Who Rules the Roost?

Who really ‘rules the roost?'

We should all reflect on the purpose of life, as we all live it to the best of our abilities with all of its ‘trials and tribulations'. However, life is not that straight forward, not just because of our doing, but because of someone else's intervention which upsets the so called ‘apple cart', which of cause, most people can do without and certainly do not want!

If you as a responsible person had full control of life, for yourself and your family, life would be easy; however, things don't always go to plan. I.e. when you are on the receiving end of ‘things going wrong', life can become intolerable especially because of unruly antisocial behaviour from yobs or those who have no respect for other people, their property or the law.

Yes, as responsible people, we can react and report the incidents we see, but to what avail? The authorities seem to have no or very little power to stop such unruly acts before they escalate out of hand. There are those among us who turn a blind eye to this type of behaviour as it seems has nothing to do with them or so they think. Well, I say to those who do turn a blind eye, it's partly because of you and your attitude that we have this problem today. I say get motivated and do something constructive to help get rid of yobish antisocial destructive behaviour which is costing us in this community, hundreds of thousands to repair and sort out.

Most responsible people are pillars within or community and up hold the law with high regard and what it stands for. On the other hand, the yobs in life try to disrupt as much as possible to aggravate and upset people by any means possible just to have a laugh or a bit of fun and to annoy others, as they have nothing better to do.

There are many examples of vandalism and disruptive behaviour in Kemnay and it's a disgrace: i.e.

• Broken bottles on kids slides and play area in Bogbeth Park.
• Litter discarded to the four corners of Kemnay, both in the park and along our roadside verges.
• Destroyed Fences, broken and pulled down.
• Both public Toilets total vandalised, now closed with windows broken and doors kicked in.
• Cars speeding up and down the high street with very little regard to other road users.
• Kids on noisy Motor bikes, being disruptive and breaking to the noise limit.
• Eggs thrown at houses and cars.
• Air guns being fired at signs and buses.
• Bus shelters being vandalised.
• School gardens and buildings being vandalised.
• Trees / saplings being broken along roadways and in gardens..

The list is endless. What must visitors think or those passing through?

What on earth is happening to our society, are ‘we' as adults becoming ruled by a yobs? In my and many other responsible parents / adults eyes, ‘yes' we are being ruled by the minority of these yobs as there is no or very little deterrent. We have become a soft society, community, and nation and we are afraid of the consequences of the law as it now stands if we try to prevent do anything about it, as the odds seem to be stacked against law biding citizens if we try to intervene.

We, as a community need to wake up and regain control so if you see vandalism, ring: Crime Stoppers on: Free-phone 0800 555111. You never know you may feel good about yourself as doing something constructive to help stop vandalism and antisocial behaviour within our community.

One last comment: Do ‘you' know where your kids are and who they are hanging round with and what they are getting up too? If you don't - you should, go out and check on them every now and again, it may prevent them becoming a yob and god forbid anyone calling and branding your child a yob.

 -- D Staniforth (Kemnay Newsletter 316 - September 2006)