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Plenty of people were saying in the 80's that black people were all muggers, thieves, drug dealers, pimps etc. They used exactly the same argument that you're using here.
No, it's because they look after their own - something they've had to learn after hundreds of years worth of persecution.
At school I was told by teachers not to hang a round with 'their sort' and I've been told I'm not welcome in certain pubs because I've friends from the site. As kids when I was with them, cars would drive by, and words like 'Pikey', 'Gypo', 'Diddy Koy' and 'Scum' would come from the passengers.
Now I understand that they can cause problems, I even used to get up to no good with them.
But really why should they show any respect for the community that surrounds them, when they get no repect from that community. There is still a big problem with racism regarding gyspies, because it seems many people still consider it justified.
When my brother was being bullied in school he walked out and started to walk six miles home. A gang of 'gypsy boys' started following him, but they were just curious as to where he was going and when he told them, they gave him the bus fare to get home.
Travellers aren't any worse tha any group of people really, it's just that they're different and people target that. Crime is everywhere... But I'm sure the crime rate would rise just as much if a bunch of council flats were built in the area (in relation to Kermit's post). Travellers need to be tough because people hate them... If you're marginalised then you need to be able to look out for yourself.
Maybe they don't have very good self-esteem either, I mean they're living in a society which is very centred around the idea that prospeirity is how much money you have, materialism. Just an idea..
Of course, I am talking from the perspective of somebody who isn't a traveller about my experiences with Irish travellers.
But that's just my experience.
Other than that, where I work, when travellers set up camp nearby the amount of shoplifted stock skyrockets. Every time. And whichever local field they illegally invade becomes a dumping ground littered with sewage and rubbish. Tbh have never not noticed an awful mess after they move on.
I've known quite a few "new age" travellers in my time. While there is an anti-social element (the "brew crew"), the majority are tidy, respectful of the environment, always clean up after themselves and are generally sound people...they're also the ones that you don't notice. To tar a group of people with the same brush because the minority of ones you have come across haven't been pleasant is the very definition of bigotry. Shame on you kermit.
Oh and to say they have no cultural background? Well yes, its a sub-culture with only 35ish years of history, but I have met people who were born and grew up on the road, so it is their culture. Also to say they are wasters is more prejudiced rubbish. I know one traveller who has her stuff published in The Independent for example. I know plenty of others involved in community arts projects or community recycling projects.
So basically kermy, you can fuck right off with your ignorant ill informed shite. :mad:
Your evidence for this being...?
When I lived in Wolves, there was a gypsy (travellers, whatever. We called them gypsies) site down the road. I think they actually owned that land, because it's been there since I was born. It's also on the border of one of the worst areas in Wolverhampton, but that's an observation not a correlation.
I was always very scared when walking past the gypsy sites. My brother and I have been verbally abused. My brother has been threatened with a knife, been mugged and had his bike stolen by scruffy teenagers with thick Irish accents at the entrance of this gypsy site.
The pub just down the road has traded hands many, many times because of the amount of trouble from men who drink too much and cause fights and were known to be from this gypsy site.
And I worked in a shop where gypsies would enter and I was informed to keep an eye, because they were known shoplifters.
My one reasonable experience of gypsies were when my brother and I were playing pool in the bowling alley just down the road from aforementioned gypsy site and were approached by two boys, who declared they lived at the site. Whilst a little forward and somewhat unaccustomed to good manners, they didn't seem too awful and played a game of pool with us.
Call me racist if you want but I'm pretty sure racism is an unfounded and unprovoked hatred towards a race purely down to their race. If a group of gypsies had planted themselves on the pavement across the road, I would not want them there due to prior personal experience of gypsies, stories from family and friends, and impressions of gypsies passed on by the media. Maybe they're not all bad. Great. Let's all go running through the fields, holding hands and commenting upon the wonderful weather.
They are breaking the law by blocking the path. It's called obstruction of the highway, and I was nearly arrested for handing out flyers because of this law. Call the police, but I wouldn't personally cause a fuss with them. Keep a video diary and whatnot proving that they're obstructing the path, so there's evidence.
The word Pikey's proabably as offensive to a Romany gypsy as the word n.gger is to a black man, yet many people still think it's perfectly acceptable to use it.
The reality is, you are using exactly the same kind of justification and arguement that has been used to attack many other minorities - and in our eyes it is racist.
For someone who can be so quick to attack other's comments it seems pretty strange for you to now be pretending you aren't making blanket statements based on race and culture.
I'd suggest you spend sometime trying to make your opinions clearier on race, take a breather from this thread, or face actions under our rules that don't permit racism.
Its your blanket statements that they are all wasters, that all travellers are this or that that makes my blood boil. You wouldn't say it about any other group, yet its OK to say it about travellers.
Disgusting. :mad:
Blocking a path makes people scum does it?
Gypsies have been persecuted throughout history because of their RACE, not because they can cause a bit of mess.
Because they've found a place to live? Where would you have them go?
Everywhere they go they're treated as a problem.
You say the answer is to have the abillity to move them on quicker, but really what sort of answer is that?
You're the one "playing the race card", sunshine. :mad:
http://www.cre.gov.uk/gdpract/g_and_t_facts.html
But those I have known come to this area have always caused us trouble. They set up on football pitches, rugby pitches etc. and have left them in right states. If others have had better experiences with them I'd like to hear about it.
But then again i used to hang around with a group of them and they were fine to me. I think people need to learn about them, i do cos i tend to write them off sometimes when i shouldn't.
I've had similar experiences. The lads off the fixed local site I consider to be good frinds of mine - people I could trust with my life.
they're close community and quite private, simply because they realise most people woudl consider them scum on first impression. It can't be nice when you've grown up in world where most people automatically consider you scum, simply because of the social group you were born into.
I can understand why people find them intimidating. That's ofetn the way they want to come across. They very private people and very protective of their own - and they've got very good reasons for behaving like that.
Even those on fixed sites liek we have up the road have had to put up with racial abuse since they were kids. I remember teachers at school telling me they're a 'bad sort' to hang around with, which is quite disgusting really.
I don't remember any ever being in any of my schools (if they were they kept it quiet!), but i remember a year or two ago there was two or three that started in the primary school and there was a big fuss about letting "people like that" mix with the local children. Thought that was quite sad cos theys only little. Most little ones i've seen have been well behaved, and they need to learn like everyone else. I think they told them they couldn't go to the school in the end or something.
The problems lies when any travellers take over an area designated for something else and don't clear up when they leave.
The racism problem comes in because not a lot of people realise that there are different types of travellers and that gypsies refers to a race not a lifestyle.
Kermit does, he thinks they're all scum.