renth

Loads of sections of the community flout the law. What about the people in Northern Ireland who don't bother with TV licenses? The thousands of illegal immigrants who pick the UK's vegetables and clean their offices or the Indians in Southall with illegal sheds in their back garden filled with illegal immigrants.

Why aren't the cops smashing their doors down? I can't believe all this hatred directed to a minority group, it reminds me of Kristallnacht.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht

Amazulu

Kristallnacht? Really?

All the things you posted about are wrong and need to be sorted out, but that does not make Dale Farm right.

Cheetah7

Renth, its not as though these people are peace loving law abiding citizens. They smash down fences on other peoples property to gain access to water, threaten, intimidate and use violence on property owners to get what they want.

If they see it, they want it and they steal it to get it. My uncle was threatened and some of his stuff stolen, these travellers also broke into a neighbours van and stole his tools, he followed them and managed to get his tools back which had his ID on them, the travellers threatened to beat him up for just taking his stuff back.

I had a couple of them try and steal my dog from me, my sister had to have police protection as she caught them shoplifting and they threatened her.

If they lived peacefully without stealing, threatening, bashing innocent people up then I would have more sympathy.

But the truth of the matter is that they dont, you would not believe how aggressive even their kids are, why should they be allowed to break down someones fence to gain access to their utilities?

I used to go a car boot sale in Denim, it was a huge affair - we used to love going but the pikies would be there selling stuff that they had stolen from people, they would be there trying to grab your handbag, following you around and hassling you - ruining it for everyone.

The damage that they do on other peoples property is enormous, they have even moved onto peoples land with their vans, defaecated and used their grounds as a toilet, leaving used condoms lying around, stolen their dogs, broken into their homes. Some residents too scared to venture out and have been forced to sell up.

I have seen them move onto a village in just a few hours and in those few hours, they have trenched it up and made it look like a shit hole. I remember walking through the village to work being threatened by them, asking if I wanted to sell my little whippet and then being abused and harassed when I said no. A whippet I might add that came from the pikies who was so badly beaten and traumatised that it beggars belief that they should even be allowed to own pets.

Seriously, it isnt about persecuting minorities at all Renth, they bring it on themselves, if they abided by the law, didnt break onto peoples properties, were not violent and kept themselves and their kids under control, then people wouldnt have an issue.

But try living near them - I have and I have every ounce of sympathy with the people that dont have to use violence and theft to get what they want.

I hear that they are in Australia getting up to the behaviour that makes them so notorious - Jesus Christ if that is true then god help us.

moneypenny20

I don't see hatred, I see people just being pissed off that a bunch of non tax payers are taking the piss out of the country's expectations. I do find your correlation to Kristallnacht to be quite obscene though.

renth

I think it's exactly the same. A marginalised group, blamed for all sorts of bad things being roughed up by the local bully boys.

Look, I'm sure there are some bad apples, like there are in all communities but they can't all be evil, violent criminals.

renth

I see pure 100% hatred, not just here but on the newspaper web site comments and on Facebook. I think its wrong that a people can be so vilified.

kimilseung

It is my understanding that it is cultural, travelers society does not view acts to an outsider as being a crime.

Most societies have a view of the 'we' and the 'them', and what is acceptable to 'them' and what is not.

I think of it as a microcosm of our own society, where for example Britain will go in to Afghanistan and bomb Al Qaida and risk the lives of civilians in doing so; but a different view of the risk and acceptable casualties was taken in Ireland. Not directly comparable, but that is because they are different cultures with different cultural values.

stevenglish

Try living over the road to em mate, their kids threatening local kids in the playpark, massive increase in thefts, shit everywhere, all their rubbish left behind when they move on. Any vilification is deserved for the most part

renth

True, our culture values brown people's lives less than white ones and blacks even less.

renth

I'd probably hate everyone too, if everyone hated me.

stevenglish

If you carried on like most of them would you expect to be welcomed with open arms?

I can see where you're going with this, 'welcome them and show em a bit of trust, and they'll respect you for it' kind of thing but that's pig plop, you'd be seen as an even easier target, and they'd really have a field day.

JOHN G BLOOM

I lived in Wickford where the site is/was........... I dont hate these people its not about hate its about being a decent law abiding citizen that pay rates taxes and bills and has to watch people in the same town not pay bills, taxes or rates and intimidate or threaten to get what they want I cant see the fairness in that!!

My elderly neighbor had her dog stolen from outside the papershop, the little dog was her life and she was so distraught she put up posters offering a reward if anyone found it. 2 weeks later 3 burly travellers turned up on her doorstep with the dog one carrying a baseball bat (yes, i know he was probably on his way to a game )

Dog was unharmed just a bit dirty, when she said she needed their details for the insurance company the one with the baseball bat stepped forward and asked her "are you sure youll be wanting that now"

Needless to say she gave them the money out of her own pocket and was too frightened to even call the insurance people

Oh I could tell you so many stories about these poor vilified people.

Glad they are going just sorry for whos doorstep they land on next

(**gets down off soap box**)

stevenglish

Perfect example, 'I'll fight ya for your trainers' is another didicoy favourite

Cheetah7

If you hurt, threaten, steal and intimidate then people are not going to like you.

Pikies have NO rights to anyones property, their dog, their utilities, they have NO right to threaten anyone and steal their stuff.

It is a way of life for them and they cannot expect anyone to like nor respect them for it.

Seriously Renth, I wish you could live near them for just a month - we would see how willing you would be to let them hook up to your electric and water, bash your fence down, use your garden as a toilet, bash or threaten a member of your family, and see if you think they just need to be given a chance.

In the 38 years I lived in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Greater London, I am yet to meet a decent law abiding pikie, I have lived near them (they set up their caravans at the end of my road), I have witnessed their cruelty and abuse to animals and us as veterinary nurses when they would bring their abused pets into our surgery and I mean abuse on a scale I have never ever seen before - saluki with his both front legs smashed through being used for hunting and left with bare smashed bones sticking out.

I went as a journalist to the Southall Horse Market with an RSPCA inspector, watching how they do business, how they behave and it is horrifying.

You appear to have an idealistic view of these people and see them as persecuted, if anyone is persecuted at all - try those that want to live their lives like ordinary people.

They have absolutely noone to blame for their behaviour except themselves and I still maintain that if you lived near them, you would be singing a different tune.

renth

Hey PP, I've no doubt that what you say is true and to be honest, no I wouldn't like to have a group of them pitch up on my land. However, I'm not particularly idealistic but have we really come across a group of people that are, as the Nazis would say "Untermenschen" - under men, sub-humans?

I thought this piece was well written and enlightening:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle...esentment.html