Group of teenage boys & girls near East Dulwich station & up towards Dog Kennel Hill (Lounged)

[supermum]

Sadly yesterday evening my daughter's school friend was mugged. A group of 15-20 teenage children (boys & girls) enclosed her in a circle and asked her for her phone and money. Her school doesn't allow mobiles into school so they only got some loose change from her.She was very shaken up and apparently the police have said that there were six reported muggings from the same group of children.They have been reported near Alleyn's school aswell.

[Shu.Kurimu.Sensei]

I've seen a lot of kids from Peckham and other areas south of here coming into ED on the 37 and 185, literally in packs, getting off around Nero then moving up towards Alleyns. These groups really stand out, there's no way they live in the area and if the council paid for us to have some police on the streets (the local coppers are seriously overstretched, and in my experience seem to be a pretty nice bunch) am sure they would be dispersed.

Every now and again you will see crowds of small time crooks fencing fake or stolen goods on LL mainly in the afternoon, not to mention packs of car thieves. Last summer there were a few kids knocking on doors asking if other kids were in at properties where there haven't been children of their age for years, plus seemingly innocent OAP's checking out what kind of tenants were on the street. Unfortunately, although reported all the local force could do was record it, there were no spare units to come and question these scum.

One of my neighbours who used to live in the property he bought of a soul mate of an ex spy for the Russians next door to me (think he ran a surveillance office in the Oval or somewhere more central like that in the 60s)was forced out of the area as his racing motorbikes were stolen something like 10 times and his house broken into countless times.

It's such a shame that a pretty comfortable area like this has been plagued with muggings and burglaries for as long as I can recall (moved to ED in 1980).

Bugger all this funding the rubbish Olympics, how about some tax money going towards getting more Police and paying them a decent wage????

Maybe ED should get a moat...

[chichirara]

Was this on Wednesday? My daughter said about 8 girls from her school were attacked in seperate incidents. One was surrounded by 13 boys who held her by the throat. Also says there was some trouble between Kingsdale and Charter that day. what the hell is wrong when children aren't able to safely go even to and from school without fear of attack. And yet we are told crime rates are falling!

[chichirara]

And they want to close down the police station

[capt_birdseye]

I got off the train at ED station at about 17:00 on wednesday and there were loads of youths being detained and searched by lots of police just outside the ticket office.

[Nero]

Used ED Station for the first time in a while y'day and was displeased with the litter. I know they clean it up now and again, but they (they being the train co) are happy to let it gather. So, come 9am, I'm going to ring them up and ask them to clean it up more regularly, pointing out our forum to them and letting them know I'll be writing a covering letter to their chief executive, Tessa Jowell and the leader of Southwark Council. I believe that distressed surroundings can sometimes lead to crime, and can often lead to a sense of unease at the very least amongst the local populace. Nero

[nutty]

+ there was a stabbing at Sacred Heart School in Camberwell on Wednesday - all very depressing

[Asset]

How horrible and scary for the kids involved. I saw them all when I got off the bus. Most were in shool uniform though weren't they? Did anyone identify the uniform?

[ratty]

This is EXACTLY why I am leaving ED and London as soon as I have saved up enough pennies!

[Cassius]

ratty Wrote:

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> This is EXACTLY why I am leaving ED and London as

> soon as I have saved up enough pennies!

I'm with you - but I want to leave England let alone London (although I still feel ED is one of the better places to be)

[georgia]

And there's no crime anywhere else?

[SeanMacGabhann]

zactly georgia, zactly

Crime generally can be falling and yet different trends such as these school attacks can flare up. No need to be complacent but no need to panic either

As for people leaving the country, I hope your status as an immigrant doesn't prejudice the locals against you - you might even get blamed for crimes you didn't commit

As for the matter at hand (school gangs, violence etc) I haven't got any answers but it isn't anything new. It might be more in-our-face at the moment but these tend to be blips in the bigger picture

(which is no consolation to those affected and my sympathies go out to everyone in question)

[Nero]

I really can understand why people want to leave the UK. They are sick of cack services, pressures of life and the expense. When you are pissed off with waiting for a train that never comes, with dirty buses and recalcitrant service providers, yhou don't stop to think about the good things about the country, those things that look good when written about in travel guides, like the arts, access to glorious countryside, a vibrant economy etc. It's the little things that are the most annoying, and there is such a lot of them. That's why I report graffiti and pick up litter in my street and offer advice and views on this fourm, like so many of you lot. Nero

[lozzyloz]

Out of interest where do you plan to go? Is it just the crime you're taking flight from? Is the grass really greener, have you checked it out?

[mockney piers]

I've said at a few times and I'm not alone.

The threat of violence always seems to me to be much greater when I leave London to visit friends and relatives in places like Reading, Hitchin, Stevenage, Bristol, Madrid et al.

This is a disturbing trend and the police should nip it in the bud before these kids think it's easy and normal; but for my pennies ED is still one of the safest areas I've ever lived.

[ratty]

A couple of places are taking my interest. Lancaster, where my wife and her family are from. Clean city, better schools, more relaxed way of life. Yes there is crime there but not to the level of London. I am getting to the point here where I cannot hold my temper anymore. It will not be long before I have a go at these gangs hanging around, and where will that get me? Shot or stabbed and in a filthy ward at Kings!

Other options are the Holy city of Portsmouth. Where street crime does not exist because the locals run the city, or most favorably emmigrate to Australia!

[falcao]

Someone said in an earlier thread that groups of teenagers have been seen in the East Dulwich area and they definitely look like they're not from the area. How do you spot that then? Let me remind you that you live in what was once a predominantly blue collar area and it still remains so in many pockets. Are these the type of teenagers from blue collar backgrounds that you describe as not from the area? Reading through some of the other threads I always find it fascinating that people who live in London, and by that I mean ANY part of London, should be so shocked at minor crimes such as these. I know it might come as a shock to the fuzzy and cosy reality you would like to believe exists in East Dulwich, but crime is everywhere and this is London. It's always had crime so get over it.Good riddance to those who want to leave London..you are probably not Londoners anyway.

[Nero]

It's not the crime element that bothers me personally, but the overcrowding and the lack of civilities and poor services. I don't fear being attacked personally, but it concerns me that others, usually those less well off and with fewer opportunities, are likely to be victims of crime. I agree that the provinces are more threatening, Mockney, but they are generally also slower paced and 'simpler'. As for moving abroad, well, I'm not even thinking of it, but I'd like here to be more pleasant and strive to make it so. Nero

[Keef]

This is nothing new in ED at all. Difference may be that kids these days have mobiles and PSPs in their bags, so the swag is more tempting. However, I remember my sister coming home shaken after being mugged by some Waverly girls (scummers), and I had to defend myself several times on the mean streets of ED. The simple fact is that you get horrible bullying little shits wherever you are, and unfortunately dealing with it is part of being a teenager at school.

[mockney piers]

True enough Keef, leafy Letchworth was no exception.

[BJL]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> I've said at a few times and I'm not alone.

> The threat of violence always seems to me to be

> much greater when I leave London to visit friends

> and relatives in places like Reading, Hitchin,

> Stevenage, Bristol, Madrid et al.

> This is a disturbing trend and the police should

> nip it in the bud before these kids think it's

> easy and normal; but for my pennies ED is still

> one of the safest areas I've ever lived.

With the exception of Madrid - I agree 100%.

[Keef]

As for moving to Australia, they have plenty of crap going on there too, but I'd still love to live in St Kilda, Melbourne!

[*Bob*]

Last time I was in St Kilda, we were sitting outside a bar and a man came past and stopped at our table. He fanned-out what must have been a few thousand dollars, threw a few $100 notes at us and then walked off down the road doing the same at other tables.

So yes, I'd like to move to St Kilda as well.

[mockney piers]

"With the exception of Madrid - I agree 100%"

Not to take the discussion too far afield, but like any place depends where. Majadahonda or Pozuelo and you're in amongst the nicest, wealthiest and safest areas in Europe frankly.

But the number of people I know who've been robbed, mugged etc in Madrid outweighs London by a country mile, well half mile maybe.

[*Bob*]

I've always felt safer in London than anywhere else in the UK. I can't speak for living in other places in the world because there's a difference between living somewhere and being temporarily resident somewhere (holiday, work, blah).

It's a big city, but everyone is tightly packed in. So a so-called spate of crime in your neck of the woods can feel like a minor siege - even though 'your neck of the woods' probably accounts for a quarter of a million people.

The town (in the Midlands) I grew-up in was a reasonably-sized (population maybe 300,000 or so) and there were always gangs here or gangs there causing trouble. You always got to hear about it, because it was in this pub, or at that party, or on that estate - and there was less to talk about generally so word spread round school at between parents pretty fast.

If I imagine all the bovver and general weekend argie-bargie from my hometown transplanted to SE22 and the surrounding postcodes, it would make living here feel like living in Gotham City.