Wrong side driving social media stunt

Bukkie

Sarnia- I can't believe what I am reading, is this horrific statement really true? What senseless behaviour. My heart goes out to all the victims.

Mine goes out the police officers and the innocent victims in Ireland not the morons who were driving the wrong way for Tik Tok likes

Danger to all and crys of not fit to drive

I live in Ireland and just cannot believe them young men /teenagers...
so scary when you need to go on the motorway now.
needless lives lost over a social media trend.

What gets me is if a oap done that by accident as some have all oaps would suddenly be a d

There are various traveller camps around where I live ( the Andrew Harper case) and a police friend of DP told him this, as they never know what will kick off.

" catastrophic injuries"

Terrible sequence of events.

I didn’t know that about police numbers, Oreo. Thank you.

SueDonim

A couple of my friends and I had an awful experience with travellers last year. We parked at a local Park & Ride facility to get transport onwards. We noticed a couple of caravans parked up but as it’s a holiday area didn’t think anything of it. On return, we found our vehicles were surrounded by travellers caravans and vans and our cars were hemmed in.

They refused to move their vehicles and in the melee of dogs and children, one of us accidentally came into contact with the tow bar of a caravan. All hell let loose, we were totally barricaded by them into the car park and surrounded by people aggressively shouting and yelling. I called the police but they couldn’t attend immediately.

In the end, an older woman appeared, started yelling at all the younger people, they fell back and we were permitted to leave but it was a very frightening experience for three people in their 70’s. The police did call back later on to check on us but said they were powerless to do anything much to prevent such behaviour even though we felt as though we had been held against our wishes by this community - kidnapped, essentially.

The police are often scared to enter travellers camps.They will usually only do so when two police cars can attend.
An awful experience for you 💐

I think it is only possible to minimise the chances of boys behaving recklessly if society addresses how they are raised in comparison to girls. Imho boys from certain backgrounds are brought up to believe ‘boys will be boys’ and that they can get away with things because of their gender, an attitude usually instilled in them by their families and friends. Sadly they are also usually following toxic sites in the manosphere where the likes of the Tate brothers reinforce the idea that they should be able to do as they please.
There is absolutely no reason why boys should turn out like this, and many of us have brought up boys responsibly and so do understand this.
Is isn’t inevitable.

25Avalon

One of the boys in Middlesbrough was awaiting trial for racially abusing the police. They were being chased by the police and seemed to be deliberately taunting them before evading capture by turning the wrong way down the A road where they smashed into the unrelated police car. It could have been any car driving up the road. No thought for their own safety or anyone else’s. I don’t know how you stop it. So sorry for the families of the police officers.

I have zilch sympathy for the teenagers and 23 year olds in the car, but plenty for the police officers doing their job.
There was a similar case in Ireland recently where in the other car, innocently driving to their holiday, two children died and both parents permanently disabled through the fault of the louts driving the other car.

AGAA4

BBC news this morning have said that Tik Tok will pay for sensational videos so there is incentive for these young men to take part in these dangerous exploits.
I agree that young men tend to enjoy taking risks never believing that they will be killed so five have now died young.
I'm so sorry for the families of the police officers who have called them heroes. Such a waste of life.

If this is true! then Tik Tok have blood all over their grubby hands. Could they be any more irresponsible to pay for so called "sensational videos" A toxic combination of giving the reckless and daredevil mindset the impetus to actually earn money for being dangerous. Tik Toc know what they're doing they're fully culpable of encouraging a younger demographic who don't have the foresight, or possibly don't care enough to make a sound judgement. It's shocking!

A couple of my friends and I had an awful experience with travellers last year. We parked at a local Park & Ride facility to get transport onwards. We noticed a couple of caravans parked up but as it’s a holiday area didn’t think anything of it. On return, we found our vehicles were surrounded by travellers caravans and vans and our cars were hemmed in.

They refused to move their vehicles and in the melee of dogs and children, one of us accidentally came into contact with the tow bar of a caravan. All hell let loose, we were totally barricaded by them into the car park and surrounded by people aggressively shouting and yelling. I called the police but they couldn’t attend immediately.

In the end, an older woman appeared, started yelling at all the younger people, they fell back and we were permitted to leave but it was a very frightening experience for three people in their 70’s. The police did call back later on to check on us but said they were powerless to do anything much to prevent such behaviour even though we felt as though we had been held against our wishes by this community - kidnapped, essentially.

David49

Travelers ARE outsiders, it's their choice to not settle in one place they are always going to be treated with suspicion. Irish Travellers in particular are a problem and it's no surprise they suffer from depression.
In Ireland new laws made it very difficult for them so many moved to the UK, where they live in closed camps, no go areas even to the police.

Those I am aware of locally, make a living as landscape gardeners and tarmacing drives, where they have a reputation for scams and poor work. In the past they did seasonal farm work and scrap collection both of which have stopped.

Just like most of us if I want work done I go to business I trust or have been recommended so I guess I discriminate against travellers

When I worked on the census many years ago one of the houses I visited had been built by a traveller and his wife, the plan being to settle down there when they were old. But they couldn’t. Try as they might they couldn’t sleep in it and ended up living in a caravan in the garden. It was a proper gypsy caravan, too. So I don’t think it’s a lifestyle choice. I had a friend who was a traveller but had settled down outside of the travelling community and when my daughter had a pony I always asked her brother for advice as he’d forgotten more about horses than most horse people knew. He, too, used to turn up in a proper gypsy caravan pulled by two coloured ponies; he would ride them with just a piece of rope round their neck as he controlled them with his voice. And when I was a teenager on holiday one year I went out with a travelling lad; he treated me like a queen unlike the other boys I went out with at that time. So I do have a fondness for the community.

Unfortunately what you say is true Casdon.
The young ones think they are immortal.
If only their energy could be channeled into something positive and if only they were able to see the difference.

A tragic and needless loss of seven lives and heartbreaking for the families of all who died.

One of the boys in Middlesbrough was awaiting trial for racially abusing the police. They were being chased by the police and seemed to be deliberately taunting them before evading capture by turning the wrong way down the A road where they smashed into the unrelated police car. It could have been any car driving up the road. No thought for their own safety or anyone else’s. I don’t know how you stop it. So sorry for the families of the police officers.

Unfortunately boys and young men have a tendency to reckless behaviour, I don’t think their backgrounds are necessarily a major factor. Look at how many drown every year for example.

When my nephew was about ten, there was a daredevil stunt prevalent, which was to lie down in the middle of the road and only move when a car was a few yards away, my sister caught him lying in the road outside their house and gave him what for of course, but it was the in thing to do. You wouldn’t believe they could be so dumb, but they think they are invincible.

The figures from the Irish Times says that 22% of males in the traveller community ( I dont think the Middlesborough incident was travellers from what I can see) die in car accidents this is high I think. I would suggest that not talking about this is a disaster for those communities.

Travelers ARE outsiders, it's their choice to not settle in one place they are always going to be treated with suspicion. Irish Travellers in particular are a problem and it's no surprise they suffer from depression.
In Ireland new laws made it very difficult for them so many moved to the UK, where they live in closed camps, no go areas even to the police.

Those I am aware of locally, make a living as landscape gardeners and tarmacing drives, where they have a reputation for scams and poor work. In the past they did seasonal farm work and scrap collection both of which have stopped.

Just like most of us if I want work done I go to business I trust or have been recommended so I guess I discriminate against travellers

BBC news this morning have said that Tik Tok will pay for sensational videos so there is incentive for these young men to take part in these dangerous exploits.
I agree that young men tend to enjoy taking risks never believing that they will be killed so five have now died young.
I'm so sorry for the families of the police officers who have called them heroes. Such a waste of life.

Ww

I think it's only been confirmed three of the young men in the Irish incident were associated with the travelling community, and no confirmation about the English incident.

SM is certainly stirring up extreme hatred for these minority communities because of these boys' behaviour. It's hardly surprising they feel victimised.

AI overview:”Young men in the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities face a severe mental health crisis, with suicide rates estimated to be up to seven times higher than those of the general population. This critical issue is driven by deep-rooted social, cultural, and structural challenges”.I googled this because I remembered seeing a programme recently about suicide rates among young traveller men.

Iam I respect your input in such matters because you have had through your career an insight into working with different demographics that the casual observer lacks and we can only go on how local communities have often been affected by travellers. Who as you say do paint themselves as "victims" whilst behaving badly. Maybe they're just the bad eggs that besmirch the rest who don't behave in such a way, but unfortunately we don't hear about them it's the notoriety of the others. I can't remember where I heard this but I believe many emanate from Ireland where they're not tolerated as much as they are here in England.

What is noticeable quite often is the detritus they leave behind the worst of it is excrement and used baby nappies strewn all over the place. Then the local council have to clean that up at a cost to the local tax payer.

They appear to do what they like without repercussions. Intimidating locals. Parking on private property, sometimes concreting over fields without permission cutting through wire and locks to access playgrounds other specific community areas. Stealing from local shops, abusing shop staff. Where I used to live in a close outlying village, a popular Indian couple run the village shop/post office who had some teen boys come in steal stuff and when they tried to apprehend them they got a mouthful of racial abuse. It seems that one of the joyriders in this latest case is on trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers, I don't know whether he was from a travelling community or not. In the same village as the post office incident, I knew someone who lived there, residents got excrement chucked into gardens, even a dead dog! I'm afraid these behaviours do not endear them to local communities and using the "victim" card is very disingenuous. Residents are intimidated and often fear them, they ruin lives and cause an enormous amount of stress and when they clear off they leave a load of rubbish behind them.

Suffice to say, whoever the tearaway drivers were in this appalling and needless loss of life, my sympathies lie with the two officers and their families.

Galaxy

There is a go fund me page for the families of the police officers.

I don't usually agree with Go Fund Me pages but I do in this instance.
The 4 young people critically injured in the Irish incident have a funding page reaching the £1m mark. They will likely need every penny.