Let’s get the crap out of the way first then shall we… Went out with my parents for the day today and after a very nice morning and lovely lunch we went to the local park for a play and some ice cream. Given it was a beautiful day weatherwise it was pretty busy everywhere in the park and we took out ice creams to a grass verge and sat down to eat them. I was vaguely aware of a group of kids nearby – some preteen, some early teens playing a rowdy game of cricket and shouting to each other but didn’t really pay them much attention until my Mum suddenly jumped and said something had hit her arm. We looked round and a group of two girls and a lad who were sitting about 30 feet away from us were playing, quite blatantly with a gun. Mum found the plastic ball bearing thingy which had hit her and we sat for a while debating what to do – She had been sitting with Davies cuddled into her so a fraction different shot would have hit him and could have caused a fairly nasty injury on a small child. Eventually Mum walked over to them and gave them a bit of a lecture about having it near small children and so on but as she walked away they sort of smirked and sneered and I couldn’t help myself asking if they thought it was funny. They said no and I asked why they were laughing then – suddenly Dad strode over and whipped the gun off them – which is what he had wanted to do anyway but we had told him not to. He was all for chucking it in the lake ( 🙂 ) but Mum went off to find a park keeper or someone similar to hand it in to. At this stage the small group had gone very quiet. Mum came back having handed it into the cafe onsite as the only place feasible and Dad went back to sit in the car while Mum and I took Davies and Scarlett into the playground area really expecting that to be the end of it.
I was playing with Scarlett on the slide when a teenage (taller than me but probably no more than 15) came over and started giving me a ‘telling off’ about having made his little sister cry by ‘mouthing off’ at her. I stated that they were playing with a gun which was totally inappropriate in a public place with small children about, the gun had been used to ‘shoot’ my mother and as such we had confiscated it and it would not be returned. He stepped closer and I said that I was not prepared to continue the conversation with him any further. He then said again that I had made a child cry and I lost it and said I couldn’t give a shit about any child who was toting a gun about, I only cared about my own children who were in the vicinity of guns. He asked if I was now ‘Mouthing off’ at him and I replied ‘looks like it doesn’t it?!’ They then walked away but started to gather in a crowd just outside the palyground. Mum and I began to feel uneasy so we decided to leave.
As soon as we were outside (bearing in mind we were then two women with small children) they crowded round us and were basically demanding the gun back and giving us grief about making a child cry. I confess to losing it totally then and giving them a fair old mouthful of abuse, Scarlett got upset because I was getting really angry and Davies just stood clinging to my hand. I continued to state that I didn’t care about upsetting any child if there was a gun being used to shoot at people, in a public place with small children around. I also – very mistakenly – said that the gun was no longer in our possession, we had handed it into the cafe and I suggested that if they wanted to take it up with them then they did so. One of the girls (I think the one who actually shot it) then started on me about my camera and whether that was appropriate to have in a playground incase I was taking shots of other people’s children to use for paedoohile purposes (FFS how do kids get so fucking worldly wise!!!) I laughed in her face at comparing a camera to a GUN! Told them to fuck off away from me and my family or I would ring the police for them harrassing us and we left.
Before we went my Mum went back to the cafe and repeated that they should not give the kids the gun back – they assured her they wouldn’t and as we pulled away out of the car park we saw the gang of kids leaving the cafe with their gun!!!!
I was shaking, angry beyond belief – both at myself for totally letting myself down in public, infront of my children and resorting to foul language. I wanted to go back to the cafe and have a pop at them too but Dad stopped me. In the end I pulled over and rang the police from my mobile I just had to do something. We got home and the police rang back and asked us to go back down to give a statement and ID them if they found them. Of course they had long since gone and when the police asked what we wanted them to do it was clear that there was nothing for them to do, so there was no point in giving a statememt anyway. They did tell us that they had been called there this morning about kids with a BB gun too which made me feel slightly better about it. I had also composed myself and was able to give the police men an impression of a well spoken, nice, non loony woman who was concerned about the safety of her children and felt threatened and intimidated by a gang of youths – which reassured me a bit!
I rang Ady who of course said what we should have done straight away which was to ring the police from the grass verge and say there was a group of kids with some sort of gun while we were all still sitting there. The police would then have arrived in plenty of time for us to identify them and get them cautioned without any need for the sort of altercation we ended up involved in. Scarlett has clearly forgotten it – she just assumed I was cross and telling them off I think. Davies has recounted the story a couple of times already but fortunately he is unfamiliar with the sort of language I was using so that at least went over his head 🙂 Ady also told me off for putting myself and the kids in a situation which could very easily have gotten completely out of control – and so close to where we live too – it is entirely possible that I will encounter them again and very likely they will recognise me with all my distinguishing features! Ah well, can’t help the way we react I guess. On one level I am also slightly reassured that my fight or flight reaction is geared to aggression level 😉 All in all a fairly ugly situation and one I am still churned up about 🙁
The rest of the day was really nice in direct contrast – went to Highdown Gardens this morning where the kids ran about in the bluebells, we walked about chatting and Davies put his foot and leg upto his knee into a pond 🙂 Then for lunch at a restuarant which always pleases the kids. Ady got home at a decent hour having left at an undecently early one and encountered virtually no traffic on the roads. Mum and Dad are staying for dinner and I am just hiding here in Davies’ bedroom with my smuggled up laptop in order to have a theraputic blog about the whole thing! Must go back down and drink some wine to compose myself properly!
*Shriek* How horrible… and yes calling the police straight away was the most obvious thing but, well, its hard to think straight when upset and scared. Poor all of you 🙁
Comment by Merry — 02 May 2005 @ 8:22 pm
Nightmare! (((Nic))) Hope you can put it behind you, notch it down as a learning curve about all the things you now realise you should have done – but ffs, what did they expect?!
Comment by Sarah — 02 May 2005 @ 9:18 pm
plus I think we tend to think of the police as being for *serious* crimes, not just teenagers “larking about”. Wonder if this comment will go through moderation now that I’ve mentioned teenagers…
Comment by jax — 02 May 2005 @ 9:21 pm
Eeek. that IS scary. There was a two year old killed not that far from here only about a month ago, after being hit with an air gun pellet, I don’t think ppl appreciate sometimes how dangerous even those types of guns are. Years of working in very dubious parts of Glasgow as a health visitor, then bank nursing in A+E on a Saturday night has given me pretty stronf self preservation instincts in those situations – get out first, argue later. Horrible though. 🙁
Comment by Joyce — 02 May 2005 @ 10:49 pm
you’re right Jax, its only the second time i have ever dialled 999 and tbh if I hadn’t just threatened the kids with the police for harassment I don’t even think it would have occured to me to ring them when I did. It was more out of a desperation to just do *something*, anything!
anyway, all back in perspective again now, hopefully D won’t dwell on it too much (as he can be prone to do) and I have learnt some sort of lesson just not sure yet what it was!
Comment by Nic — 02 May 2005 @ 10:52 pm
In those circumstances, I would have phoned the police and stated someone had a gun in the park and that your mother had been shot, and I would have not have told them it was “only” an air gun. You would have had an armed response unit there, which is how it should be. People don’t realise just how dangerous these things are.
Comment by Tim — 02 May 2005 @ 11:53 pm
That’s *exactly* what Ady said we should have done Tim. We know someone who is an ARU officer and the police themselves said we should have done that as the kids would have been leapt on by armed officers and it would have scared the shit out of them.
Almost inclined to lurk round there regularly and hope they turn up again now 😉 little shits!
Comment by Nic — 03 May 2005 @ 9:49 am
Aww Nic, what a horrible experience. Hope you feel better after a glass of wine and therapeutic blogging. OK it would have been the best thing to ring police straight away, but I know I wouldn’t have wanted to do that either, it kind of feels like making it even more serious, when you really don’t want it to be as serious as it actually is. But it would have been a good thing to do. I think everything you did will at least ensure that that group of young people won’t see you as easily bullied etc. and that’s probably a good thing.
Comment by Ali — 03 May 2005 @ 11:02 am
Bloody hell, how horrible ((((Nic)))) – can imagine the not wanting to turn it into a big deal though 🙁 Can also imagine the adrenalin rush and the shakes afterwards! Well, you’ll know what to do if you see them again 😉
Comment by Alison — 03 May 2005 @ 11:08 am
((((((((Nic, Kids and parents)))))))) There are some gits for kids around in the world in 2005. If it was 20 years ago there backsides would have been red raw from their parents for ever doing such a thing but parents of kids like these just don’t care. As long as they are entertaining themselves – anywhere except under their parents feet it is acceptable. Well it isn’t acceptable – well done Nic but keep safe. xxxx
Comment by Karen b — 08 May 2005 @ 8:34 pm