Anti-social behaviour revisited
Posted by Alison Dale
Monday, October 31, 2005
In the past few months I have become more and more aware that the town is becoming a far less pleasant place to live in because of unchecked yobbish behaviour and the difficulty of getting some local Police in to deal with it.
Various friends have reported that they are frequently awoken in the early morning by shouting groups of drunken young people who ignore polite requests to stop shouting and reminders of the time of night or morning in most cases. Calls to the Police prove pointless when people are put through to a central control in Wakefield who have no knowledge of this area & who may well not assign much importance to the behaviour of a few noisy youths on the street late at night. If, however, we had a local station which we could call there is every likelihood that an officer could be sent out, warn the youths and maybe ensure that this sort of rowdy behaviour doesn't become the regular feature it seems to be becoming.
Even more worrying was the incident which occurred on Saturday night outside Greenwood's pub where a man was very badly beaten. Staff at nearby shops told me that when the attack on the man began they had called the Police who only arrived half an hour later. Again if the local station were to be continuously staffed an officer could have been on the scene within minutes and the victim may well have escaped with far less serious injuries than he will do.
The same staff also reported that they were unable to get a Police officer when one of their assistants was being verbally abused and threatened by a drunk earlier in the week and revealed that the Police Station had not had anyone in it for the entire week as they had called in a couple of times to try and report this incident.
I feel sure that much of the anti social, violent and threatening behaviour we're seeing in Hebden Bridge is a result of the fact that people know there isn't a continuously staffed Police station and that if the Police are called out they will often arrive too late to prevent minor incidents from escalating into major ones and that they can expect to get away before the Police arrive.
Posted by Laura 2
Monday, November 28, 2005
By the way, I'm not the Laura who's commented before..
I agree with Mick (see earlier thread) on the fact that no matter where you put a group of young people who drink and are abusive, they are always going to cause trouble. But as somebody who lived in Birmingham for 10 years I can safely say that you lot are so amazingly lucky to have so little aggravation from young people! I am 15 and when I lived in Birmingham my brother got a glass bottle chucked at his head for absolutely no reason.
I understand that some adults get abuse from certain youths in Hebden and I'm sure I know who they are!!! But there are good and bad people everywhere, there are good and bad sides to everyone and we have got to come to terms with it.
I am not one of the people who sits and gets drunk in the middle of Hebden but I know a lot of them and I understand that they could seem threatening or whatever to some people. I understand that this is wrong - the problem is that underage people have been allowed to get away with drinking and taking drugs for so long now that it's very hard to take that away and it's unlikely that the minority of youths in Hebden will tolerate it! I'd say a large group of teenagers in Hebden drink every now and again but I think we are talking far too generally as some of us don't cause any trouble at all!
It's like if you give a child some sweets on the sly even though they're not meant to have them then suddenly just take them away!
As for the man who always asks for money - I've been targeted by him on occasions and am starting to hate the way everyone in Hebden Bridge (not just people on this website) are assuming that he just targets adults. I've heard people at the bus stop talking about the way young people treat their elders these days and it's awful! I get discriminated against far too much just for being a teenager, and it's really really not fair. You have got to stop talking so generally about youths in Hebden Bridge being so terrible. You go and live in Birmingham for a bit and you'll see how lucky you are to have lived in Hebden Bridge.
Previous thread on anti-social behaviour