Hope your summer is well and truly up and running and having a good one. Mine is just about up and running.
Just a quick update on things. After 4 great weeks working at Gassy Jacks I have finished for the summer. I'm a bit gutted as I really enjoy DJ-ing there, the staff are wicked and the punters are good as gold! Fingers crossed I will get the chance to go back in September.
On the up side I am covering at Mbargo for two weeks starting 15th July and I will be covering at the good old Beach Club on Saturdays starting in three weeks!
Sooooo the main reason for my blog....
As you know I have started a full time job (I say started, Ive been there for 6 weeks now!) at Ely library. Now for those of you who don't know the area Ely is what I would describe as 'testing'. Put it this way we get our fair share of trouble in the library, yes thats right the LIBRARY. I hope this already gives you an idea what type of people I'm are talking about. If that doesn't this will will.
During my 6 weeks so far I have witnessed
- Verbal Abuse
- Threats
- Indecent exposure (attempted)
- Vandalism
- Attempted mugging
- Assault
And again this is all in the library.
Now all of this happening to anybody is shocking in its own right but the most alarming part of this is that all of these incidents involved people who were under the age of 18, in fact I would say the average age our offenders is 15.
I have two pressing questions. Firstly why are these 'kids' spending their spare time committing crime in an environment that is supposed to be quiet, resourceful and family friendly? And secondly where do they get the balls to do it?
My initial answer to question 1 was they must have nothing to do around these parts but as I've found by PCSO Will (Oh yeah on first name terms with the local copper!) that Ely has had plenty of money pumped into it for kids, with playing areas and youth clubs set up so that they have things to do.
The 2nd question I still cant answer... When I was young I was petrified of police, truth is I still am! If I saw one walking down the street I worried I'd get arrested for doing something illegal that I wasn't even aware of. I had total respect for them. This isn't necessarily the case with some of the kids I deal with at the Library.
As staff we are encouraged to call the Non-emergency number 101 should we have a situation that we cannot control. When I was told this during my first week I shrugged it off thinking "how bad can it get?". Well I have rung that number over 3 times and 999 once since that first week.
Don't get me wrong I know that Kids are kids and they do get a bit loud and leave rubbish lying around which in my eyes is fair enough, we were all young and to a certain extent little shits! But these guys make dennis the menace look like a choir boy!
During the attempted mugging that occurred I threatened to call 999 to which they replied "go on then". After leaving me no choice and I did eventually dial 999 and they remarked "Oh look he's calling the police, he thinks were scared!"
My concern is if they are not scared where are we going wrong? How is it that not even the bloody police can scare these people?
You usually would expect to see this kind of thing kicking off down some dodgy looking park area or on the streets some where, but a library? seriously!After speaking to the police on a regular basis they explained their procedures with dealing with troublesome youngsters and it wasn't long before they mentioned what seems to be the buzz word for kids, ASBO. Its almost a trophy to them it seems, a fashion accessory "look at me and my shiny new ASBO!"
I have since found out that as a part of the council 'umbrella' we can actually hand out our own ASBO referrals which got me thinking... Will there be a day where there will be two queues forming in my library.
'Queue A - issuing books' 'Queue B - issuing ASBOS'
Just something to ponder....
Tom.
