Report from the frontline
Watching the news these days is increasingly akin to watching a horror film. You know that feeling when you desperately want to tear your eyes away, but something compels you to keep watching in spite of yourself? But the horror doesn’t end in some pat Hollywood conclusion, and nor does it vanish after its daily report from the stricken families of a new victim of the plague of crime, pathetically dubbed ‘anti-social behaviour’. The horror is real, the threat genuine, the menace on-going. And worst of all? It’s right outside our doorsteps.
Last night, it was right outside of mine. Fortunately, my nightly downer of stabbings, muggings and the like, all beamed directly into my living room from across the UK, convinced me that it was not in my best interests to confront the teenage boy jumping on my fiancée’s car, or his 15 or so mates baying for more destruction to be introduced into the game. As I write this, I can see the perpetrators clearly across the road. And as if that wasn’t enough, I can hear them almost as if they were in the same house. Last night, they resembled a group of howler monkeys, who had somehow got their hands on some drugs, and had developed a penchant for robbery.
These are not the words of a sensationalist rabble rouser, but as an eyewitness to an evening’s rampage a mere 8 feet from where I now sit. Their topics of conversation, or I should say topic of argument since their every waking breath appears to be aggressive, principally revolved around an accusation against their ringleader. He is a teenage boy famous locally for causing trouble since the age of eight and only recently returned from serving half his sentence in a young offenders home. He stood accused by a girl in his immediate circle of friends of commiting a burglary on her home, a charge he not only loudly confessed too, but threatened to repeat in no uncertain terms. The comment from her that he would experience profound difficulties obtaining any drugs from her if this was the case left me firstly reeling, and secondly hoping that this represented the end of the evening’s drama. Instead of acting as a deterrent, it merely encouraged him to proclaim his desire to “peg out the first person that comes f***ing near me”. The implication that this could just as well be someone walking their dog as one of his friends rang loud and clear. And they hadn’t even started jumping on the car yet.
For the record, I called the Police, whom after displaying limited interest, promised to send an officer to “have a word”. Two hours passed without the whir of a siren or the trample of a size 12 on the pavement. Perhaps they made it to my street, perhaps they “had a word”, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…
When attempting to find out whether they ever made it to my street the next day, I was greeted with a phone that rang for two minutes without answer. That is not to say with any certainty that they never made it, but one thing is for sure, and that is that if they did, all momentum was lost, the car was still abused, the offenders went unpunished, and this will all happen again. If not here, then somewhere else. And you know what? It will keep happening, and for the unfortunate, it won’t be the car that gets stood on.
The details are stark and worst of all, I get the feeling that it hasn’t even peaked yet. I long for the day that I switch on the news and instead of being greeted with pain and suffering, a ridiculous proposal to “hug a hoody”, or some attention seeking new tough on crime stance, that someone would genuinely get tough on crime. Actions speak louder than words, Politicians words ring hollow, their actions noticeable by their absence. That is not to suggest that vigilante justice is the answer. If Charles Bronsan stood up against this lot, he’d probably get a knife in the stomach for his troubles and hit over the head to make sure. But something has to give, and it has to give soon because I don’t see things getting any better. Make no mistake, parts of the UK are at war and the frontline is our streets. Most worrying of all, who is on our side?