We all did it on our school holidays, didn't we? Hung around outside till it was dark, sometimes longer, playing with our friends. Going to the corner store, buying a popsicle, and riding our bikes instead of going to bed. After all, we didn't have to get up for school the next morning, might as well enjoy ourselves.

Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's because I'm in a country that seems a little less civilised than that from whence I came, or maybe it's because teenagers are the anti-christ(s). At least they are in Britain, and possibly in all of Europe. Too many rights, you see. No rules. They steal - they get a slap on the wrist. They assault - they go to counseling. They murder someone - they get a hug, because after all, they must have been awfully hard done by to turn out the way they did. Poor souls.

Oh shut up! Here I am in Scotland, wishing every day to be back in my tiny apartment in the East End of Montreal, next to the Hells Angels and Rock Machine biker gangs, because at least those guys had the decency to fight amongst themselves and leave the rest of us alone to get on with our lives.

Since the start of the British 2 week break for Easter (TWO WEEKS people! TWO!), our street has been under siege by brats from the wrong side of the tax system (kids raised by young single mothers who are given free homes on becoming pregnant, then continue to suck the life out of the welfare system until they die, drunk, with a needle in their arm). They've been in our garbage, writing their names on our walls, tresspassing within our apartment building and making a mess, and drinking vodka in our parking lot.

And there's nothing we can do about it. Every resident in this building (which is privately owned, kind of like the condo system in America) has filed complaints with the local police, who seem far too disinterested to get off their backsides and do anything about it. After all, the UK doesn't actually have an anti-tresspass law, so we just have to live with it.

But not every one is as bad off. Cumbria Police in England have decided that they've had enough, and over the Easter break there is a curfew in place on everyone under 16.

Cumbria Police Inspector Dave Barr told BBC News Online that gangs have been congregating in the town centre which has put people off going to the shops in the area.

"The main problem has been vandalism and we have had damage at the community centre for three nights running."

"We will use the extra powers which allow us to take a child home if they are in the centre and if they refuse to leave or are found again we can take action against them."


I won't still be in Scotland for the summer break (thank whatever God!), but I'm glad that such action is taking place. Perhaps by summer the duds at the Central Scotland Police will take a page from the Cumbria book, and my neighbors won't have to put up with more of what we've had over the past two weeks.