So sick to death of this indifferent 'walk on by' society

[Lencoboy]

Today my dad were driving over this railway bridge down the road from our estate with me in the vehicle with him and noticed with horror that some mindless muppet had defaced said bridge with graffiti tags.

I said to my dad 'do you think we should report it?' and he replied with 'No, the police, council, etc have got other far more important things to be dealing with right now' and also told me to 'stop bellyaching', as if he doesn't give a flying fig about such issues himself anymore.

Yes I understand resources are generally stretched with pretty much all public services right now but I can't help feeling that we're becoming an increasingly defeatest, 'walk on by' society where we now basically feel discouraged from reporting things that aren't right to the authorities and simply taking petty crimes on the chin and accepting them as a 'fact of modern-day life'.

I never forget a lot of Tories (both MPs and voters) constantly bemoaning this sorry situation during the latter half of the 2000s and playing the 'Broken Britain' card, plus I also remember Cameron and Co pledging to get tougher on a lot of these feral louts while still in opposition but strangely it seems that they've now long ceased caring and barely even seem to bat an eyelid anymore.

I do often wonder if society at large is now simply beyond caring about such issues that people often never shut up about some 15 or more years ago?

[BlueIris]

Graffiti? Seriously? It's just people with very little trying to assert their identity, it harms nobody and adds some colour and character to the place.

[Lencoboy]

Graffiti? Seriously? It's just people with very little trying to assert their identity, it harms nobody and adds some colour and character to the place.

Sorry but those tags down the road from us are far removed from adding colour and character to our area; they're criminal damage in the form of meaningless random initials/acronyms that have no artistic merit whatsover no doubt done by someone trying to act all 'hard by aping 'gangster' types and also far removed from Banksy-like qualities.

I want to live in a decent-looking area, not an area that resembles a gang-ridden inner city area, which our town certainly isn't.

Also sounds like you're acting like an apologist for such people who are actually committing acts of criminal damage.

[Lencoboy]

Also last summer I was coming out of the supermarket near my day centre having just purchased a sarnie for my lunch when I saw this young mother lighting up a cigarette in her car with toddlers in the back (presumably her children) then driving off out of the supermarket car park puffing away.

I told my day centre manager about what I witnessed (that young mother was actually breaking the law by smoking in the car with children present) and she came out with the same old same old lazy answer about 'the authorities have got other far more important things to be concerned about right now' and also added that her parents smoked around her all the time in the house, car, etc, when she was a child and it 'never did her any harm', most ironically in spite of the fact that she has admitted to never having touched any tobacco products nor vapes herself in her life.

I get really peeved by a lot of this 'there's other far more important things to be concerned about' lark, usually expressed by people who are so embroiled in their own little worlds and seem to have an 'I'm alright Jack' kind of attitude.

I also often wonder what's the point in many laws if they're virtually impossible to enforce, or many elements of the public being largely unwilling to co-operate with them, plus many people's hesitancy in reporting dubious activities?

Probably some kind of vicious circle.

[BlueIris]

Sorry but those tags down the road from us are far removed from adding colour and character to our area; they're criminal damage in the form of meaningless random initials/acronyms that have no artistic merit whatsover no doubt done by someone trying to act all 'hard by aping 'gangster' types and also far removed from Banksy-like qualities.

I want to live in a decent-looking area, not an area that resembles a gang-ridden inner city area, which our town certainly isn't.

Also sounds like you're acting like an apologist for such people who are actually committing acts of criminal damage.

Seeing tags doesn't bother me in the least; if young people want to put their names or nicknames in public places then as long as they're not using it as a vehicle for hate speech or painting other people's houses, I'm fine with that. And whether you believe it or not, I like the cumulative effect of these things, and when I travel by train I often wonder about the people who created them, who they are and what their lives are like, always have.

I'm guessing that you're struggling a bit right now, and I'm sorry for that; it's awful to be afraid most or all of the time. I am too right now, and it sucks the joy out of life. I've seen others whose fear has curdled into anger and malice, though, and I never want to be that person.

Some things are worth getting upset over (arguably the woman smoking in the car with her kids, but that's the sort of thing GPs or childcare staff will pick up on, and needs support rather than punishment), but young people asserting their identity isn’t one of them.

[Lencoboy]

Seeing tags doesn't bother me in the least; if young people want to put their names or nicknames in public places then as long as they're not using it as a vehicle for hate speech or painting other people's houses, I'm fine with that. And whether you believe it or not, I like the cumulative effect of these things, and when I travel by train I often wonder about the people who created them, who they are and what their lives are like, always have.

I'm guessing that you're struggling a bit right now, and I'm sorry for that; it's awful to be afraid most or all of the time. I am too right now, and it sucks the joy out of life. I've seen others whose fear has curdled into anger and malice, though, and I never want to be that person.

Some things are worth getting upset over (arguably the woman smoking in the car with her kids, but that's the sort of thing GPs or childcare staff will pick up on, and needs support rather than punishment), but young people asserting their identity isn’t one of them.

So you're perfectly OK with youngsters defacing property that doesn't belong to then with mindless tit-for-tat tags all in the name of 'free expression' that actually amounts to 'criminal damage'?

Let's face it, how would you feel for instance if I came and set about your front door with a can of aerosol spray-paint or a Sharpie pen, in the name of me asserting my personal expression and identity?

Not that I have any actual intention whatsoever in ever doing such a thing, plus I don't even know your actual home address (nor anyone else's on here for that matter).

But my general concern right now (especially regarding the incident with the mother smoking in the car with her young children present) is the fact that many seem to ignore a lot of these matters and shy away from reporting them or (if possible) dealing with them, but often trivialising them instead with the usual get-out clause 'there's far more pressing issues in the world to be concerned about right now', and 'the authorities probably won't be interested' etc.

So in the context of the last sentence of the previous paragraph, 'where does it all end' in being too trivial?

[BlueIris]

It's not anybody's front door, though, as I said, it's a bridge and it's part of a shared public space.

If your front door is getting tagged, you have my sympathy. Somehow, though, I doubt this is the case.

[LittleLionMan]

I think people just have more important things to worry about.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well, it does cause your taxes to be diverted. I don't mind something artistic but tags and things are just like littering to me.

But I think most of us have more important things to think about. It's out of hand and will never change so all anyone can do is paint over it. Just like litter and fly tipping. You know its breaking a minor law but people who do it don't care. The result ends up a mess and in some cases costing money to clear it up.

Don't try to spray a giant nob on Buckingham Palace though as the police take a zero tolerance approach.

Maybe Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil will tip a can of soup over or glue themselves to a graffiti artist?

[BlueIris]

Unlikely, it's the corporate ****s we need to worry about more than underprivileged kids.