'Ring of steel' stops brawl with 100 youths (From Daily Echo)
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Police ring of steel stops brawl with 100 youths at Totton
1:00pm Friday 5th October 2012 in News
By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter
Youth street battle prevented
A RING of steel was set up around a Hampshire town to prevent more than 100 warring youths rampaging through the streets causing “mayhem” – organised through Internet sites and mobile phones.
Around 120 youths, in three separate gangs from Millbrook, descended on Totton, sparking a major police operation to prevent a mass brawl kicking off.
Officers from the force Support Unit, dog units and Safer Neigh-bourhood Teams were drafted in to secure the Totton border and stop the gangs passing through.
The high police presence of around 30 officers sparked concern among residents who went on to social networking sites to try to find out what was going on.
The alarm was first raised on Wednesday at around 4pm, when police monitoring of social networking sites flagged up a potential “fight” between rival youths from Totton and Millbrook.
Working on that intelligence, officers were able to set up a ring of steel and intercepted them as they reached the Redbridge end of the M271 at around 6.45pm.
Knowing police were on their tails, the location of the planned fight kept moving – locations including the Asda superstore and the Elephant and Castle pub – but officers kept on top by constantly monitoring messages.
Most of those in the gangs were successfully turned away without any trouble, but it is believed that a few did manage to sneak through to cause some “minor scuffles” in the centre of Totton.
A few teenagers were stopped within Totton but no arrests were made and no cautions handed out.
A police spokesman said: “This was a show of strength by our officers and effectively they put up a ring of steel. The message to these youths is that police will adopt a zero tolerance approach and will deal with anyone robustly who is trying to breach the peace.”
Comments(31)
G0Rf
says...
1:42pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Nutstrangler
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1:43pm Fri 5 Oct 12
andreww
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1:45pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Higginz
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2:30pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Shoong
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2:57pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Linesman wrote:120 of them?
Youthful high spirits?
What a silly comment.
Linesman
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3:20pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Shoong wrote:I agree, but I expect nothing else from you.
Linesman wrote:120 of them?
Youthful high spirits?
What a silly comment.
Ginger_cyclist
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3:22pm Fri 5 Oct 12
solomum
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4:11pm Fri 5 Oct 12
10 Minute Man
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4:40pm Fri 5 Oct 12
biggus2
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4:49pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Subject48
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5:05pm Fri 5 Oct 12
We could sit back and chill with a pint and burger, throw in some garden tools and watch them beat eachother to death.
Taking this idea further, we could charge for tickets and broadcast rights.
Im sure this would single handidly solve two problems; councils money problems and get rid of some of these so called "people".
Ginger_cyclist
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5:13pm Fri 5 Oct 12
solomum wrote:The only thing the idiots are fighting over is the first half of their **** postcodes being one or two numbers different, in fact it sometimes happens just because two groups live opposite sides of a road, like Thornhill and Sholing, both are SO19 yet they still fight, it's stupid, mindless violence.
The police need to be praised for this and zero tolerance should be applauded. We should be able to go out and about of an evening without worrying about mass fighting going on. I personally do not understand this gang culture, but well done to the police for stopping it before there were serious injuries.
miltonarcher
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5:33pm Fri 5 Oct 12
andysaints007
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5:57pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Ginger_cyclist wrote:It makes a nice change for someone like you to not just remember when things don't quite go according to plan! The police get it right most times but of course that's not normally newsworthy is it!
The police actually did something large scale right for once? Wow, that actually is news worthy.
cantthinkofone
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6:09pm Fri 5 Oct 12
SFC1976
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6:09pm Fri 5 Oct 12
IronLady2010
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6:24pm Fri 5 Oct 12
arthur dalyrimple
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6:30pm Fri 5 Oct 12
gillyman
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7:15pm Fri 5 Oct 12
chunky_lover
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7:42pm Fri 5 Oct 12
cantthinkofone
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9:19pm Fri 5 Oct 12
chunky_lover wrote:Better yet - we could televise it! And use the profits to pay off the bankers' deficit!
Would have better to let them all kill each other? Scum costs YOU money!
Totton Ric
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9:35pm Fri 5 Oct 12
cantthinkofone
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9:45pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Totton Ric wrote:What about the ninjas? You wouldn't have seen the ninjas.
Lol,Think the true numbers were 50-60 Echo,Hype it up !
No one sees the ninjas.
Shoong
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10:23pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Linesman wrote:Oh I've seen what you've done there, the good form continues then.
Shoong wrote:I agree, but I expect nothing else from you.
Linesman wrote:120 of them?
Youthful high spirits?
What a silly comment.
I'm sure you wouldn't mind this going on outside your place of abode then, looking out the window, clapping on the 'youthful high spirits' as they tear the place up? Deary me.
Ginger_cyclist
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11:16pm Fri 5 Oct 12
andysaints007 wrote:Doesn't help when I've had bad experiences when dealing with the police, then again, it also doesn't help when 9 out of ten times, the police are on the news for all the wrong reasons, like shooting an innocent man in the back and head, in the London underground, when the guy had stopped, got on the ground with his hands flat on the ground in front of him.
Ginger_cyclist wrote:It makes a nice change for someone like you to not just remember when things don't quite go according to plan! The police get it right most times but of course that's not normally newsworthy is it!
The police actually did something large scale right for once? Wow, that actually is news worthy.
cantthinkofone
says...
12:04am Sat 6 Oct 12
Ginger_cyclist wrote:Lying for twenty-odd years about Hillsborough, lying about the death of a newspaper vendor and their involvement in it, Mark Duggan's magic disappearing/reappea
andysaints007 wrote:Doesn't help when I've had bad experiences when dealing with the police, then again, it also doesn't help when 9 out of ten times, the police are on the news for all the wrong reasons, like shooting an innocent man in the back and head, in the London underground, when the guy had stopped, got on the ground with his hands flat on the ground in front of him.
Ginger_cyclist wrote:It makes a nice change for someone like you to not just remember when things don't quite go according to plan! The police get it right most times but of course that's not normally newsworthy is it!
The police actually did something large scale right for once? Wow, that actually is news worthy.
ring gun, Blair Peach being bludgeoned to death with a police radio, Enfield police waterboarding 'suspects', the list goes on and on.
Our boys in blue. Heroes, one and all.
phil maccavity
says...
8:19am Sat 6 Oct 12
I remember reading an article about the building of the bridge over the Itchen linking the city with Bitterne Park in the early part of the 20th century.
Apparently there were regular dust ups between the young lads representing either side of the river. And as youngsters you never quarelled with lads from the Northam area.
The police used to dispense a good degree of summary justice in those days. Good on the police for reacting the right way this time.
Terry_Nutkins
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9:22am Sat 6 Oct 12
dadofmy3sons
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4:07pm Sat 6 Oct 12
Anyone helping the police is called a grass.
Anyone with holding evidence is acting in defence of their civil liberites.
A bunch of kids want to have a scrap and organise it on facebook etc. and I wouldn't mind betting that at least one dopy parent has said that their child? was only there by accident and it was none of their fault.
Awful lot of hypocrites who moan for any reason but mostly to see their name in print.
Ginger_cyclist
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12:21pm Sun 7 Oct 12
cantthinkofone wrote:Exactly, then there's the ones who arrest people for the hell of it, arrest people on trumped up terrorism charges just because they're taking pictures with a proper camera in a public place which is legal, approaching people and stopping them in public for filming in a public place, which is again legal, I got stopped several times for riding my electrically assisted bike, though it was legal it probably didn't help that it looked like a moped but one copper effectively ran me off the road with his car, while I was just riding up and down the road I live on and then got out of his car with a hand on his handcuffs and wouldn't let me go until my dad came out, had a go at him and told him to even check with his boss.
Ginger_cyclist wrote:Lying for twenty-odd years about Hillsborough, lying about the death of a newspaper vendor and their involvement in it, Mark Duggan's magic disappearing/reappea
andysaints007 wrote:Doesn't help when I've had bad experiences when dealing with the police, then again, it also doesn't help when 9 out of ten times, the police are on the news for all the wrong reasons, like shooting an innocent man in the back and head, in the London underground, when the guy had stopped, got on the ground with his hands flat on the ground in front of him.
Ginger_cyclist wrote:It makes a nice change for someone like you to not just remember when things don't quite go according to plan! The police get it right most times but of course that's not normally newsworthy is it!
The police actually did something large scale right for once? Wow, that actually is news worthy.
ring gun, Blair Peach being bludgeoned to death with a police radio, Enfield police waterboarding 'suspects', the list goes on and on.
Our boys in blue. Heroes, one and all.
Linesman says...
1:37pm Fri 5 Oct 12