Menaced by brats in North Lyneham

What time of day? I figure they probably choose their victims carefully; if while riding your bike you resemble a scene from Mary Poppins then I figure you’re ‘it’. I go through there a bit and I’ve never seen them, perhaps because an 85kg solid chunk of blubber going flat out on a burly MTB is not their first choice.

Kaz said :

…screaming and brandishing large sticks.

Probably just trying to scare off a magpie.

It is surprising the number of people who think it is illegal to take photographs of children in a public place. I used to be a keen photographer, and kind of still are, so I was occasionally asked by people not to photograph them. Normally I was happy not to photograph people. But occasionally people were in the way of things I wanted to photograph, like trees, beaches and the like. So i checked the rules. You should too.
http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/StreetPhotographersRights.asp

No rules against photographing fully clothed kids in a public place unless you plan to use the resulting pictures for commercial use.

Roadrage77 said :

Water pistol filled with something other than water. Ideally eat a bunch of asparagus the night before.

Fill it with silver nitrate solution.

Give em a couple of free bikes and tell them to ride up and down Northbourne

overcharge them $5 for pizza. that’ll show ’em…

Do what is reasonable in the circumstances. If they are threatening people with sticks then by all means hold onto them and call the Police to come and get them. Use reasonable force to do so.

do not – beat them up and take their mobile phone. Bad ju ju.

I can’t see why people have a problem with the suggestion to photo these kids (not that I think it will help, other then maybe scaring them)?

They are in a public place, it is perfectly legal to take a photo.

If they are consistent and predictable in their appearance at the same location, perhaps you could get a few friends, and all arrive at once from different directions, and ask them politely to cease and desist.

Water pistol filled with something other than water. Ideally eat a bunch of asparagus the night before.

You’re scared of a couple of 10-year-olds?

I don’t think anybody’s scare of ten year olds. They’re scared that if they do anything that upsets the precious wee bairns, they’ll go to gaole for assaulting minors.

Gungahlin Al said :

I had a similar situation up in Caboolture a couple of weeks back where three 10yos egged the car from a railway overpass. They came back to the scene of their crime after a short while and I had nothing better to do so I took off after them.

Up and over the bridge, sliced through a crowd getting onto a bus, through the carpark, across the main road traffic and cornered in a shopping centre car park. Must have been the last thing they though would happen an old-ish guy chase and catch 2 out of the 3 of them… 🙂

Walked them back to the station master through the crowds and all and called the cops, etc. They couldn’t spill on the one the got away quick enough…

Nothing like a little bit of sheer fear and terror to (hopefully) scare them back onto a straighter road…

It was most fun I’ve had in ages.

Awesome. Perhaps the solution to this problem is to find a large stick and when you see them hop calmly off your bike, then let out a very loud scream and run straight at them brandishing the stick.

You’re scared of a couple of 10-year-olds?

Get off your bike and talk to them in a stern/friendly & grownup way next time. Do you seriously think they will physically assault you and harm you?

If that doesn’t work, THEN you can locate the parents, or call Welfare.

I had a similar situation up in Caboolture a couple of weeks back where three 10yos egged the car from a railway overpass. They came back to the scene of their crime after a short while and I had nothing better to do so I took off after them.

Up and over the bridge, sliced through a crowd getting onto a bus, through the carpark, across the main road traffic and cornered in a shopping centre car park. Must have been the last thing they though would happen an old-ish guy chase and catch 2 out of the 3 of them… 🙂

Walked them back to the station master through the crowds and all and called the cops, etc. They couldn’t spill on the one the got away quick enough…

Nothing like a little bit of sheer fear and terror to (hopefully) scare them back onto a straighter road…

It was most fun I’ve had in ages.

Open up a can of CopAss on their evil little souls.

1. Tell them you’re calling the cops.
1A. If they scarper, chase them on your bike (invariably they’ll run to home).
1B. Knock on the door, ask to speak to an adult, go off banana at adult.
1C. If no adult home, call cops.

2. If they don’t scarper, call cops and await their arrival.

It’s hardly helpful to suggest that the OP take photos of them and post them on the net. Not sure what planet you live in Grail, but whether their hooligans or not – that sort of behaviour will cause the OP a world of pain.

Sounds like their a pair of brats though, but there is only two of them .. I’m not sure what you could do. Try another route, ride off the path, go at them full pelt – they’re bound to move – set the magpies on them. It’s not likely to last, they’ll get bored soon enough and find another haunt to hang out at .. doesn’t make it right though.

ME TOO! In green school uniform! I sped up when they tried to stop me last night! And it’s not the first time it’s happened.

You hit me with those sticks though and I don’t care how old you are! It will be ON! At the very least I’ll be confronting the parents.

I’ll be relying on this post as evidence when they tell mummy I’m lying! 😛

pretend to photograph them and say you’re sending it in to the police.

Pull up off the path and call the cops on 131 444. How hard is that? Forget about photos and that kind of carry on – tell them when the kids are right there and ask them to send a car around. If everyone who sees the little buggers calls immediately, the cops will show up some time or other.

Grail said :

Photograph them, send photo to police. When they don’t act, post photo on RiotACT or in local newspaper. I am sure there is some poxy law in place preventing you identifying minors on the Internet, so be prepared to be harassed by police when you do so.

That law mustn’t apply in Chile…

Cops won’t really do much as <18 punnishments are far too soft. Although i remember reading about a kid (now an adult) who was taken by the police and shown what the cells looked like – and it was enough to steer him in the right direction.

Imho, slow down, park up, confiscate the sticks, and move on. Dont wear your lycra while trying to do this.

Other than that, photographing the trouble makers so that people here can identify the kids. Even blacking out the eyes is enough.

Stamp on all their toys, burn their sister’s dolls and beat their parents.

Photograph them, send photo to police. When they don’t act, post photo on RiotACT or in local newspaper. I am sure there is some poxy law in place preventing you identifying minors on the Internet, so be prepared to be harassed by police when you do so.

Give em’ a good old fashioned flogging, tell them if you see them there again you’ll grab them by the ear and drag them down the cop shop.

Don’t worry about them ‘dobbing’ on you because as hooligans thier word means SFA and just don’t use the path for awhile until the heat, if any, dies down.

No steet hooligans in Captain RAAF’s hood’!

Speed up, they won’t have the strentgh to pull you off.

Taser them

pretend they are not there – i doubt they will try it twice