Mugged by gang of boys

[BigPhil]

Too big , old and slow to run away.

when 3 young lads decided to de-money me in Camberwell, I used the theory, " hit the biggest first" , so I attacked the biggest guy, broke his nose, blood everywhere , and strangely enough the 2 little blokes wanted none of it.

having said that , my girlfriend is a lot smaller than me so i tell her just to hand the bag over if threatened, no point in being beaten up for a phone and some small change.

In this day and age , "hero's" end up with a knife in them.

and the perps end up on youtube showing off.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

If you are concerned you may be a target, it's worth carrying a cheap/non-working mobile and an old wallet/purse with a few coins and dud cards in so you can hand those over with no fuss.

[snorky]

Sorry to ehar of your experience

the only real self defence is to leg it and start screaming as you do so - muggers rarely chase people down

Its a bit sad though - this type of act is a dead cert bang up offence - how wasted & pointless must your life be to carry out a street robbery for a pittance & a bauble or two ? when you could end up losing much of the next couple of years out of citrculation if you get caught

The value system behind this kind of act is twisted. A despareate skaggie / crackie may be expected to carry out a rash act like this, but these kids are unlikely to be skaggies just yet

The risk / reward odds are so stacked against the muggers, it is surprising that they still go on with it - there is a lack of clear thinking involved - if it was about money, then finacial fraud would be much better odds and more lucrative

[James]

Still waiting for a description...

[Cassius]

The risk / reward odds are so stacked against the muggers, it is surprising that they still go on with it - there is a lack of clear thinking involved - if it was about money, then finacial fraud would be much better odds and more lucrative

or maybe just a lack of any kind of actual thinking..........

[Lizziedjango]

Yes, James me too. I did suggest it a while back....

[urban-fox]

Sad to hear this mlewis,

I hope you & your boyfriend are ok. I know from experience that these traumas can last days months & even years.

Such a terrible assault. To just Beat up your boyfriend for no reason other than personal Gain.

What would drive young men to do this?

My thoughts are that this runs deeper than just a mugging & that its questionable if its possessions Or money they are really after.? I would say Status & ego Run a higher reward for these people.

Gangs are a breeding ground for Hate crimes against un-armed & easy civilian prey.

These Hoodlums are probably unaware of their wrong doing & plotting their next attack on the defenseless.

A description is useless, as if they swarm in a group, how would you be able to select one individual out from the crowd.

The White bandanna is a sure sign of a gang in that area, Who seem to attack with violence. Sickening.

One day a real rain will come & clean the streets of this scum.

[SaveShambo]

my flatmate reported this to the safer neighbourhood team - 0208 721 2447. Obviously at 3am this was a recorded message but they rang back on saturday to collect the info for the statistics. Frustrating that the only upshot was another number on a list, but they did appreciate the call as i guiess if it reaches a certain threshold they allocate more resources.

[salile]

mlewis- im sorry to hear about what happened to you and your bf. i hope the scums get whats coming to them.

in regards to fighting back or running away, a few years back i was on my way home (this was at camberwell new road and about 8pm in the evening) and just as i was about to step of the kerb, i felt a tug at my back (i was carrying a rucksack) and before i knew it was being dragged on the floor 3-4 meters from the kerb. i was being attacked by 3 boys while a 4th stood watch.

during the whole time this happened, i kicked, screamed, punched until 2 cars pulled over and ran to my defense. the attackers legged it and i was left shaken and still with my rucksack.

once i was at home (one of the saviours was a black cab man and drove me the rest of the way home) the shock was overwhelming and it took me a while to get over the incident. in hindsight of course i should have given them what they wanted. but as it was happening, i had no time to think, i couldnt even register what was happening as i was being dragged on the floor, all i knew was something kicked in and it was a basic survival reaction of being attacked.

sometimes there leaves no time to think about what to do. wrong or right.

[carolyn]

The OP did respond to the request for a description on page 1 of this thread with the following

"to be honest it all happened so quickly it's hard to give a really good description. but you're not far off bigbadwolf, they were quite young, early 20s, no hoodies but one was wearing a bandana (black and white we think) which the police said sounds like one of the local gangs, baggy low slung jeans etc. it was all very scary and intimidating. they looked like they were just wandering the quiet streets looking for something to happen, and it certainly felt like it wasn't the first time they'd done it. they ran off up dunstans road (towards forest hill end), which is the direction they initially came from."

[lenk]

James Wrote:

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> Still waiting for a description...

If you re-read the original post there isn't very much of one.

What will you do with it - even if a description worthy of a Nobel Prize for Literature was posted up here surely it's a police matter?

Some tips (print out and keep):

Be careful when walking around late at night

Report any suspicious incidents to police

[Brendan]

I agree that people should stop harassing the OP for a description. She did her best.

But what are you on about with this, ?What will you do with it - even if a description worthy of a Nobel Prize for Literature was posted up here surely it's a police matter...??

If they are local kids people may know them and they could then go to the police.

[lenk]

Brendan Wrote:

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>

> If they are local kids people may know them and

> they could then go to the police.

How good would that description have to be, in order to actually have a hope in hell of identifying someone?

Clothing descriptions are useless - If I mugged someone in my distinctive Girls Aloud hoodie I'd probably retire it for a few weeks.

Skin colour description is useless - Unless the perpretrators happened to be bright green, in which case they'd stand out a bit.

Unless one of the kids had a head as big as a basketball and a 15 fingers I'd say it's futile posting anything on here.

There's hundreds of groups of kids around here. Many of them harmless. All you're encouraging is members of the public to become paranoid of everyone. A lot of them are already. It doesn't help.

[James]

So descriptions of offenders are pointless. Fascinating. The wisdom of certain posters on here is quite breathtaking.

[Keef]

Chill out Lenk FFS, I don't think anyone is trying to encourage paranoia!

I don't think anyone on here is naive enough to believe that every teenager in baggy trousers and a hoodie is going to be carrying a knife, but the fact is, that some do, and as Brendan points out, if someone did know who this particular gang of little scrotes are, then maybe reporting them would be useful.

Do you not think?

[Keef]

James, to be fair to Lenk, I don't think s/he ever said a description would be useless. However, the OP has already said she doesn't have a particularly helpful description, and just saying "gang of black/white youths in t-shirts and jeans" isn't really going to help you recognise a potential threat.

[SCSB79]

For god's sake. The people asking for a further description want to know one thing - were they BLACK or WHITE. They want to be able to nod their heads and think their racist sterotype was correct if the answer is black or sit back and raise their eyebrows in surprise if told they are white.

[Brendan]

Well that?s just cynical.

[James]

If the muggers were girls I'm sure you would point that out. Women making up approximately half of the population. So perhaps descriptions are not that useless after all... no hang on a minute, that would be sexist, wouldn't it?

[James]

How about this bizarre scenario SCSB79?

Perhaps the people who want to know a description want to know in case, for example, they are walking home late and see the persons described. Then they know to get the hell out of there.

Extreme, bizarre and far-fetched I know! Gosh, how silly of me to suggest such a thing!

No; of course not. In truth we are all card-carrying fascists. That's far more likely.

[Mark]

Keef Wrote:

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> to be fair to Lenk, I don't think s/he ever said a description would be useless.

Lenk Wrote:

> Clothing descriptions are useless...

> Skin colour description is useless ...

Sorry to state the obvious but the Police offer up a description of criminals to assist them and others in finding them, one reason is that it may jog someone's memory. A description also helps rule out innocent people. It's helped the people before on the forum, last year a group of three or four girls, one in a white puffa jacket were attacking other kids in the area, a description of them on here helped people contact the SNT who later found these girls and dealt with them.

As far as I know attackers, like the ones mentioned on here, do not have a different set of clothes for every day of their lives so clothing descriptions help too. Saying that giving out accurate descriptions of attackers is useless is silly.

You can report any "non 999" incidents to the Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) on 020 8721 2447

[Keef]

4 or 5 boys

quite young, early 20s, no hoodies but one was wearing a bandana (black and white we think)

Why is everyone going on about racist / sexist / whatever???

[Keef]

Keef Wrote:

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> to be fair to Lenk, I don't think s/he ever said a description would be useless.

Lenk Wrote:

> Clothing descriptions are useless...

> Skin colour description is useless ...

Smartarse! ;-)

Well out of context though, and you know it.

[lenk]

James Wrote:

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> How about this bizarre scenario SCSB79?

>

> Perhaps the people who want to know a description

> want to know in case, for example, they are

> walking home late and see the persons described.

> Then they know to get the hell out of there.

>

> Extreme, bizarre and far-fetched I know! Gosh, how

> silly of me to suggest such a thing!

>

> No; of course not. In truth we are all

> card-carrying fascists. That's far more likely.

You're suggesting that members of the forum would be inclined to remember some useless fragments of description of some unspecified menace when out for the evening?

That's a big ask.

Why not simplify the message to 'if you're walking around South east london after dark you should be careful'?

Because that is probably just as effective.

Please don't start beating the usual 'PC' drums again everyone, it's skin-crawlingly uncomfortable to read once you all get going.

[James]

I think your weird attempts to justify your squeamish PC instincts are skin-crawlingly uncomfortable actually Lenk.

I don't know who you think you are helping either. Certainly none of the mostly disadvantaged black men who are shot or stabbed on the streets of London every year. Perhaps you should involve yourself actively in a charity or something, rather than going on witch-hunts on forums like this to demonstrate how politically correct you are.

Dunno who you mean by "you all" as well... now who is being prejudiced and jumping to conclusions?

I read a description of three female muggers on here a while ago. I remembered it and looked out for them. Thankfully I didn't encounter them. I'm at a loss to understand why you find the usefulness of a descrition so hard to grasp Lenk.