately we need money to have a life, enjoy things, and you go to work to earn money, at the end of the day. Working for free or £1-2 an hour is not going to help anything, only make people more work-shy and angry.

Think you are making the argument for bringing back the old regime, which did seem to work. That is, offenders had to do some mind blowingly boring and often hard labour, under supervision as retribution for their wrongs. For instance, the treadmill. Today, that could provide a bit of community pay back as well, connect the wheel to a generator. Easily enforced, unpleasant and measurable community payback.

Sort of like a much less enthusiast hamster!

Perhaps you might rethink that the work experience didn't contribute to your current job. If you had been roaming the streets, meeting other people with no purpose in life, the influence may have sent you in another direction and I am sure that this lack of incentive is what tips people into drugs and by extension criminal activity or makes them angry enough to go down the pub, get brahms and liszt and then get their own back on society by mindless vandalim. A row of nice cars for example.

Good to see that you are also getting some return for your four month investment, it was worthwhile after all then.

Exactly right! We could pay to watch.

Now that is something I would enjoy watching, haha.



I don't need to rethink it. To assume that if I wasn't working I would be roaming the streets, would be incorrect. I was not that kind of kids, and my friend base of the same 4 local friends remained through thick and thin.
It is possible that I could have met people and "changed" but unlikely as I am not the kind to fall to peer pressure, I will happily walk away from a situation I'm not happy in.

Regarding drug use, possibly, I know some very well heeled people who smoke weed, likewise I know some senior people who get smashed up regularly. The thing with vandalism I think boils down to many reasons which we can never really know - But underneath it, it's a lackof respect, and you can be poor and/or unemployed and that should not affect the respect of people's belongings.

I agree it is hard but what I do know is something must happen. Too many kids nowadays think they are untouchable. We need to show unruly kids that if they break the law there are consequences for their actions. My parents were my guidelines. They taught me right from wrong and always be good and show respect.