[Sacrificial Pawn]

Sorry if this makes me appear no better than the very people this community are getting sick of but need to get a few things off my chest.

Firstly, I live in a small, quiet village in Warwickshire, recently though, there's been a major Chav uprising. Now, there have always been townies as long as I remember. A definate divide between skaters/bikers/surfers and townies, you were either one or the other with chav being by far the least popular. However, recently the word 'chav' has come into everyday use for most people, whereas only a few years ago, only a few knew what a townie or barry was.

With the exposure in the press (The Sun mainly) and the glamourisation of chaviness there are more and more kids turning to chavvy ways!! As if it's cool to be obnoxious and cause mindless destruction.

As i am now older and am no longer 'governed' by how I dress, I used to not judge people by this. However it is a whole chav state of mind that is dragging society down. As before said, they used to be frowned upon and almost kept themselves fairly quiet, but now it has been popularised, they'll all coming out of the woodwork and things are taking a turn for the worse!

Anyway, back to my little village. Recently there have been more and more chavs appearing until last weekend a fight involving 30+ of them kicked off. Weapons were bought in and several ended up in hospital. once they had all dispersed they went looking for anyone walking around the village to start on. Now it is rumoured that chavs from at least 4 surrounding towns and cities are coming over soon (as soon as the huge police presence has died down - won't take long) to finish what was started. Now, I have no idea when it is even safe to walk to the shop at night and not walk into gang warfare as I have no intention of getting stabbed!

Can't understand people who go out to get into a fight and it'd be a good night for them if they put another human being in hospital.

Anyways, sorry about the length of the rant, after reading OP's post kinda saw red and needed to air my views!! Feeling much better now!!

[HeavyMetalSurfer]

Hi,

Really sorry to hear about your village being turned into chav central.

I know what you mean when you mention you dont feel safe walking to the shop at night. I moved to Preston (for university) from Cornwall 5 years ago and i didnt know what had hit me! Having grown up in a small quiet town i couldnt believe it when i saw groups of yobs hanging around on street corners being abusive to passers by, starting fires, starting fights - phoning the fire brigade just so they could throw rocks at them when they arrived! It really is appauling, and it does seem to be getting worse.

2 weeks after i moved up here a classmate of mine at uni was stabbed by a 15 year old because he didnt have a cigarette lighter. Need i say more?

Luckily i'm moving back to the afore mentioned small quiet town on Tuesday, hopefully the chav infestation hasnt reached there yet!

I dont think you need to apologise for having a rant, i think the increasing trend in antisocial behavior is something that needs to be seriously addressed... but how?

[indy surf bum]

everything that has been said in these posts are true.

i live in a small town in kent, and im scared to walk the streets at night unless im with friends or there are some more normal people around.

it really gets me down walking home from work at a night, do i deserve to be called a freak and chased because i have longish hair?

[smiller]

Sorry to hear about the trouble you're facing in your community and i only hope the authorities can put a holt to the increase in youth culture based crime before its gets out of hand (although some would argue it already has)

I live in Nottingham and for those of you who have never visited the land of Robin Hood you should know the problem here has been out of control for years now.

In Nottingham especially we see violence, gang related crime and even the use of replica weapons whether it be for intimidation or for use in criminal activity. There are parts of Nottingham you simply wouldn't consider walking through regardless of your colour, creed or social standing. A couple of the more poinient crimes we have been witness too recently

• 6 year old boy shot at traffic lights whilst in car with dad who was mistaken for rival gang member
• 14 year old girl shot dead in 'drive-by' style shooting after leaving a local fair
• 9 Million pound drug bust
• Shop keeper stabbed to death trying to defend her daughter

Sounds like New York doesn't it!

I think 'Chavs' are fundementally bored teenagers looking for an escape, unfortunately this particular 'escape' means crime, violence and general anti-social behaviour. I suppose my answer would be to get these kids involved in worthwhile activities at a young age but unfortunately a lot of kids today are raised by single parents who cannot control there children, taught at schools where bullying and more recently things like 'happy slapping' are rife. And live in areas where there is precious little in the way activities to keep these kids off the streets.

Until the government addresses the problems in education and in home life we can expect this problem to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Not to worry though cos as soon as i win the lottery i'm off to Hawaii!!!

[ANCIENTWILLIAM]

Originally Posted by indy surf bum

everything that has been said in these posts are true.

i live in a small town in kent, and im scared to walk the streets at night unless im with friends or there are some more normal people around.

it really gets me down walking home from work at a night, do i deserve to be called a freak and chased because i have longish hair?

I do feel sorry for you in Sheppy though, especially with Blue Town. My girlfriends brother currently lives there & I had heard all sorts about the place. What shocked me was when you first enter Blue Town from the main road going to the docks, the bit by the dock wall looks lovely but according to 'Bruv' even he's afraid to walk there at night Needless to say once he was dropped off I was gone !!!

Its so sad this sort of thing is happening & to be honest it will get worse before it gets better in towns & villages across the UK. Its all down to parenting & respect which is just getting worse ...

[Sacrificial Pawn]

Originally Posted by smiller

I think 'Chavs' are fundementally bored teenagers looking for an escape, unfortunately this particular 'escape' means crime, violence and general anti-social behaviour.

I agree with your points. However, I grew up in exactly the same village as these kids with even less to do. But instead of crime and intimidating people we did other things. I saved up money from my part time job and brought some skates, yeah we got moved on by the people for being where we probably shouldn't but no damage was caused, nor anyone harmed by us. If we were told to go the person wouldn't have been met with a torrent of abuse and threats either!! Being bored isn't a particuarly good excuse for menacing a society is it?!

Will be at Nottingham Trent Uni this year, only commuting one day a week though so hopefully can stay away from the trouble!!

[starfish]

i sympathise with anyone who lives in a town full of chav's (or charv's as it's said in durham!!). thankfully, we don't get too many here - they mostly live in the outlying villages (ex-mining villages - enough said!) or in newcastle on the council estates! tend not to have a problem with it round these parts but now and again there's some angst between local chav's and "goths/skaters" (you know the type i mean).
however, at south shields the other night, i'd just got out the sea after a pretty decent evenings bodyboarding and was getting outta my wetsuit next to the car when about 20-30 lads drove up in the bodykit cars, music blasting, neon lights etc...they then proceeded to stand in lines of 10 facing each other and had an organised punch-up!! needless to say i got in the car (with wet wetsuit still on!) and drove of pretty sharpish.
i can see how large groups of chav's can be intimidating and i hope no-one gets into any serious trouble with them!

[hippiechick]

Originally Posted by starfish

thankfully, we don't get too many here - they mostly live in the outlying villages (ex-mining villages - enough said!) or in newcastle on the council estate

I would just like to point out that I live in an ex-mining village not far from Durham, I have done for many many years (since I was 5) and we DON'T have a big "chav" problem here. Obviously there are teenagers, I'm sure there are teenagers living where Starfish lives, but we really don't have that much trouble with them. So to say they are from mining villages or council estates would be unfair because I think the problem is much more wide-scale than that.
I DO sympathize with the people who do have trouble, I know that big gangs hanging around street corners can be VERY intimidating, and I totally agree with whoever said a lot of it is down to bad parenting. These kids are hanging around till all hours, makes you wonder what their parents are like.
It's a very sad world we live in today when you get stabbed to death just for telling someone to stop throwing chips at your girlfriend or ran over in your own car trying to stop it being stolen. I just hope something is done about it soon, though I am rapidly losing faith...

[starfish]

Originally Posted by hippiechick

I would just like to point out that I live in an ex-mining village not far from Durham, I have done for many many years (since I was 5) and we DON'T have a big "chav" problem here. Obviously there are teenagers, I'm sure there are teenagers living where Starfish lives, but we really don't have that much trouble with them. So to say they are from mining villages or council estates would be unfair because I think the problem is much more wide-scale than that.:

i said mostly - not all. and obviously it's wide-scale but from what i can see around durham - most of the trouble is from people living in brandon, coxhoe, bowburn and sherburn and not in the city itself.
however, sorry if i offended you though hippiechick - didn't mean any offence us northen girls gotta stick together so i apologise

[Kaiser Chief]

[quote=Sacrificial Pawn] Being bored isn't a particuarly good excuse for menacing a society is it?!

I agree with SP - just cos people are bored doesn't mean they should cause all sorts of problems just to amuse themselves. It seems it is happening all over, I live in Bedford and the transformation I've seen in the last few years is unbelievable. I just don't understand the mentality of people who seem to get pleasure from vandalising/wearing offensive clothing/intimidating others. I agree it is parenting/teaching but being a teacher myself I feel I must say there is only so much we can do nowadays. I'm a Primary school teacher and believe me when I say I can pick out the ones already who will be these people we're all talking about on this thread (and they're only 5-7!!). I hate to sound pessimistic but it's true. I'm trying though, I've got surf posters up in my classroom and make sure I play different kinds of music at the beginning of the school day - trying to show these kids that they don't have to all like the same thing and that if someones into something a bit different then it should be celebrated! (I admit it also gives me the opportunity to talk about surfing and music all day but where's the harm in that hey?).
As for the parents... well? I don't know really. We can only say/do so much but the thing with education is that it really happens at home - school is where the kids come to socialise as well as learn. The parents are the greatest educators.

Don't know what else to say. Except that as long as there are people around who can see the wrong in this "chav-ness" then there is hope and I am going to be optimistic now and say I think it will change... praying it will.

[smiller]

I agree being bored is not any sort of excuse for getting involved with violence and crime. But the reality of the situation is that teenagers are impressionable and when you put the two together (a bored and impressionable teenager) you are in trouble. Even more so with todays youth culture.

Todays culture sees a lot of people following trends, the majority of the time these trends are usually set by celebrities or mainstream Music artists. Don't get me wrong i believe this affects a lot of peoples perspectives but i think its especially true for teenagers.

The entertainment industry has been sacrificing morality and common principal in exchange for ratings for years now.....Programmes like Jackass, Dirty Sanchez along with Music videos verging on pornographic movies and rappers talking about shooting, killing, robbing, stealing etc... only serve to glamourise crime and violence. End product --> CHAV

[mojo]

i apologise for going slightly off topic, but around b'ham, even the skaters are getting worse.

when i was about 14/15, we used to skate, get moved on and skate some more, which was fine. we had some great times just chilling aroung the city centre. now there is a place called the forum in b'ham city centre where my li'l brother goes, and he has told me that all the skaters want to do if fight the goths i mean FFS people, get a life!

what is the point. just what is the point! go and knock yourself out instead of others and do us all a favour

[Kaiser Chief]

Originally Posted by mojo

i apologise for going slightly off topic, but around b'ham, even the skaters are getting worse.

when i was about 14/15, we used to skate, get moved on and skate some more, which was fine. we had some great times just chilling aroung the city centre. now there is a place called the forum in b'ham city centre where my li'l brother goes, and he has told me that all the skaters want to do if fight the goths i mean FFS people, get a life!

what is the point. just what is the point! go and knock yourself out instead of others and do us all a favour

well said there Mojo... I agree

[indy surf bum]

Originally Posted by Eviction Technician

I do feel sorry for you in Sheppy though, especially with Blue Town. My girlfriends brother currently lives there & I had heard all sorts about the place. What shocked me was when you first enter Blue Town from the main road going to the docks, the bit by the dock wall looks lovely but according to 'Bruv' even he's afraid to walk there at night Needless to say once he was dropped off I was gone !!!

Its so sad this sort of thing is happening & to be honest it will get worse before it gets better in towns & villages across the UK. Its all down to parenting & respect which is just getting worse ...

incase anyone wants to know where i live someone has made a website about it, the name says it all...
http://www.sheppeyscum.com

[Alsone]

ROFL funny site.

Al.