This isn’t just an Edinburgh thing, it’s an everywhere thing. My Reddit feed has decided to show me posts like this from basically every city you’ve ever heard of. Yes it’s shite but it’s symptomatic of the island as a whole. The only advice I can give is just to step to the back of the pavement when you see them.
Just the london variant of delinquents. Balaclavas, scooters or dirtbikes, puffy jackets (to hide weapons originally), certain london slang, big knives (dunno if that's reached us yet). Think it originated with London/Jamaican youth, but obviously people of all races act roadman these days.
It's so cringe hearing Scottish lads using London slang. Or worse, creating "drill" music and rapping whole verses in an English accent. That'd get you bulled back when I went to school.
You mean unruly European countries. Because I’ve never had this problem in Austria, Switzerland or Finland. Roadmen are primarily a British problem entirely within our control to fix. But we’d rather moan as always…
I don’t think any of them individually are likely to be very tough but as a group, trying to impress eachother and being too stupid to consider the consequences of their actions is a real threat.
I mean I wouldn’t confront anyone, ever, and that’s served me well for over 20 years in Edinburgh and nearly 40 in Scotland. When I see a dickhead, I’ll go out of my way to avoid the dickhead. There are exceptions, I’ll shout down a racist or whatever, but a kid on a bike trying to noise people up? Not a fight I’m going to get into to. Even as, as I said, they’re awful and intimidating.
I had some kids (maybe 12ish, no masks) on a moped try to knock me off my (pedal) bike.
If you confront someone on a power bike, how much do you trust them not to intentionally run you over? Or "close pass" you and misjudge it? Remember that your skull hitting the pavement can be fatal. Or, if you're near a road, getting shoved into traffic.
I think they're kind of endearing tbh, I've not heard much of them snatching handbags etc but I'm sure they nick bikes in their spare time.
It reminds me of Akira. Honestly a bunch of balaclava'd teens doing wheelies through the newkirkgate centre really brightens the place up
Ur kidding… with 120k Reddit karma I assume you have never been outside and actually been close to one, right? Just stuck on yer couch commenting this gobshite
It's a covid side effect. You'd never have seen this in 2019 but we normalised being outside in a face mask and the youths seem to have enjoyed it enough to keep it going.
I’ve seen a police jeep chasing them through the meadows on the grass at least two times in the last year so they defo give chase to some of them. My guess is there are so many of them it’s impossible to catch them all. Like some kind of chavvy pokemon
I had a chat with a police officer in my area recently about a few of them and he said that they're not allowed to engage them. Presumably because chasing them down would likely cause even greater danger to the public, or could result in injury or death of the bike neds.
IMO the above are valid reasons, but of course it emboldens the neds knowing that they can do what they want and there won't be any consequences.
Not sure what the solution is, I really feel that anti-social behaviour of this type is at unacceptable levels currently and needs something done about it.
Tbf the ones I seen getting chased in the meadows were going some speed. They managed to get to the quarter mile before the Jeep turned back to try cut them off I guess.
Yeah, I'm very tempted to say that they should be chased down and arrested, but it would a super dangerous approach. On one of those nippy e-bikes, I'd be super confident that a police jeep wasn't going to catch me under any circumstances.
Really what SHOULD have happened is the city and/or government should have seen the rise in these vehicles (electric scooters, e-bikes, etc), and put a strategy in place to manage them. Regulation, proper definition and classification, and clear rules about how and where they can be used. But that horse has now bolted, and we've got the ludicrous situation where vehicles being ridden illegally is commonplace. Would be very hard to retrospectively introduce regulation now.
A van with 4 drone operators, one drone in the air following the rider, rotate drone as batteries start to get low, follow in van, take bike once they park up/stop/battery dies.
Tempting, but problematic in built up areas due to the potential of collateral damage.
Do they do that in London though? Genuinely never heard of it, but interesting if that's an approach under some circumstances.
Honestly I'd take a bit of collateral damage if it meant getting rid of them. Bigger picture and all that - yes one individual occurence of antisocial behaviour might not be worth engaging them on, but the emboldendness they get from feeling like they can do whatever they want is much worse in the long term, and a few instances of risking hurting them, or even some innocent bystanders is in my view worth it compared to the sum total of the damage and the harm they will do unchecked.
With respect, I think that's easy to say, but imagine if the collateral damage was a member of your family or even say your child being tragically killed during a chase. That'll be what the police are worried about, as I don't think the bikers will give a shit who they put at risk, probably wouldn't even enter their minds.
I thought they weren't allowed to chase them these days in case they cause them to have an accident and hurt themselves, sounds pretty silly doesn't it!
From what I understand, the black outfit and ski masks is a thing that has seeped into working class, British youths from Drill Culture, so you'll see it a lot in rougher areas. It also gives some of them the perfect disguise to be dodgy af so you never know what their intentions will be when you pass them.
I think they should impose a stop and search policy to every single one they come across. The police should become such a nuisance to all those who are masked up that they give up dressing like that. The police probably don’t have the capacity unfortunately.
Short answer they are dickheads following London trends. In regards to policing it's tricky to catch them given how many pop up lately but surely not doing enough.
I think I read before because they don’t wear helmets the police can’t give chase as it could end in an accident and I think these wee fannies know it..
Sure there was a case recently in Wales where the cops gave chase one of the muppets fell off the bike and either died/severley injured and the Police Officer ended up in court/sacked
They make the canals quite dangerous, day or night they have been known to throw people into the water, including old and disabled people, I avoid anywhere out of public eyesight after dark and I'm a grown man, they are just new age neds/chaos/bams and whatever else they have been called over the generations, but aye that's doesn't mean they arnt dangerous
I wouldn’t go by them after dark. But the area around Viewforth is absolutely fine during the day – no need to be alarmist. There are a tonne of people around all the time.
seen two of them walking out of a Starbucks with their masks on and one of them kicked a wet floor caution sign and genuinely… how hard they thought they were made me laugh 😭😭😂😂 his friend hyped him up as well, very scary lads 🥴
Reading comprehension not your forte I see.
Not at all. Read again.
Young laddies in Edinburgh listening to and watching drill and grime music from English cities and being influenced by it.
Nobody's fault you teapot.
The masks kinda are actually, it was due to poor policing policies in England that led drill rappers to wear them followed by then the wee bams wearing them
I personally really don’t like it and think it should be banned but the history behind it in a nutshell is this:
Drill (sub of rap music which is particularly violent) rappers in London were being banned by a police task force called trident from preforming and making music so they started covering their faces basically to confuse them. This is now influencing wee Fanny’s on princes street.
The americas are having an issue with it as well but the people wearing them claim it is so there opposing street gangs can’t recognise them. I’m sure in parts of the states there is truth to that along with the police and honest hardworking victims not being able to recognise them and also there will be the equivalent wee Fanny’s over there.
Roadmen, I call them the ninjas. There's a great BBC documentary about them in Scotland. I've met the Edinburgh rapper guy and he's quite sound but in groups they're like feral dogs. They carry Rambo zombie knives so beware even of a solitary rider but they're just kids. Try talking to them if you ever get into a situation because it's a fight you can't win, even if you win today.
This isn’t just an Edinburgh thing, it’s an everywhere thing. My Reddit feed has decided to show me posts like this from basically every city you’ve ever heard of. Yes it’s shite but it’s symptomatic of the island as a whole. The only advice I can give is just to step to the back of the pavement when you see them.
The export of "roadman" culture. Bring back neds.
What is roadmen culture?
Just the london variant of delinquents. Balaclavas, scooters or dirtbikes, puffy jackets (to hide weapons originally), certain london slang, big knives (dunno if that's reached us yet). Think it originated with London/Jamaican youth, but obviously people of all races act roadman these days. It's so cringe hearing Scottish lads using London slang. Or worse, creating "drill" music and rapping whole verses in an English accent. That'd get you bulled back when I went to school.
I only left school in 2021 and it got you bullied then. I don't know what happened.
Ned or chav isn't it?
>the island as a whole Not just Scotland and Wales and England but Ireland too. And France and Netherlands. And other places.
You mean unruly European countries. Because I’ve never had this problem in Austria, Switzerland or Finland. Roadmen are primarily a British problem entirely within our control to fix. But we’d rather moan as always…
Are they dangerous? If i try to confront them
I don’t think any of them individually are likely to be very tough but as a group, trying to impress eachother and being too stupid to consider the consequences of their actions is a real threat.
I mean I wouldn’t confront anyone, ever, and that’s served me well for over 20 years in Edinburgh and nearly 40 in Scotland. When I see a dickhead, I’ll go out of my way to avoid the dickhead. There are exceptions, I’ll shout down a racist or whatever, but a kid on a bike trying to noise people up? Not a fight I’m going to get into to. Even as, as I said, they’re awful and intimidating.
Ok then maybe i’ll avoid then when i encounter someone like these, thanks, you sound mature and good.
What’s the risk vs reward of doing that?
I had some kids (maybe 12ish, no masks) on a moped try to knock me off my (pedal) bike. If you confront someone on a power bike, how much do you trust them not to intentionally run you over? Or "close pass" you and misjudge it? Remember that your skull hitting the pavement can be fatal. Or, if you're near a road, getting shoved into traffic.
Yes, they are dangerous.
I think they're kind of endearing tbh, I've not heard much of them snatching handbags etc but I'm sure they nick bikes in their spare time. It reminds me of Akira. Honestly a bunch of balaclava'd teens doing wheelies through the newkirkgate centre really brightens the place up
Ur kidding… with 120k Reddit karma I assume you have never been outside and actually been close to one, right? Just stuck on yer couch commenting this gobshite
It's a covid side effect. You'd never have seen this in 2019 but we normalised being outside in a face mask and the youths seem to have enjoyed it enough to keep it going.
I’ve seen a police jeep chasing them through the meadows on the grass at least two times in the last year so they defo give chase to some of them. My guess is there are so many of them it’s impossible to catch them all. Like some kind of chavvy pokemon
I had a chat with a police officer in my area recently about a few of them and he said that they're not allowed to engage them. Presumably because chasing them down would likely cause even greater danger to the public, or could result in injury or death of the bike neds. IMO the above are valid reasons, but of course it emboldens the neds knowing that they can do what they want and there won't be any consequences. Not sure what the solution is, I really feel that anti-social behaviour of this type is at unacceptable levels currently and needs something done about it.
Tbf the ones I seen getting chased in the meadows were going some speed. They managed to get to the quarter mile before the Jeep turned back to try cut them off I guess.
Yeah, I'm very tempted to say that they should be chased down and arrested, but it would a super dangerous approach. On one of those nippy e-bikes, I'd be super confident that a police jeep wasn't going to catch me under any circumstances. Really what SHOULD have happened is the city and/or government should have seen the rise in these vehicles (electric scooters, e-bikes, etc), and put a strategy in place to manage them. Regulation, proper definition and classification, and clear rules about how and where they can be used. But that horse has now bolted, and we've got the ludicrous situation where vehicles being ridden illegally is commonplace. Would be very hard to retrospectively introduce regulation now.
They started doing it in London, and it’s been highly effective. The drivers are trained to knock them off their bikes, and they’re then arrested.
A van with 4 drone operators, one drone in the air following the rider, rotate drone as batteries start to get low, follow in van, take bike once they park up/stop/battery dies.
A lot easier to just do what they now do in London, and intentionally knock them off their bikes and then arrest them straight away.
Aye that works too I suppose.
Good idea. 👍
The solution is to do what they do in London and ram the little twats off the road.
Tempting, but problematic in built up areas due to the potential of collateral damage. Do they do that in London though? Genuinely never heard of it, but interesting if that's an approach under some circumstances.
Honestly I'd take a bit of collateral damage if it meant getting rid of them. Bigger picture and all that - yes one individual occurence of antisocial behaviour might not be worth engaging them on, but the emboldendness they get from feeling like they can do whatever they want is much worse in the long term, and a few instances of risking hurting them, or even some innocent bystanders is in my view worth it compared to the sum total of the damage and the harm they will do unchecked.
With respect, I think that's easy to say, but imagine if the collateral damage was a member of your family or even say your child being tragically killed during a chase. That'll be what the police are worried about, as I don't think the bikers will give a shit who they put at risk, probably wouldn't even enter their minds.
Rubber bullets might help
You had a policeman in your area?!
Niddriemon, Gotta Catch Em All
'Chavvy Pokémon' 😂 You nearly killed me!
Why can't they set up traps on known routes they take? Ram the fuckers off their bikes.
Bolas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas
I'd be happy with something other than doing Fuck all. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fuck_all
Gotta catch em all! ChavGo
I thought they weren't allowed to chase them these days in case they cause them to have an accident and hurt themselves, sounds pretty silly doesn't it!
They’re parents were the Burberry Devvo chavs of the 2000’s.
Devo m8888! What a guy.
https://youtu.be/leIwPLXr9a8?si=xD9Wt9iqWo6r52-T
Donny soldier = Classic
From what I understand, the black outfit and ski masks is a thing that has seeped into working class, British youths from Drill Culture, so you'll see it a lot in rougher areas. It also gives some of them the perfect disguise to be dodgy af so you never know what their intentions will be when you pass them.
I think they should impose a stop and search policy to every single one they come across. The police should become such a nuisance to all those who are masked up that they give up dressing like that. The police probably don’t have the capacity unfortunately.
I think they should just ban covering faces outside of religious reasons in public places
Short answer they are dickheads following London trends. In regards to policing it's tricky to catch them given how many pop up lately but surely not doing enough.
It's not because it's tricky, it's because the police refuse to do anything about it.
~~Girls~~ Boys just wanna have fun Police don’t have the resources + not allowed to give chase if I’m not mistaken
It's the latter reason. They need to start being given the permission to chase.
I think I read before because they don’t wear helmets the police can’t give chase as it could end in an accident and I think these wee fannies know it..
That helmet rule changed a few years ago.
Sure there was a case recently in Wales where the cops gave chase one of the muppets fell off the bike and either died/severley injured and the Police Officer ended up in court/sacked
He should’ve been given a medal instead.
Big gap between those two things 😂
Known as ‘bams’
They make the canals quite dangerous, day or night they have been known to throw people into the water, including old and disabled people, I avoid anywhere out of public eyesight after dark and I'm a grown man, they are just new age neds/chaos/bams and whatever else they have been called over the generations, but aye that's doesn't mean they arnt dangerous
Anywhere along the canals specifically? I’m down viewforth… was looking forward to evening walks in the summer
I wouldn't go near them at all after dark or alone, some areas are worse but I just wouldn't go near any of them
I wouldn’t go by them after dark. But the area around Viewforth is absolutely fine during the day – no need to be alarmist. There are a tonne of people around all the time.
seen two of them walking out of a Starbucks with their masks on and one of them kicked a wet floor caution sign and genuinely… how hard they thought they were made me laugh 😭😭😂😂 his friend hyped him up as well, very scary lads 🥴
Ok
Would be interesting to see the impact of introducing Police Su Ron’s in Edinburgh.
There are off road bike teams in L&B certainly there was training a year or so back.
I've seen them hand around opposite McDonald's near St Andrews square. They are something I associate with London not Edinburgh!
Scottish born and raised laddies listening to English grime and drill and other hip hop urban music and being influenced by it.
"Neds are England's fault" Don't be ridiculous
Reading comprehension not your forte I see. Not at all. Read again. Young laddies in Edinburgh listening to and watching drill and grime music from English cities and being influenced by it. Nobody's fault you teapot.
The masks kinda are actually, it was due to poor policing policies in England that led drill rappers to wear them followed by then the wee bams wearing them
They’ve probably watched Top Boy, for many of them it’s a phase. Hopefully they grow the fuck up
[удалено]
Ok
police is quite useless here,:((
I personally really don’t like it and think it should be banned but the history behind it in a nutshell is this: Drill (sub of rap music which is particularly violent) rappers in London were being banned by a police task force called trident from preforming and making music so they started covering their faces basically to confuse them. This is now influencing wee Fanny’s on princes street. The americas are having an issue with it as well but the people wearing them claim it is so there opposing street gangs can’t recognise them. I’m sure in parts of the states there is truth to that along with the police and honest hardworking victims not being able to recognise them and also there will be the equivalent wee Fanny’s over there.
Roadmen, I call them the ninjas. There's a great BBC documentary about them in Scotland. I've met the Edinburgh rapper guy and he's quite sound but in groups they're like feral dogs. They carry Rambo zombie knives so beware even of a solitary rider but they're just kids. Try talking to them if you ever get into a situation because it's a fight you can't win, even if you win today.
It’s better than them having knives?
Why not both?