Gang of youths ‘terrorise’ owners of Chinese take-away in Ramsgate

Mayflower Chinese take-away in Chatham Street in Ramsgate.

The daughter of a couple who run a Chinese take-away in Ramsgate say they are being terrorised by a gang of youths who throw eggs, hurl abuse and have smashed their window with a hammer.

Danny and Lin Mo have run the Mayflower in Ramsgate for 35 years with no trouble until recently.

Their worried daughter Kathy fears for what could happen next and wants them to retire early.

Mayflower Chinese take-away in Chatham Street in Ramsgate.

The 35-year-old says the gang congregate outside the business on Chatham Street, throw stones and eggs, bash the door and shout abuse at her parents.

“It started six months ago, but it has got worse with incidents now happening all the time” she said.

“I don’t think it’s a racist thing as it’s happening to other people too. If it’s not us, they’re terrorising someone else.”

She says there are between eight to 10 of them and that they split up into smaller groups to cause trouble.

“I’m stressed, angry and upset for my family,” she said.

“My dad is 60 and my mum 57. They have been there for so long and they are looking to retire in a few years – they don’t need to go through this.

Kathy Mo says she fears for her parents lives.

“My dad sometimes ends up chasing after them but you don’t know what they’ve got on them – they might have weapons. I know they have a hammer as they hit the window with it.

“In one incident when they threw eggs, my brother started chasing after them and one of them threw a brick at him and injured his leg.”

Miss Mo is desperate for her parents to retire now.

“It’s just not worth it,” she said.

“I fear for their lives.

“My parents look after my little one who is 18 months old when I go to work and I’m so scared if anything was to happen – like if a brick came through the window. I’m just scared every single day for them.”

Damage to the take-away shop’s window after one of the incidents.

The family has notified the police and been told to keep a log of all the trouble.

Kent Police Sergeant Steve Moat, from Thanet Community Safety Unit said: “We are aware of concerns regarding nuisance behaviour and damage caused to commercial premises in Chatham Street, Ramsgate.

“Officers have attended and spoken to the victims about the incidents and provided security advice. Patrols will also remain vigilant in the area. Although we are not treating all reports as linked, nuisance behaviour will not be tolerated and we continue to carry out enquiries to identify those responsible.

“We ask people who may have information about any of these reports, to call Kent Police on 01843 222289 quoting the relevant reference number.”

Incidents

Between 6pm and 6.50pm on February 24, a man received an injury to his leg after brick fragments were thrown during a disturbance in the Chatham Street area. (Ref 46/36480/19)

At around 7pm on March 20, a report of harassment was made after a group of young people had thrown eggs at the shop window. (46/62058/19)

At 6.05am on April 19, it was reported that  wing mirrors from two vehicles parked in Chatham Street, Ramsgate were damaged. (46/74720/19)

At around 10pm on May 1, damage was caused to the window of commercial premises in Chatham Street. (46/82980/19).

38 Comments

  1. Sounds like racism to me! I hope the police take this very seriously, this sort of thing can so easily get out of hand I wish the family well.

  2. Feral youths are nothing new, but not being able to hit the little bastards is, because you’ll be the one the ol bill visit, blame the Liberalist do gooder idiots for that one.

    • Who are these “Liberalist do-gooder idiots”? Do tell us. Or even just tell us what a Liberalist is.

      • a. A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority. b. often Liberalism The tenets or policies of a Liberal party.

        Once again it is all there for you to learn – if only you could be bothered to look it up for yourself rather than rely on others for your education.

        • Not quite sure how the “tenets or policies of a liberal party” results in children throwing stones at shop windows.
          We have, for quite a few years, had a Conservative government. The one strong on “Law and Order” and “short sharp shocks”.

          • There are Liberalist ideologists in all major partys, that is why there is no Hanging, as for kids being publicly out of control, what have they to fear?? If there was an element of Authority that scared them they would not do it, if the public were able to admonish them without fear ( because they have something to lose) of prosecution ie: it was the norm, they would do it, but the kids are wise to that, they know the score, ask a Copper!!

  3. Phone the police phone the police on 999 NOT The ridiculous 101 number. Do Not run after these scumbags.
    Let the police do what they are paid for. Running after them will put you at risk and if you get into a confrontation and one of the scumbags get hurt the police will Nick you.

    • I don’t understand why person “A” can carry out acts of violence without fear of sanction, but person “B” cannot. Do the police have some sort of list that says this sort of person can do whatever violence they like, but that one will get nicked?
      The law is quite clear. You can use proportionate force to protect yourself and your property. Have a bit of sense before posting.
      See this, for example:
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48134851

    • a contemptible or objectionable person.

      That is the first internet definition.

      I have looked it up for you are you are clearly unable to do so for yourself – despite clearly having access to the internet !

      • I don’t think you quite understand. When someone asks for the use of a word to be explained in a particular context, then a dictionary definition won’t suffice.

      • But nobody asked you to look it up for them. Don’t do something for free and then moan about it. If you don’t like ignorant people on the internet then log off. Then, when you speak to someone in real life the way you posted above, you’ll learn the value of being kind as well as being clever.

  4. The police cannot be everywhere at once. As we are now 23,000 police officers short compared to 10 years ago (austerity has consequences) they cannot be ANYWHERE now.

    Feral youths will be the first to commit an act of destruction and violence. As I see it, individuals are allowed to use proportionate force to protect themselves, others, or their property.
    BUT , once the crime has been committed and the perpetrators are making off, or even loitering around, attacking them is no longer an example of PROTECTING yourself , or others, because the crime has already been committed.
    Which is very frustrating! It would not be so bad if we could quickly call the police so that they arrive and arrest the criminals. But, as I say, there just aren’t that many police left around anymore. Which is what the voters voted for.

  5. Soft sentencing is emboldening the wrongdoers and making life a misery for law abiding citizens.
    The criminal justice system needs to stop treating feral kids and criminals like these as victims because they are not victims, they are the perpetrators of vile crimes that are emotionally and physically hurting people.
    Unfortunately many parts of our society are heavily influenced by liberal progressives who believe that the real victims of crime are the perpetrators. The liberal apologists may have started out with good intentions but have now created a society where crime does pay. When you take away the deterrent the criminals win.
    The liberal elite and the left wing will have you believe that criminals committing crimes are a making a desperate cry for help, they most definitely are not, they are playing us all for fools and leaving chaos on their way for the rest of us to clean up.
    Lock scum like this up, most of them have already had a second, third or fourth chance to turn themselves around but choose not to.
    These idiots committing these vile crimes know what damage they are causing but they simply don’t care. Justice can’t prevail with its hands tied behind its back. Take back our streets and lock this scum up.

    • Once upon a time, people were hanged for murder, and for lesser offences. They had their hands chopped off for theft. They were deported.
      Did it stop people stealing, or murdering? No, it didn’t.
      Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice shows that nearly 20% of released prisoners reoffend within a few months, and 60% of the prison population had previously offended on one or more occasions.
      So although “lock the scumbags up” might have an appeal to some, it doesn’t, in the longer term, solve the problem.
      Worth noting that (back of a gluten-free organic veggie bar pack calculation) something like 99.75% of Ramsgate’s young people were not involved in this incident.

      • So sitting on your hands is your solution, and as for statistics,there is a well known term for them I’m sure you’ll know! and as for deterents, if a growling dog lies behind a gate, who will enter!!

        • Apropos growling dogs and gates, statistics show that 99.99% of people wouldn’t venture. But hey! Who can trust statistics. You know what they say.
          I don’t believe hands were mentioned in my previous posting (other than a reference to getting them chopped off). My point was (stats or not, and of you don’t use the evidence of statistics you might ad well make it up) that “hard” punishments neither reform offenders nor act as deterrents.
          Something caused these 0.25% of young people to act on an antisocial way. Find the causes of that, address those causes, and you’re well on the way.

  6. It makes no difference calling the police as by the time they arrive any attack is long over and the perpetrators disappeared.
    There was a serious violent attack with a weapon on a lad with learning disabilities almost two weeks ago in the Northwood area where he was also robbed of his mobile phone by teenage yobs. He was in hospital for a week with facial and body wounds and he has a fractured cheek bone too. The police still haven’t got round to visiting to interview him or knocking on doors for cctv evidence. They are wondering if they will ever come! This is how bad it is now.

  7. Still think the local headteachers should meet with the police to discuss this. The culprits could be made to do so many hours community service, perhaps picking up litter in the town centre where everyone will see them or apprenticed to glaziers so they can earn the money to pay for the glass.

  8. “Ahhh they’ve got nothing to do during the holidays etc, so they get a little over exuberant.” Say mummy and daddy, “I’ll sort them out” say mummy and daddy.
    Those 2 sentences said but never acted upon. Do as most of us mummies and daddies do, TAKE YOUR KIDS PLACES! Get off the internet and go out.
    Says me on the internet!! But my children are grown with families, teach their kids manners and respect (as I did) with consequences if not applied. It cost NOTHING I repeat NOTHING for manners and respect. These kids have no self respect so show none. Just mollicoddled, ignorant babies!!!!!

  9. Blaming “liberalists” for anti-social behaviour like this is ridiculous. These are the children of rightwingers who think outsiders shouldn’t be in Thanet. It is no coincidence that they target homes and businesses run by “foreigners”. I have seen them in action. When they shout, “One for Tommy!” they are referring to Tommy Robinson. Blame Nigel Farage and his mob for this, not “liberalists”.

  10. Tony, the Tories might be in power but liberal and Labour progressives are at the heart of the criminal justice system, social workers and the education system.
    An example of Liberalism gone wrong are Human Rights laws. Designed for the greater good but now commonly known as criminals rights within the police force.
    If a criminal is in prison he/she is not committing more crimes in the community so yes a prison sentence does achieve a positive result for the community whereas community sentences do not work.
    Liberal progressives can continue to pontificate about the benefits of social justice and turning the other cheek but will they still feel the same if they themselves are the victims of violent crime or harassment?
    The vast majority of kids are well behaved, the vast majority of adults are also well behaved but they are the ones who are made to suffer and turned into victims because of lenient sentencing.
    A criminal in prison isn’t making my mum or nan afraid to go out at night, a criminal in prison cant assault or harm an innocent going about their daily lives.
    Stop empowering the criminals and the feral kids and actually start punishing them.

    • By “punishing” I assume you mean bang up for life, or transport to the colonies, or hang because your nan is afraid to go out at night? Because if “punishing” means incantation for a period of time, followed by release into society, then only a respite has been achieved. And on release, an even more embittered and antisocial person is unleashed on society.
      The Tory Government makes the laws, and has done for several years. The penal code is down to them.
      Everyone has Human Rights. For example, those of us not banged up are at liberty to come and go as we please. Unlike prisoners, who can’t.

      • Incarceration, surely?

        I think it’s healthier, considering that most of the population is not going to rob or otherwise attack me, to go out when one likes, rather than stay at home.

      • Incarceration, surely?

        I think it’s healthier, considering that most of the population is not going to rob or otherwise attack me, to go out when one likes, rather than stay at home.

  11. The outraged cry of “sentencing is too soft/lenient!” is getting a bit tired and stale.It was all the rage in Margaret Thatcher’s time. So sentences got so long that the gaols got so overcrowded they could not be contained, so the hard-line “Law and Order” Tory government started to emphasise the use of more community-based sentences.
    Under Tony Blair and the Labour Party, the number of Police hugely increased and so did the length of prison sentences. But, once again, the prisons got overcrowded so the call went out to Judges and Magistrates to use prison only as a last resort. Despite the current complaints about “soft” sentences, prison terms remain much longer than in the recent past, unless we are going back to Victorian times to find our “good old days”.

    One of the main problems in all this tends to be that, if you vote for a hard-line “Law and Order” Party you will also get the kind of Party that cuts back on public spending.So you send more people to prison but don’t build enough prisons or make suitable arrangements for them to be released into well-ordered lives.
    I would DREAD having to face the attentions of the local feral youths involved in this problem.And I fear that I would quickly change from my normal amiability into a raging seeker of violent revenge.(And I really mean it!) But I know that our barbarity lies just beneath the surface of our civilised behaviour. So I know that responding violently to the offences of others will not help.

  12. I often see about 6-7 police hanging around the entrance to Margate station helping station employees check tickets. Seems like it would be better to dispatch a couple of those officers elsewhere in Margate?

  13. Tony, unfortunately prisons are now also soft on offenders. The vast majority of the British public would like to see prison as a harsh environment, where prisoners are locked up and actually punished but now they have TVs, some with sky tv access, Xbox 360s, they have access to education, gym facilities and 3 meals a day, prison for many is now merely a social gathering and inconvenience to their criminal activities.
    When you are incarcerated your Human Rights should disappear. I know elderly people who have worked all their lives that have a harder life than prisoners.
    Yes, incarceration is not dealing with the root problems of offending but at least it takes the scum off the streets and perhaps if jails where still places to feared they would act as a deterrent.
    Your utopian world does not exist and you seem to be insulated from the realities of crime. Criminal behaviour doesn’t seem to affect you but it definitely affects the vast majority of us and we are sick of it.
    People who commit crimes know what they are doing, they simply don’t care, feral kids that commit crime also know exactly what they are doing but again they simply don’t care.

    • So concerned do you think if we made prison ‘harder’ people wouldn’t offend. That contradicts with your statement that ‘they simply don’t care’. As someone else has previously pointed out Your argument doesn’t quite stack up

  14. I think prisons should have educational opportunities for their inmates, as a high proportion of prisoners need to improve their literacy and maths skills. I daresay someone can supply the statistics. Whether or not they deliberately didn’t apply themselves at school is irrelevant,as is the nature of their crime. Prison shouldn’t be all about punishment but should be an opportunity for potentially improving the inmates’ lives at the end of their sentence.

    Isn’t being in prison a punishment in itself? Wouldn’t most people hate being locked up, no matter what the conditions were?

  15. Marva Rees, it’s that kind of mentality that is empowering the criminals. Prisons should be a black hole of nothingness a place of despair, not Xbox’s, gyms, TVs and games rooms.
    The softly softly approach is what has given the power to the criminals.
    Most criminals have already been before the courts numerous times and received numerous community sentences before they are actually incarcerated but still do not learn, they don’t want to, they want quick easy money and don’t care how they get it and who they hurt in the process.
    Your turn the other cheek and constant forgiveness is admirable but delusional and dangerous and it seems you are oblivious to the world around you.

  16. I don’t see how making people feel despair can help anybody. Your ideal prison sounds cruel and even barbaric.

  17. Martha, prison is supposed to be horrible , it’s supposed to be a punishment it’s supposed to be somewhere people fear, it’s supposed to be a deterrent not a free holiday paid by the state.

    You sound a very nice person but it also sounds as If you are detached from the reality of life. It sounds as though you have never experienced the pain, anguish and intimidation caused by feral law breaking kids, you have obviously never witnessed the sheer brutality of the average criminal and hopefully you never will but if you ever do experience the horror of a being a victim of crime you would soon change your opinion.
    You carry on living in your bubble supporting the criminal all the while the real victims of crime live in fear just like the poor victims in the article.

  18. “Concerned” :you don’t know anything about me,and your assumptions are mistaken. Please stop making them. This comment thread is not the right place for you to try scoring points against, and insulting, people you don’t agree with.

  19. Martha, not once have I tried to score points or insult you. You are entitled to your views and so am I.
    I have personally witnessed violent crime first hand and also know several felons residing in HM prisons.
    I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the UK population would like to see more offenders locked up behind bars than given yet another chance to reoffend, Harass, intimidate and ruin ordinary people’s lives.

    • But concerned it is obvious that prison doesn’t work as you have already stated that people continue to re-offend even after prison. I don’t see how making the regime harder is going to change anything.

  20. Prison, of any kind, IS a very effective deterrent for 99.99% of the population who don’t commit imprisonable offences. So there must be something odd/special about the small number of persistent offenders who seem to have so little to lose on the outside that they are willing to risk facing even the dreary ,grubby monotony of prison life rather than protect their life out here. Which suggests that their life out here must be so dreary, grubby and monotonous that even prison doesn’t sound so bad.
    I worry that we would struggle to make prison worse than some peoples lives are already. Prison food is very cheap but may actually be more nutritious than the food some people eat out here.
    We could lock them in the cell 23 hours per day but that would wreck their mental health which might do us no favours when they come out.
    No matter how bad prison life really is, at least you have food, heat and light and no rent or utility bills to pay. As life out here gets more and more expensive and just sheer hard work just to keep on top of the money, I can see how the most chaotic and defeated could just give up trying, and decide that even prison can’t be this bad.

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