Thanet Community Safety Unit and the Problem Solving Task Force are in Ramsgate town centre this weekend, targeting those causing anti-social behaviour.
A 48-hour dispersal order is in place giving officers extra powers to disperse those causing a nuisance.
The order runs from 6pm last night (November 20) to 17.59pm on Sunday (November 22) and allows officers to move on anyone they believe to be causing a nuisance.
It is in response to a number of reports of the misuse of alcohol, drug taking and criminal damage in the town between Friday 13 and Tuesday 17 November.
The order is operational within the boundaries of Addington Street in the south, Queen Street, King Street and Hereson Road in the west, and Seven Stones Drive in the north.
Officers are regularly patrolling the area and anyone affected by nuisance behaviour is encouraged to make a report via the Kent Police website or by calling 101.
PC David Reynaert, from Thanet Community Policing Unit, said: “Kent Police is well aware of the impact anti-social behaviour can have on residents and we will take action wherever concerns are raised.
“This dispersal order is one of a number of tools open to us and we will continue to work with partner agencies to ensure Ramsgate remains a pleasant place to live and work.”
The order also follows numerous complaints from residents and traders about fighting, drug taking, shouting and intimidation of passers-by.
The woman, who does not want to be named for fear of reprisals, says the issues are caused by a large group of ‘feral’ youths aged 12 to 17 who continually gather in the Queen Street and York Street areas, as well as the multi-storey car park.
Issues with anti-social behaviour and crime from youth ‘gangs’ in the town has been a historic problem dating back at least six years with the youngsters changing but the problems remaining constant.
In 2017, 48 hour dispersal orders, patrols targeting ‘hot spots’ and making passwords necessary to access free wi-fi were put in place to target the antisocial behaviour.
Residents and businesses in the town and seafront had logged hundreds of complaints over vandalism, threats intimidation, drug dealing and nuisance behaviour during an 18 month period.
Regular meetings were arranged by county councillor Karen Constantine between business owners and police to try and combat the problem. But the meetings had to be repeated in 2018 with a fresh outbreak of incidents.
At the time Cllr Constantine said police resources were overstretched and more youth facilities could be part of the solution. Requests for CCTV coverage were also made.
In July 2018 Public Space Protection Orders were enacted for Central Harbour and Margate Central wards. PSPOs prohibit congregating as part of a group of 2 or more for such duration as specified, when directed not to do so by an authorised officer; on the basis that the behaviour is causing or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to others in the locality.
They also prohibit misusing any public space which is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to others and includes a ban on foul or abusive language that it is likely to cause distress and urinating, defecating or spitting in any public place.
In February of this year stop and searches, knife sweeps and the knock-on effects of a dispersal order brought calm to trouble hotspots in Ramsgate town centre.
Increased police visibility followed an attack on a 27-year-old man in Queen Street by a gang of teenagers on January 24.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Bidmead, from Kent Police, said three teenagers, over the age of 16, have been issued with Community Protection Notices and another is the subject of an Acceptable Behaviour Agreement.
Ah yes, we have had some more bad publicity so we will do a PR public show & do something for a couple of days, before ignoring it again like we have done for the last 6 years or so.
Regretfully it is not only residents and shopkeepers that are receiving abuse and threats. My wife and I have personally witnesses a young WPC being verbally abused at 3pm and not by a youth. Why the person was asking to be charged only they will know. How the WPC kept her cool I don’t know. The person was made to calm down but even after the WPC left the scene the person was still shouting abuse. I think the person must have fallen out of an aeroplane without a parachute.
What’s the bet these cowardly scrotes will not have the gonads to turn out!
Why would they when they can just wait 48 hours & everything is back to normal? It is lip service for PR purposes because this ongoing problem is getting publicity again, there is no interest in actually fixing the problem permanently-as we have seen for years now.
I was parking in the Royal Harbour multi storey car park in Ramsgate yesterday early yesterday evening and as I parked my car a police car turned up to move on the three youths who were skateboarding down the vehicle ramps. It is about time something was done about this anti social behaviour as other car park users have been verbally abused previously on a regular basis. I hope they will also stop them drinking (they are clearly under 18 years old) and setting aerosol cans on fire for a laugh otherwise it is only a matter of time before there is a serious fire or injury or both.
*excuse* typo with two yesterdays!
Get the tazzers out and bring them to the ground then round them up and throw them in the harbour, short sharp shock won’t hurt them.
Get the tazzers out and bring them to the ground then round them up and throw them in the harbour short sharp shock won’t hurt them.
I really can’t understand these 48 hour orders. When I was in the police we would not allow these toe rags to get their own way whatsoever never mind ridiculous “orders” the only orders that mattered to us were the orders we gave them to move on, clear off, go home or you will be nicked. Softly softly does not work on some, all it does is encourage more yobbish behaviour as we can see for ourselves.
Well said and agree 100%. It’s time to stop pandering to the thugs, feral kids and criminals. Liberal based policing only empowers the criminals to push back further against the police and the communities they live in.
The vast majority of the public want criminals behind bars and nuisance feral kids disciplined. The social experiment of soft and liberal policing has created a situation where people are no longer afraid of breaking the law and have zero respect for authority figures.
It reeks of the police saying they haven’t got the resources or being run by namby-pambys. Those orders were originally used to disrupt annoying drunks & youngsters getting a bit rowdy & for that were effective. But this is a problem that has been ongoing for 6 odd years & it clearly isn’t effective at stopping persistent, hardcore offenders.
The police have effectively surrendered the streets to these yobbos(doing their antics right outside their station) & make occasional grandstand gestures like this when the story gets coverage, just like when Kent Police do their tough on drugs raids in front of the local news crews once a year-rounding up bottom feeding dealers, slave growers & nicking users as if we are supposed to be impressed when the guys making the money get away scot-free. Or these drug busts at the ports where some muppet from Eastern Europe getting paid a pittance usually is caught & jailed-while everybody above him in the smuggling is laughing.
More a case of society has decided that the police can’t do what they would have done in the past and instead expect the problem to dealt with via a few kind words of advice, which in the real world won’t work. So we get the world we deserve.
The idiots involved carry on as they do because the abuse and intimidation they hand out gets them what they want, until they are on the receiving end of the same sort of treatment ( and get a good kicking) they won’t change, their ways. Having officers do nothing whilst being abused just empowers the cretins and makes them ever bolder. The namby pamby do gooders that got us to this point should be the ones on the street dealing with the problem.
I’d rather be a namby-pamby do-gooder than someone who suggests throwing people into the harbour. Also, I don’t think I,or people who hold the same opinion as me,have done anything to cause the anti-social behaviour of a minority . The causes are many and complex.
In which case let the rot continue, when you remove meaningful sanctions you remove any need to modify behaviour voluntarily. You can look for all the complex reasons you want, but it won’t stop whats happening only give the miscreants excuses. Drink, drugs , access to suficient money to aquire both, ability to do as they please means they won’t change their ways. Easy money selling drugs , but no appetite to deal with the dealers. I’d hazard a guess that school attendance amongst them is low as is educational attainment, they believe thay can do better in life as “bad boys” and that no one can tell them what to so.
Back in the day, those that liked a fight gravitated to others thatt were happy to oblige, they came back to work on a Monday with a fat lip and a black eye saying what a good weekend they had. No knives, no weapons, no putting the boot in when other guy was down. Nowadys ithey gang up on the quiet passer by and know restraint. Utter scum that need putting in their place before some one is killed or permanently injured.
This government, over the past 10 years, has got rid of 22000 police officers.
That could be part of the problem.
There is no longer a “proper” police station in Ramsgate (in common with many, many other smaller towns). What few police there are are scattered over half of Thanet.
Phyllis, it has nothing to do with police numbers, it’s all to do with the erosion of police powers and deterrents. The social justice movement have empowered the criminal elements in society by weakening crime deterrents and doing their best to keep criminals in the community.
The police have to combat these vile thugs with one hand tied behind their back. The offenders now have more rights than the victims. All over the country These pathetic oxygen thrives violently attack police officers on a routinely basis and the liberal courts rather than jail the thugs hand them out £200 fines. There is no deterrent offered by social justice. You could have a million police on the streets but without adequate punishments the scum would continue to operate without fear of an actual deterrent.
The liberal justice system makes it so hard to actually incarcerate these out of control scum. The liberal elite who do not live in crime affected areas believe in social justice with the aim of keeping criminal families together, perhaps they would think differently if they lived in areas blighted by out of control feral scum and wannabe gangsters.
The liberal law makers who have watered down crime deterrents should be forced to live a week as a police officer and deal with the real scum of society, they would soon change their tune and realise that for some people jail is and always will be the only suitable place for them.
Marva Rees, stop making excuses for these louts.
I am certainly not making excuses for anti-social behaviour. I am suggesting that there are many reasons for it, many causes of it.
Issuing a Dispersal order during Lockdown just go to show how so many people dont care about government legislation. (or any other law’s)
Maybe Thanet residents, council tax payers could pay more for extra Thanet policing for more (proper) officers on the streets.
Or just let the thugs rule the streets and the locals taking the law into their own hands.
seen it all before.
Name and shame the inbred nobodies.
Let’s start a list of names on here.
(1)
There used to be Good citizen lessons in schools telling the kids how they could ruin their life’ and prospects if they got Involved in crime and vandalism / drugs and so on. The research that was carried out was it was having positive results. However the Tories told the schools to stop the lessons because it wasn’t part of the national curriculum and cost money. Joe public reap what politicians sow. Hence the yobs of today.
The answer to yob behaviour is the Christian Gospel. When people accept Jesus as their personal Saviour then their hearts will change and their behaviour drastically imporove – http://www.peacewithgod.org.uk
The Christian gospel may help but there are plenty of other interventions which could be made of a more practical nature.