Violent 'Happy Slapping' Craze Plagues Britain
By Tom Hundley
Foreign Correspondent
Chicago Tribune
6-22-05

LONDON -- Watch out for "happy slapping," the latest youth craze to sweep Britain.

It's not a new dance step or even a new designer drug. It's a criminal assault.

Groups of teenagers approach an unsuspecting person and begin punching and kicking him or her while capturing it all on their mobile camera phones. The images are later uploaded and shared on the Internet.

The victims can be young or old, male or female. Bus stops, tube stations and parks are considered prime venues. In most cases, the injuries are minor. But on Saturday, British newspapers reported that an 11-year-old London girl had been raped by a gang of happy slappers, and Scotland Yard confirmed that three 14-year-old boys had been arrested.

The craze apparently started in London late last year but has spread across the country. British Transport Police say they have investigated about 200 attacks in London alone since the beginning of the year, but they acknowledge that most go unreported.

Happy slapping is the latest manifestation of what Britons call "yob culture." The word "yob" dates to the 19th Century--it likely derives from "boy" spelled backward--and it denotes a kind of loutish, anti-social behavior associated with working-class youth in Britain's urban centers. The British soccer hooligan is the quintessential yob.

"I happyslap people," explained "Huni bo" from Sleaford on a popular yob blog. "I dnt see nowt wrong wit it tho, ima good person! Its well funni tho!!"

"It's not funny," replied Spartanette from Swansea. "If it's just among mates and you actually know the person, then it's harmless, but when you do it to someone you don't even know, you deserve a beating."

"So I deserve a beatin yeh?" replied Huni bo. "Wes onli do it ppl lyk are age ish, say from 15 -- 19 or 20. summats, wunt do it to an old man, even though they keep avin a go at us, an it dus are heds in!"

Violent anti-social behavior is hardly news in Britain--it was common in Charles Dickens' time and was made iconic by the 1971 film and Anthony Burgess' 1962 novel, "A Clockwork Orange"--but a particularly vicious attack last month once again focused national attention on the problem.

Phil Carroll, 49, a father of four from Salford, a modest, middle-class suburb of Manchester, confronted three youths from a nearby housing project after they threw a stone at his car. Suddenly, he was set upon by a larger group. The attackers left him bleeding and unconscious in the street. He remained in a coma for two weeks before waking.

But it wasn't the attack that drew headlines. It was Manchester Police Chief Supt. David Baines' graphic characterization of the attackers:

"They are gangs of feral youths who are under no control from adults, parents or anyone else," he said. "They are not concerned about respect or their responsibilities. The criminal justice system holds no fear for them. This is a national problem. Today it is Salford. Tomorrow, it will be somewhere else."

'Culture of respect'

A week later, Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to create "a culture of respect" in Britain. He used the annual Queen's Speech, in which the government sets out its legislative agenda for the year, to declare war on yob culture.

"It's time to reclaim the streets for the decent majority," Blair told Parliament. "People are rightly fed up with street corner and shopping center thugs ... [and] binge drinking that makes our town centers no-go areas for respectable citizens."

One new tactic that will be tried this summer is "dispersal zones," designated areas in cities where police have powers to impose curfews, ban groups of two or more youths from congregating and send those younger than 16 home to their parents. Those who defy the police risk large fines.

The government also floated the idea of forcing young offenders serving community service sentences to wear bright orange jumpsuits as a means of shaming them.

Hazel Blears, the Home Office's minister for anti-social behavior, told the Observer newspaper that she didn't want young people "breaking rocks" in chain gangs but that the public needed to see that offenders were being punished.

Experts dismiss humiliation

Juvenile crime experts were doubtful, and the idea appears to have been scuttled.

"In my experience there is no benefit gained from humiliating offenders in public," said Rod Morgan, the government's chief adviser on juvenile crime.

Last month, a large shopping mall near London banned teenagers wearing hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps, an adolescent fashion that in Britain is associated with anti-social behavior. The justification was that the hoods and caps obscured faces from the mall's ubiquitous security cameras.

Politicians and the public have applauded the ban. Owners of the mall say they have seen a 22 percent increase in shoppers since they began enforcing it. But many ordinary law-abiding teens also dress in that style, and critics said the ban tarred all youngsters with the same brush.

"It grabs media attention," said Bob Ashford, a specialist in prevention programs with the Youth Justice Board, an advisory and monitoring panel.

"Our view is we don't want to demonize kids. Lots of kids wear this clothing. It's a fashion statement. To label a person as criminal or dangerous because of what he is wearing . . . is not a solution," he said.

The government's main weapon against yobbery is the ASBO. An acronym for "anti-social behavior order," it is a civil order obtained from a court that prohibits a person from engaging in certain narrowly defined activities that are not necessarily criminal but are clearly anti-social.

A neighbor who habitually throws loud drunken parties might be slapped with an ASBO that sharply curtails the number of guests allowed on the premises after 9 p.m. People who violate an ASBO can be jailed.

At first, the process of obtaining an ASBO was overly bureaucratic, slow and costly. Only 600 were issued in the first three years of the program, which began in 1998. But the process has been streamlined, and last year 2,600 ASBOs were issued.

Some community activists say the targeted use of ASBOs has been an effective crime-stopper, but others point to abuses.

Banned from rivers, bridges

In one well-publicized case earlier this year, a woman from Bath who had tried repeatedly to commit suicide was issued an ASBO that prohibits her from going near rivers, bridges, train lines and tall buildings. A woman in Scotland got an ASBO to stop her from answering the front door in her bra and panties.

The problem, according civil libertarians, is that ASBOs allow people to be jailed for activities that are not crimes, such as using foul language or answering the door in one's underwear.

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A Powerful Planet called Pluto (The lord of Hades / Death) is affecting this young generation and responsible for their subconscious destructive and criminal drive.
Part Of " The Power Of The Dragon" (525 pages)
Pluto's impact on Generations: Past — Present — Future


Pluto in Gemini: "The hypnotized Generation" (More in The Power Of The Dragon)
Pluto in Cancer: "The Wasted Baby Generation" (More in The Power Of The Dragon)
Pluto in Leo: "The Baby Boom Generation" (More in The Power Of The Dragon)
Pluto in Virgo: "The Baby Buster Generation"(More in The Power Of The Dragon)
Pluto in Libra: "The Gang Generation." (More in The Power Of The Dragon)

Pluto in Scorpio: "The Death Wish Generation" Pluto then inhabited, from 1983 until 1995, his own daredevil sign of Scorpio. Those very young and wild children have already made dramatic news by executing each other and murdering adults for any reason. Such as in Rachula, Missouri on December 28, 1994, an off-duty police officer had been shot to death by his girlfriend's 9-year-old grandson. The child was born with Pluto in Scorpio on his Dragon's Tail (negative). Many of those "kids" have been reported killing adults for money to buy drugs and guns at the tender age of 10 years. Again in May 1997 a brutal slaying follows a beer drinking in Central Park, New York. Two teen-agers stabbed a real estate agent at least 30 times and tried to chop off his hands so police couldn't use fingerprints to identify him before dumping him in a lake in Central Park. Perpetrators, Daphne Abdela, 15, and her boyfriend, 15-year-old Christopher Vasquez, "gutted the body so it would sink." Both of those young souls are from the dramatic Pluto generation, "The Death Wish Generation." More than previous degrading generations, these children need constant spiritual regeneration and a good reason to be alive.

Note- So far this drugged US generation produced over 800 murderers age 15 or younger in 1995, many of them raised in environments that included abuse, neglect and violence. However, youth violence is neither new nor confined to the United States.


Well, governor. Mike Huckabee you can offer all the sympathy of the world for the victims of the school shooting, and like millions of others lament on a culture that would breed such a tragedy. That is NOT the answer, as you already know that it will happen over again. You, including the educational, psychological, police and governmental system are loosing the battle and will soon watch the breaking down of our young society. Scientists from all levels out there are mesmerized and baffled by the awful events that took place on March 25th, 1998 in JONESBORO, Arkansas. Unless you cast aside your fear of the ridicule fueling your academically oriented ignorance and your mental snobiness, you will not be able to even get closer to the golden key of true knowledge. You might have to challenge your precious books, pass the limitation of your rational mind and realize that the higher truths were never been printed by your kind. It's time to look above your head; into the Universal Mind, with a different attitude. If you have any hope what so ever, to provide serious help to this "Death Wish Generation."

Thus, our society is already witnessing "The Dramatic Death Wish Generation" in action. They are strong-willed, unwavering in thought and action, immensely emotional and totally fearless in front of death. Pluto (sex) is making them very active sexually at an early age, and they will look for a mixture of sex, crime and drugs to survive their harsh young lives. At the tender age of 12 years many of those children have already experienced the use of drugs and sex and some others have committed repellent murders. They are already imposing and displaying their powerful, destructive will on many televised talk shows, where helpless parents complain about their awful behavior. Other much older generations are at bay and baffled, unable to relate to this Plutonic generation.

The passion for self-discovery is extreme and if left without legitimate spiritual food, the worst can only happen to many of these children. They will not react to dogma and common religious teachings as they parents do. Those kids subconsciously understand the principle of life and death and the motivation behind all manifestation. They simply lack the regenerative forces produced by the mystical knowledge to deal with their passionate and rebellious nature. The miserably failing psychological field won't be any help understanding the plutonic motivation behind this upcoming killer generation. Unless the old science of Astrology is reinstated, (Astropsychology) in our colleges and universities, there will be either no understanding or therapeutic healing measures available for these children. A few years from now once in power this unyielding generation has the awful potential to destroy the world with the use of irreversible atomic weapons. Let's just hope that the worst elements of this "Death Wish" generation get spiritual guidance quickly, or imperatively auto-destroy themselves, for the sake of all of us. If God's implacable Universal Rules have been broken and ignored for too long, a serious penalty is awaiting mankind. There is no room for ignorance at any level of consciousness or any other worlds above or below us.

Slowly but surely, mankind is witnessing the slow and painful suffocating end of another young generation. Hopefully, our scientists will cast the "ridicule" aside and a solid investigation of "Divine Astrology" will bring it back into the traditional educational system. Only then, the real therapeutic deeds involving Astrology will begin to heal and regenerate the psyches of all of these unquiet spirits. We, the people, in the name of knowledge, love and happiness, still have time to make the change. That's why I am working fervently to produce this work, for the children of this specific generation. For if they get the right spiritual help, and do rebirth from their own ashes, the incredible potential of this Eagle generation can uplift humanity and the world to its highest and most glorious potential.
To all my readers, I need your help to educate the parents first, as the numbers of requests from the concerned parents will make the badly needed changes and save future lives. Start by sending my newsletters all over, to all that you know, even the skeptics or religious lost lambs waiting for their deities to fix the problem. Their ignorance doesn't give them the right to be blind, but denotes warm hearts for children and your gesture may help them to grow and perceive my work. My wish is to open my own Astropsychology schools if the system is reluctant to make those crucial changes and I need all the help I can get. Any suggestions? Is someone listening?
If you can do anything to help me to help the children of tomorrow PLEASE DO SO and invest in my Astropsychology schools. Your gesture and donations will make a serious difference in the lives of the children of the future. If you have any form of knowledge that can be used to help support me my cause PLEASE DO SO by calling me at 602-265-7667. Invest in the future not the past don't be a promoter of ignorance or any religious institutions, invest in the FUTURE and for the CHILDREN!

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)