I've just walked past the kids playground in the field that backs onto our garden. Hanging around in the playground was a group of about six or seven teenagers, dressed in black with Slipknot and Korn tee-shirts. One of them had a short piece of metal in his hand and was using it to hit the climbing frame with. He had long, greasy hair and reminded me of the ape at the start of 2001 discovering the use of a bone club.
Several of the group were shouting at each other. Face to face, separated by no more than a couple of centimeters they were literally screaming, incomprehensible, gutteral noises. I've heard them before, off in the woods but never seen it at quite such close quarters. I couldn't understand a single word in the din. They just seemed to be determined to make as much noise as possible, in some sort of primative display of agression.
I felt completely bewildered and threatened by their behaviour. I hurried past, my eyes downcast so I wouldn't catch their attention. I'm pretty sure that they are the gang that has been vandalising the playground ever since it was installed two years ago. The equipment is now almost completely covered in graffiti - DIE, HATE and KILL THE KIDS are amongst their more literate efforts.
Why would somebody want to stand in a playground in the rain and shout? Answers on a postcard ...
Saturday, July 10, 2004
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2 comments:
Maybe Dylan Klebold started off like this...
Wendy
Way to go, Wendy. There are a few kids in the playground and suddenly you have them gunning down the local populace?
It's my experience that teenagers are unaware of how they're perceived. It takes one kid to vandalise, not a gang, and kids who hang out in a playground do so because they have nowhere else to go.
It would be far more productive for them, you, the kids who use the playground, (in fact all, except Wendy!), if you asked your MP about facilities for teenagers in the area, and campaigned to get some youth clubs going that kids who like Korn don't feel excluded from.
Because at some point, that's going to be your kids innocently standing in a playground while their mates have a mild row, tapping a swing, as some fearful homeowner calls the police because they jumped to conclusions...?
Vanessa
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