damo_in_sale
Prominent Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2005
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At around 17:30 today (27/08/2007), I was watching TV when I heard a loud bang outside. I live in a second floor apartment, and have a balcony overlooking our street. As a result I had a perfect view, albeit a little distant, of the four teenagers casually throwing stones at people houses and cars. My first instinct was to watch them for twenty seconds or so, as they continued to stroll down the street, picking up objects such as temporary road signs, and throwing them at hard working and decent folks property, or just into the middle of the road.
I then decided to get the camera out in an attempt to document some kind of evidence, but by the time Id found the camera (a Canon Powershot A70), and set it to the right mode, the youths were beyond the effective range of the zoom lens.
I then decided to follow the youths, camera in tow, around 200 yards behind them, so they couldnt see the camera. There were other people about too, so my walking down the street was unnoticed. I called my girlfriend at home to ask her to get the local police station number, which she did. On calling them they seemed less than interested, as you might imagine, despite the fact that I was a witness and had them in my sights. My girlfriend then turned up a couple of minutes later in her car, clearly concerned for my safety. The youths were clearly visible throwing objects into the road, making passing cars beep their horns and swerve dangerously. We drove past, a little slowly, and I managed to take only one decent photo, which clearly shows only two of the youths.
I am sick of this kind of thing. My car was damaged to the tune of around £600s worth of repair charges, including keying below the fuel cap and what was clearly a blow to the both the front wing AND bonnet. I worked hard and saved up for several years so that I could afford and buy outright what remains my first car, and its a very modest one at that.
On speaking to other residents, it turns out that several of us have had our cars vandalised, and the accumulative cost is possibly several thousand pounds.
A few months ago, I awoke to hear a commotion outside. So I went to investigate and found our residents looking bewildered at several smashed plant pots surrounding the cars on the front car park. Fortunately no cars were hit, but there were a few near misses. As we dont have any potted plants, they must have been stolen from properties on our street and thrown into our car park.
Only a few weeks ago, after returning from the pub with my friends, I heard banging outside and looked through the window to investigate. This was around midnight. What I saw was another four youths, strolling down the street, and one of them had a three to four foot wood saw and was slashing at decent folks fences (the elderly pensioners next door werent spared), garden trees etc. and were throwing objects at folks property.
Now, the frightening thing is that we live in a very decent neighbourhood. It is a suburb of Greater Manchester, nice and leafy with decent law abiding neighbours. What on earth must be happening in the less desirable areas?
I am a 31 year old male, born to a single mother and I grew up on a council estate in north Manchester. Both myself and my mother shared a three bed roomed council house with my Aunt, my Grandad, my Grandma, and my Great Grandma, who slept in the living room. I vowed from an early age to escape this kind of life by hard work and study. I have achieved this only to find that the standards of criminality in the neighbourhood I grew up in are now normal in decent and affluent areas of Greater Manchester, and the standards of criminality on the council estate were I grew up in are now frightening.
My Grandma lives in an old persons council bungalow, semi detached and with one bedroom (my Grandad died 12 years ago, my Grandma has been lonely ever since, and I have missed the man who was the greatest influence in my endeavour to better myself).
A couple of years ago some scum decided he would enter my Grandmas next door neighbours bungalow (a very elderly lady in her late 80s I think), via removing rooftop tiles, cutting through the felt and entering through her ceiling. She locked herself in her bedroom, which thankfully the yob decided not to enter, only to hear anything of value being removed by the said scum. Naturally, the poor dear was absolutely terrified.
I think that it is time that law abiding and decent citizens reclaimed the streets, and refuse to accept that criminality is an inevitability of modern life. Yobs appear to have absolute control of the street, they can commit crimes costing decent, taxpaying and law abiding citizens thousands of pounds, and the police appear to do nothing. Well I for one am sick of it.
So, what can we, as decent and law abiding citizens do?
Although I am merely a tenant, I intend to lobby the residents of our apartments to purchase collectively a high quality camera, with a high quality zoom lens so that offenders can be photographed from afar, ensuring the safety of the photographer and allowing for decent shots. I also urge the numerable photographic experts on the avforums to help us out, and offer advice as to affordable equipment and how to use it.
Kind regards,
Damo
I then decided to get the camera out in an attempt to document some kind of evidence, but by the time Id found the camera (a Canon Powershot A70), and set it to the right mode, the youths were beyond the effective range of the zoom lens.
I then decided to follow the youths, camera in tow, around 200 yards behind them, so they couldnt see the camera. There were other people about too, so my walking down the street was unnoticed. I called my girlfriend at home to ask her to get the local police station number, which she did. On calling them they seemed less than interested, as you might imagine, despite the fact that I was a witness and had them in my sights. My girlfriend then turned up a couple of minutes later in her car, clearly concerned for my safety. The youths were clearly visible throwing objects into the road, making passing cars beep their horns and swerve dangerously. We drove past, a little slowly, and I managed to take only one decent photo, which clearly shows only two of the youths.
I am sick of this kind of thing. My car was damaged to the tune of around £600s worth of repair charges, including keying below the fuel cap and what was clearly a blow to the both the front wing AND bonnet. I worked hard and saved up for several years so that I could afford and buy outright what remains my first car, and its a very modest one at that.
On speaking to other residents, it turns out that several of us have had our cars vandalised, and the accumulative cost is possibly several thousand pounds.
A few months ago, I awoke to hear a commotion outside. So I went to investigate and found our residents looking bewildered at several smashed plant pots surrounding the cars on the front car park. Fortunately no cars were hit, but there were a few near misses. As we dont have any potted plants, they must have been stolen from properties on our street and thrown into our car park.
Only a few weeks ago, after returning from the pub with my friends, I heard banging outside and looked through the window to investigate. This was around midnight. What I saw was another four youths, strolling down the street, and one of them had a three to four foot wood saw and was slashing at decent folks fences (the elderly pensioners next door werent spared), garden trees etc. and were throwing objects at folks property.
Now, the frightening thing is that we live in a very decent neighbourhood. It is a suburb of Greater Manchester, nice and leafy with decent law abiding neighbours. What on earth must be happening in the less desirable areas?
I am a 31 year old male, born to a single mother and I grew up on a council estate in north Manchester. Both myself and my mother shared a three bed roomed council house with my Aunt, my Grandad, my Grandma, and my Great Grandma, who slept in the living room. I vowed from an early age to escape this kind of life by hard work and study. I have achieved this only to find that the standards of criminality in the neighbourhood I grew up in are now normal in decent and affluent areas of Greater Manchester, and the standards of criminality on the council estate were I grew up in are now frightening.
My Grandma lives in an old persons council bungalow, semi detached and with one bedroom (my Grandad died 12 years ago, my Grandma has been lonely ever since, and I have missed the man who was the greatest influence in my endeavour to better myself).
A couple of years ago some scum decided he would enter my Grandmas next door neighbours bungalow (a very elderly lady in her late 80s I think), via removing rooftop tiles, cutting through the felt and entering through her ceiling. She locked herself in her bedroom, which thankfully the yob decided not to enter, only to hear anything of value being removed by the said scum. Naturally, the poor dear was absolutely terrified.
I think that it is time that law abiding and decent citizens reclaimed the streets, and refuse to accept that criminality is an inevitability of modern life. Yobs appear to have absolute control of the street, they can commit crimes costing decent, taxpaying and law abiding citizens thousands of pounds, and the police appear to do nothing. Well I for one am sick of it.
So, what can we, as decent and law abiding citizens do?
Although I am merely a tenant, I intend to lobby the residents of our apartments to purchase collectively a high quality camera, with a high quality zoom lens so that offenders can be photographed from afar, ensuring the safety of the photographer and allowing for decent shots. I also urge the numerable photographic experts on the avforums to help us out, and offer advice as to affordable equipment and how to use it.
Kind regards,
Damo