Social media video

[marleymouse]

Please can anyone advise? There has been damage done to a wall belonging to the council close to my house where local children have constantly ridden there scooters and skateboards along it and it has collapsed. A group of children of around 8-11 were using their scooters to demolish it further this morning, I have no idea who the children are and posted video of them on FB doing further damage with a polite message asking if anyone local could have a quiet word with them or their parents to stop the damage escalating. The area is quite rough and due to my disability I am unable to knock on individual doors of nearby flats etc. plus my husband has recently been diagnosed with dementia and he becomes very stressed by the damage, more especially because last year children took to skating along our wall too and he can envisage the same happening this summer. Most of the kids were quickly called in but the repercussions from one person have been horrendous...she is threatening me with the police for posting the short video. I just wondered what are peoples rights regarding this matter, have I broken the law? There is nothing awful in the video just kids riding at and bashing the already partially demolished wall with their scooters...no accusations were made in my comment just a request asking if anyone knew the children or parents and could they just have a quite word

[Kati]

Tagging Amethyst Crazy council leclerc ostell xx

[Amethyst]

Now the kids have been identified so their parents can take action regarding their behaviour have you removed the video ?

Have you spoken with the council regarding the wall so they can take action to repair or remove it ?

Next time, if they carry on, just make a complaint to the local police about the nuisance and criminal damage and show them the video ( and maybe confirm to the parent threatening you with the police that you understand their concerns and if it does happen again you'll simply ask the police to deal with it rather than posting on your local fb group so the parents can deal with it )

The others tagged will likely know the legalities - it's a bit of a complicated area.... as far as I am aware though you haven't broken any laws.

[marleymouse]

Now the kids have been identified so their parents can take action regarding their behaviour have you removed the video ?

Have you spoken with the council regarding the wall so they can take action to repair or remove it ?

Next time, if they carry on, just make a complaint to the local police about the nuisance and criminal damage and show them the video ( and maybe confirm to the parent threatening you with the police that you understand their concerns and if it does happen again you'll simply ask the police to deal with it rather than posting on your local fb group so the parents can deal with it )

The others tagged will likely know the legalities - it's a bit of a complicated area.... as far as I am aware though you haven't broken any laws.

Thank you for responding. Yes I took the video down as it had the desired effect and the children moved away from the wall. I could not ring council as it is the weekend but intend to ring them on Monday to get the rubble removed and maybe eventually the wall repaired.

I should mention that I have lived here 30 years as have some of my equally older neighbours but most of the young families move in and out of the nearby flats all the time and we have no idea where most of the children live or which are their parents otherwise I could have approached them in person.

It genuinely was not my intention to accuse any individuals in the group of children as they were all participating and just being kids caught up in the moment as the 37 second video showed. I didn't judge their behaviour to need police intervention and hoped a parental alert would suffice to prompt some all round damage limitation

[Amethyst]

And IMO most parents would thank you for that, and hopefully apologise that their kid is misbehaving and causing you & your husband distress .... always one though xxx

[Phaeton]

And IMO most parents would thank you for that, and hopefully apologise that their kid is misbehaving and causing you & your husband distress .... always one though xxx

That doesn't seem to be the way these days, it's always somebody else's fault & never take responsibility for anything, I'm becoming a grumpy old git, some would question the becoming.

[marleymouse]

That doesn't seem to be the way these days, it's always somebody else's fault & never take responsibility for anything, I'm becoming a grumpy old git, some would question the becoming.

I feel like at least one of the parents dismissed me as grumpy old git. Surprisingly I was once a child myself and we have 12 grandchildren none of whom are perfect so believe me I am aware of the antics of children but hey ho I rang the council on Monday morning and was advised the wall and rubble would be cleared asap as it is a hazard. However its now Tuesday pm and the offices are closed for the day and still no sign of it being viewed never mind addressed. Meantime large bricks are scattered around partially blocking clear access to our garage which my husband and I cannot move ourselves - feeling like a useless grumpy git but at least I have had no visit from the police re posting the video

[Amethyst]

Probably irrelevant but my middle daughter spray painted on a wall a few years back ( age 11/12) - she told me about it ( guilt lol) so we went down to the wall and she ( well we ) scrubbed it clean. If someone told me she’d been knocking a wall down I’d make her go try sort it out and tidy up.... ie. at least one of those kids parents could have come and got their kids to move the bricks/rubble into a safe pile/ place at least ... never understand parents not trying to at least show their kids that if they cock up and do something wrong they should at least try and make amends. I’m not a perfect parent by any stretch of the imagination but they know right/wrong and have half decent ethics and morals ( so far lol ). I don’t make them apologise tho - it’s hollow and pointless if it’s not something u decide to do yourself - but at least make them think of or see the effect their cakky actions had on other people.

Anyway I hope the council get it sorted quickly for you, xxx