Gang of people foraging bins - right now in Harringay.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rob Ganly on February 21, 2013 at 12:27

That happens on my Road too.  Once a van stopped, a woman got out and walked brazenly into our front garden and started opening the bins and looking behind things... I leaned out of my window and asked her what she was doing and she kind of made a face and started to carry on and I shouted at her and she left. 

Also recently there was an older woman going through the bins across the road at my neighbours and I also told her where to go.  She was dragging bags out, ripping them open and leaving them on the floor beside the plastic ones.

Lastly, I often see a van pass by slowly with them craning their necks into each front garden. It was a battered van that said something like 'Plumbing or Electrical services' on it... (yeah right).

It is annoying but I am more worried about the security risk.

Even if they were just after scrap I simply don't think it is right for someone to venture into your front garden, but only to take what you leave out deliberately with a note on, or what is in a skip.

My wife and I were wondering the other day what could be done about this?

Permalink Reply by Rob Ganly on February 21, 2013 at 13:00

I guess I'll just take pics/vid next time and see if there are any by-laws I can report them for. Also will try and get the van name/reg. Thx!

Permalink Reply by Su Brown on February 21, 2013 at 14:18

Dear All,

This came out of a neighbour watch meeting,

Sgt Leon Christodolou from our Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) said:

"The subject of people going through your rubbish bins came up. This is a civil offence (of trespass) rather than a criminal one. However, it is possible – albeit longwinded – to bring action for antisocial behaviour. Keep a note of the occasions and the times of day."

 

Permalink Reply by Tina on February 21, 2013 at 19:01

This seems to happen everywhere not just in London. I was shocked when it happened in the middle of rural France!

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on February 22, 2013 at 11:19

If you look at Neil's original post he never used the term Roma. Nationalities can also have physical characteristic. People look Italian or Spanish for instance.

Permalink Reply by William Booth on February 22, 2013 at 11:45

OK, i) I disagree with that, and as Neil says, we may need to agree to disagree here. IMO there's nothing to be gained from assigning physical characteristics to ethnicities or nationalities, as it's only one step back from assigning character traits etc. but that's a matter of opinion, but ii) I only weighed in because the original post *did* reference Roma and Neil kindly removed that reference.

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on February 22, 2013 at 20:48

William, maybe we have differ approaches but the same hope. I dislike the claim that we are all equal when we are plainly not. I prefer the approach that we are diverse and that this diversity is to be valued. I don't want to live in an homogenous, monochrome world but one that recognises the glory of difference. Not recognising our differences is artificial. Understanding and working with them is surely the wayforward. I cannot pretend that I don't see that my neighbours have a skin colour that is different from mine. Surely the important thing is that is doesn't matter.

Permalink Reply by William Booth on February 22, 2013 at 22:32

The whole point of this discussion is that it doesn't matter. I agree entirely. I didn't claim we were all the same (which is, by the way, not the same as saying we are all equal), but just questioned the relevance of the ethnicity to this warning of criminal behaviour. Vive le difference! Absolutely, but don't demonise it.

My point would boil down to this: If I were to write "there are three Roma people in my front garden going through the bins" it's fine as long as I would definitely also write "there are three white British people in my front garden going through the bins" if that were the case (rather than just "there are three people in my front garden going through my bins"). A subtle difference, but one from which springs a possibility of prejudice I fear. I doubt most people would note the "white British" in that case, so I instinctively see the addition of the ethnic description as an unnecessary 'tagging' of the incident with a racial element.

Permalink Reply by StephenBln on February 23, 2013 at 10:03

Do these people walk around with labels on?

What's the difference between a Bulgarian, Romanian or Roma..? In five words, please !

Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 23, 2013 at 10:15

Of course not... some would like us/them to perhaps!

The labels are in our heads due to upbringing, media etc. (And that includes stereotyping of the English... ) 

 I get sick of the way Bulgarians get lumped together with other Eastern Europeans (and hey, where was that anyway, VIenna more eastern than many so called Eastern European capitals...) But the labels are created and used along with stereotyping. I am not supporting it but just commenting on the way we have no proper way of discussing multiculturalism. By saying someone is Romanian, English, German, whatever does not need to be racist but stating a fact of nationality. The police would ask, if someone phoned up about people rummaging in bins, what do they look like etc. 

How do we go beyond this then? 

Clearly media dont help. This week Bulgaria has gone through a huge political crisis with protests and some violence from police... the govt. had to resign. There was so much going on but you wouldnt know about it from TV and radio news s their main event was Oscar P shooting his girlfriend. Bulgaria is one of our EU partners and they are being ignored. Sorry I digress... 

Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 23, 2013 at 9:52

But the police and other agencies add the ethnic labels dont they to help us spot/identify criminals, including the use of the 'white' word.

And we speak of the white working class etc. often in a derogatory way. Sometimes it is necessary to be specific about who is doing what and if it helps to fuel prejudice (as it probably does) that is an unfortunate outcome. I just dont believe we have found a way round this really.. none of us, the police, govt agencies... This is one of the failings of multiculturalism, we dont really know how to talk about it.  The debate here highlights just how complicated it is. 

Permalink Reply by William Booth on February 23, 2013 at 10:08

Yes - but that's police work ("wanted" posters and the like, actual crime reports etc). If you did the equivalent of a "wanted" poster on a community website you would be chastised for encouraging vigilante behaviour (and rightly so in my view). This was a warning about leaving stuff out that people can take from your bins, and we've established it's a civil offence so the onus is on us to try to prevent it, not to actually do anything about it (where we would be on dodgy ground). I think it's one where we could safely not worry about including ethnicity in a public forum report.

I don't think it's got anything to do with multiculturalism myself, or at least if it has, it's nothing new. There's been plenty of non-white people in Britain for hundreds of years. I agree we are very bad at talking about it, but the phrase "multiculturalism isn't working" very often is simply code for "I want to be able to say that I don't like hearing foreign languages and seeing dark-skinned people in my neighbourhood but I don't feel I'm allowed to talk about it". I'd rather people said so, to be honest, even if I find that view puzzling. Then we could ask why people feel like that and try to do something constructive about it.

In my experience it's something British people are very bad at coping with, and not only that, but hypocritical, given how monoculturally *English* expat communities in e.g. the Spanish coasts are.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page