Children verbally abused in town centre

[hifimad]

On Thursday afternoon I was walking through the Pavements Shopping Centre when the tannoy chirped up to admonish some children in a very aggressive tone about using scooters in the centre and finishing up the announcement by telling the children they were stupid which was totally uncalled for and i found the tone of this announcement to be alarming and after past experience with abusive Pavements security i feared for the children’s safety as to the best of my knowledge the security guard who attacked and pinned an elderly disabled lady to a wall in the library to prevent her calling for help is still in his post as head guard.
I looked around and saw three to four children standing outside Tesco’s with two scooters between them they were laughing amongst themselves but did not at that moment appear to be causing any problems, I walked slowly past them as I was waiting to see if the security were going to come down to them as if that had happened I would have intervened on their behalf to inform them of their rights and to ensure they had protection from anymore abusive language or behaviour, i must admit I was rather loathe to approach them without another adult present as they may have misconstrued my intentions.
In the past I have criticised certain members of this team of security guards as a result of their criminal and abusive behaviour and will continue to do so, however as a result of my criticism i have received threatening letters from Andy Bond the town Centre Manager stating his staff should not be subject to what he describes as abuse, perhaps he should be as concerned about town centre staff abusing the general public that previously included vicious attacks on special needs youngsters and elderly disabled women, and now verbally attacking children.

[Old Cruser]

Hi hifimad, I cannot comment on what the person using the tannoy called out but you were very wise not to approach the children as this may have been misconstrued by the children and others around.

It doesn't sound as if the children had heard the message but if they had it doesn't sound as if they were too concerned.

[hifimad]

You are right of course about approaching the youngsters and also about them not being concerned, and it is this lack of concern which i found particularly worrying, these kids who i would put at being between ten and twelve have probably never experienced adults that relish the kind of lies, abuse and criminality the Pavements Security have been embroiled in.
I am reminded of the time i was at butlins minehead, on the last morning i had gone outside the dining hall at breakfast time to have a cigarette and there were lots of people coming in and out when a little girl about three or four walked towards the dining hall  pushing a dolls pram saying daddy repeatedly she walked into the dining hall in the middle of people coming in and out and nobody was taking a blind bit of notice of her, again due to fear of my intentions being misconstrued i did not approach the little girl but instead followed her into the dining hall and imediately sought out a member of staff while keeping an eye on her to ensure she was ok and then rather cowardly passed the responsibility on to the member of staff.
It was a few years later Esther Rantzen was on tv and she was saying that fear of being labelled as a predator was actually putting children at risk because it was causing people not to intervene when coming across children in risky situations and i remembered the minehead incident and was able to fully understand what she was driving at.
One wonders wether the Ben Needham incident would have ocurred if more adults had fet comfortable about intervening in seing two boys walking off with a crying toddler.

[Sorastro]

As with the Minehead incident I too fear approaching young children who seem in distress as that child was, but with me I on many occasions I go into "blame the parents" mode. I ask myself why is the child distressed, has it lost it's parents in the melee?
if so who's faults that!
Many years ago we were on a beach, with friends, on a day out. the wife had a walk and came back clutching a small child in her arms, the child couldn't have been more than three or four. She said the child, who was very distressed, had obviously wondered off from the family {or the family weren't paying attention} so she spent the next forty five minutes walking up and down the beach literally checking person to person finally reuniting the child with the family which were situated about 200 yards up the beach from where she had found the child.
Now to me MY child that age I wouldn't have taken my eyes off her for a second especially on a crowded beach and ever since then, rightly or wrongly I have always blamed the parents.

I could give you more examples but you get the drift.   

[Old Cruser]

I have a list of 'Safe Places' for a child to go if they are lost from parents/carers.
They are certain shops in towns and cities which children can enter and know they will be helped if they approach a member of staff.
I think it is always good practise to familiaries our children with these places - just in case