UK: Travellers break into and pitch up on school field in Crawley - Sensationalist Headlines

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-39981109"]Source.[/URL] [QUOTE]A school went into "lockdown" when travellers with up to 30 caravans moved onto its playing field while pupils were in their lessons. They parked up at Hazelwick School in Crawley, West Sussex, after a padlock securing the grounds was cut open. GCSE exams had to be moved, pupils were kept in their classrooms during breaks, and they had to travel in groups to go to the toilet. Sussex Police arrived at 11:00 BST and served a notice to leave. The council says the travellers cut through a padlock to gain access The travellers initially pulled up on a verge close to the 1,800-pupil school, but quickly moved on to the playing field. They set up pens for their horses and more travellers arrived. The school confirmed it went into "lockdown" over concerns for pupils' safety, and students sitting PE and Latin GCSE exams had to be moved into another hall. Head teacher Ann Fearon said: "I am angered and frustrated by this. "There is no getting away from the fact it's been an extremely difficult day, and having that number of people illegally on your grounds is very annoying and worrying."[/QUOTE] Travellers can be cheeky fuckers sometimes so I can't say I blame people for the sentiment against them. Gyppos like these who tresspass and squat on land can often be a nuisance at best and hazardous to local communities at worst.

Travellers did this in the leisure center near me aswell

[video=youtube;GhRBmek18uI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhRBmek18uI[/video]

...traveling caravans of gypsies still exist?

[QUOTE=ZakkShock;52250423]...traveling caravans of gypsies still exist?[/QUOTE] yep their a pain in the backside. It cost my work three grand to get them off the car park. I fucking hate gypsies, they come to areas destroy them, steal off people and when there is a sign of trouble from the police they fuck off.

[QUOTE=ZakkShock;52250423]...traveling caravans of gypsies still exist?[/QUOTE] Yeah issues with them are quite common in the UK, they stay in an area for a while and then once court/police issues start they just hop to another area and restart the whole process again.

The thing about Travellers is that the nice ones aren't going to get in your way much, so you'll barely notice them and probably forget about them. Most of us only really have experience with the arseholes because only the arseholes get in your way.

They did this to my grandparents land and once the lawyers got involved they moved somewhere else and left them with a large legal bill and a load of rubbish left on their land.

Aah travellers, the last group of people it's acceptable to hate... Cmon lads lets get it to 50 boxes

[QUOTE=Doozle;52251022]Aah travellers, the last group of people it's acceptable to hate...[/QUOTE] No one would hate them if they didn't trespass and damage peoples land.

They took over the car park in the town I work in a few months back. Came back to my car after work and a camp had popped up around it. No scratches or anything though so I guess I can't complain too much. Just some weird kid riding around it on a go kart.

[QUOTE=AzzyMaster;52250972]They did this to my grandparents land and once the lawyers got involved they moved somewhere else and left them with a large legal bill and a load of rubbish left on their land.[/QUOTE] My gran had to sell a piece of land because it was too much trouble to get a few of them off of it. Nowadays, we haven't had any problems with any of them around here, but then again, they mostly keep it to themselves. My neighbour talks to a few of them who put their horses around here and keeps them in check so that the more troublesome ones aren't up to no good, but most are pretty ok. Still the shittier ones will shank your ass and take your shit if you're unlucky enough.

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;52251153]My gran had to sell a piece of land because it was too much trouble to get a few of them off of it. Nowadays, we haven't had any problems with any of them around here, but then again, they mostly keep it to themselves. My neighbour talks to a few of them who put their horses around here and keeps them in check so that the more troublesome ones aren't up to no good, but most are pretty ok. Still the shittier ones will shank your ass and take your shit if you're unlucky enough.[/QUOTE] My grandparents were lucky as once the solicitor informed that the land they were on was classed as contaminated (heavy metals such as lead, etc) they quickly left and never returned

[QUOTE=Doozle;52251022]Aah travellers, the last group of people it's acceptable to hate...[/QUOTE] I live in a rather quiet street - probably one of the 'safest' (lowest crime) areas of my city. We had a group of travellers arrive at the field at the bottom of the street late last year that stayed there for around 2-3 months. There was around.. 10-15 of them packed tightly together in 3 small caravans. They drove into the barriers that separated the road from the field so they could drive onto it, they were broken like that for at least a month after they left. It was pretty awful. Constant fires on the field, the children's park on it was pretty much burned down and there are black marks on the trees still from where they probably tried to burn down those too. At least once a night we had groups of drunk travellers completely naked screaming up and down the streets at like 2am, breaking windows and littering the whole street and field. My disabled mother couldn't actually go outside for the duration of their entire stay. She was followed home by a few of them on one day. They were shouting highly inappropriate sexual comments at her and the police were called. Our city council.. about a month into their stay, decided it'd be best to install portable toilets on the field and not actually kick them off the land. Probably the worst thing (aside from what happened with my mother) about it was that they decided it'd be fun to wreck our cars - it started with keying them, we noticed a line of scratches that went up almost the whole street and one resident actually recorded this on CCTV - the guy couldn't be identified and nothing was done about it, though. After that, cars were going missing, and then, one night, I heard a loud explosion from the bottom of the street - one of the fuckers stole a car and torched it after putting a ton of aerosol cans in the boot. I've heard similar stories from tons of other people with traveller problems. It's hard to [I]not[/I] hate people that don't give a shit about you, your property or private land. [t]https://i.gyazo.com/755f6c31b0c3257b21f1539323699ac8.jpg[/t] [t]https://i.gyazo.com/a0dca57c478ab2fa271de25f8097da6d.jpg[/t] Oh yeah, they brought [I]a fucking horse[/I], too.

Behavior like that reminds me of those people who claim they're "Sovereign Citizens" [MEDIA]http://youtu.be/3vzDcMvGF6s[/MEDIA]

[QUOTE=Lord Xenoyia;52251296]I live in a rather quiet street - probably one of the 'safest' (lowest crime) areas of my city. We had a group of travellers arrive at the field at the bottom of the street late last year that stayed there for around 2-3 months. There was around.. 10-15 of them packed tightly together in 3 small caravans. They drove into the barriers that separated the road from the field so they could drive onto it, they were broken like that for at least a month after they left. It was pretty awful. Constant fires on the field, the children's park on it was pretty much burned down and there are black marks on the trees still from where they probably tried to burn down those too. At least once a night we had groups of drunk travellers completely naked screaming up and down the streets at like 2am, breaking windows and littering the whole street and field. My disabled mother couldn't actually go outside for the duration of their entire stay. She was followed home by a few of them on one day. They were shouting highly inappropriate sexual comments at her and the police were called. Our city council.. about a month into their stay, decided it'd be best to install portable toilets on the field and not actually kick them off the land. Probably the worst thing (aside from what happened with my mother) about it was that they decided it'd be fun to wreck our cars - it started with keying them, we noticed a line of scratches that went up almost the whole street and one resident actually recorded this on CCTV - the guy couldn't be identified and nothing was done about it, though. After that, cars were going missing, and then, one night, I heard a loud explosion from the bottom of the street - one of the fuckers stole a car and torched it after putting a ton of aerosol cans in the boot. I've heard similar stories from tons of other people with traveller problems. It's hard to [I]not[/I] hate people that don't give a shit about you, your property or private land.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't blame the council, it's legally difficult and long to remove them from the land, and they probably just wanted to minimize the damage during that time by installing portable toilets.

[QUOTE=Lord Xenoyia;52251296]I live in a rather quiet street - probably one of the 'safest' (lowest crime) areas of my city. We had a group of travellers arrive at the field at the bottom of the street late last year that stayed there for around 2-3 months. There was around.. 10-15 of them packed tightly together in 3 small caravans. They drove into the barriers that separated the road from the field so they could drive onto it, they were broken like that for at least a month after they left. It was pretty awful. Constant fires on the field, the children's park on it was pretty much burned down and there are black marks on the trees still from where they probably tried to burn down those too. At least once a night we had groups of drunk travellers completely naked screaming up and down the streets at like 2am, breaking windows and littering the whole street and field. My disabled mother couldn't actually go outside for the duration of their entire stay. She was followed home by a few of them on one day. They were shouting highly inappropriate sexual comments at her and the police were called. Our city council.. about a month into their stay, decided it'd be best to install portable toilets on the field and not actually kick them off the land. Probably the worst thing (aside from what happened with my mother) about it was that they decided it'd be fun to wreck our cars - it started with keying them, we noticed a line of scratches that went up almost the whole street and one resident actually recorded this on CCTV - the guy couldn't be identified and nothing was done about it, though. After that, cars were going missing, and then, one night, I heard a loud explosion from the bottom of the street - one of the fuckers stole a car and torched it after putting a ton of aerosol cans in the boot. I've heard similar stories from tons of other people with traveller problems. It's hard to [I]not[/I] hate people that don't give a shit about you, your property or private land.[/QUOTE] That's awful. Where I used to live we had a few sites where travellers would live - never had any trouble though, they kept to themselves. One day, one of the head honchos(?) died and there was an enormous funeral service, hundreds of people literally flooding the streets (though not causing any problems). That was about all we saw of them.

[QUOTE=Lord Xenoyia;52251296]It's hard to [I]not[/I] hate people that don't give a shit about you, your property or private land.[/QUOTE] You could apply this excuse to literally any group since you're making unilateral assumptions about a whole group of people from just your personal experience and what you read in the papers. My first hand experience says travellers can be fine people, obviously I'm not saying that some groups aren't criminals, just that your viewpoint is narrow.

Why this community has basically been granted diplomatic immunity I will never know. The law love to come down hard on tax evasion, if more so than attempted murder or repeated crimes but I've never once heard of a traveller being arrested, never mind charged for a crime despite traditionally known to not pay income tax. And yet I'd also go as far to say atleast 50% of people in the U.K. have either witnessed or been a victim of a crime committed by a traveller. I mean chainsaws were stolen from my old workplace, they were all in ingraved with the company name and post code and yet when a traveller was caught selling one (the rest being found in a container amongst other stolen goods at their site) nothing was done. The chainsaws weren't even returned.

[QUOTE=Glent;52251412]You could apply this excuse to literally any group since you're making unilateral assumptions about a whole group of people from just your personal experience and what you read in the papers. My first hand experience says travellers can be fine people, obviously I'm not saying that some groups aren't criminals, just that your viewpoint is narrow.[/QUOTE] I'm exclusively talking about the ones that break into private land and have no regard for the residents. Never said I hate [I]all[/I] of them. I have no problem with them if they don't cause any issues. But that never happens here. [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/plymouth-inquiry-hears-disgusting-gypsy-camp/story-20002722-detail/story.html[/url] [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/travellers-trying-to-sell-dogs-for-a-tenner-to-people-attending-pet-hospital/story-30234211-detail/story.html[/url] [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/keith-80-and-his-little-dog-lucy-attacked-by-vicious-pack-at-travellers-camp/story-30340484-detail/story.html[/url] [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/business-as-usual-for-pdsa-after-terrifying-traveller-attack/story-30235427-detail/story.html[/url] [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/traveller-sets-up-camp-in-sainsbury-s-car-park/story-30285553-detail/story.html[/url] [url]http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/travellers-moved-off-of-city-park-in-presence-of-police-bailiffs-and-council-staff/story-29626101-detail/story.html[/url]

As destructive as traveller communities can be it's important not to tar an entire group with the same brush. There is a small traveller community who pitched up on a disused field near my old home - which is technically illegal, sure - but for the time they were there they caused no issues with the locals, sought out temporary jobs and kept the place they had pitched up in clean. On the final night they were there they invited the locals to a party. Fuck the traveller communities who act like cunts tho.

[QUOTE=Glent;52251412]You could apply this excuse to literally any group since you're making unilateral assumptions about a whole group of people from just your personal experience and what you read in the papers. My first hand experience says travellers can be fine people, obviously I'm not saying that some groups aren't criminals, just that your viewpoint is narrow.[/QUOTE] Please don't start this shit again.

I remember when the gypsies came to my street and stole a ton of metal for scrap. They use to squat up on a field near the motorway.

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;52251502]Please don't start this shit again.[/QUOTE] Is there an issue with that statement?

[QUOTE=EditOutJ;52251663]Is there an issue with that statement?[/QUOTE] Yes, because whenever someone says something like it, its nearly taken as the golden standard, as facts, while no matter how many people share negative views over travellers, they'll all be deemed racist or nazi sympathizers. Its anecdotal evidence only when its negative comments, because the positive ones hailing from someone who met one person who isn't either leeching the gov or leading an unlawful life are taken seriously. And this is coming from someone who's met both sides. Especially the good one.

[QUOTE=AzzyMaster;52251339]I wouldn't blame the council, it's legally difficult and long to remove them from the land, and they probably just wanted to minimize the damage during that time by installing portable toilets.[/QUOTE] Perhaps the laws should be changed if people illegally occupying land can't be easily removed.

My city is one of the few in the US with a significant traveller population, but it sounds nowhere near as bad as this. They have a reputation for stealing from businesses in the area, but they all live in trailer parks, not makeshift camps, and most of their income comes from shitty roofing/paving work. They make a shitload of money doing it apparently. You can drive through the trailer parks and every other car is a Mercedes, always with paper tags.

This is hard for me to understand as an American. I can't think of anywhere where a clear-cut case of tresspassing on this scale would fly. Let alone on a [I]school[/I] property.

So if I was a farmer and had a big plot of unused land and gypsies decided to trespass and set up camp, would I be shit out of luck on getting them removed? How does that even work? I thought it'd be a simple case of: call the police, get them removed. But it seems like gypsies who trespass are given free reign? edit: lmao it turns out police can't, cause technically the gypsies aren't committing a crime or breaching the peace, and it's an entirely civil matter. So you'd have to get a solicitor involved and get a court order claiming the land or some bizarro-world shit.

This happened at my primary school years ago aswell.