Recently, a small village in England was disturbed by a group of "spiritual little girls". The teenage girls repeatedly robbed local homes and shops, and injured first responders.
Underage children like them, who will not be held for long after they are caught, run rampant in the village and do all kinds of evil.
Even if the local residents suffered losses, they dared not speak out, for fear that they would retaliate if they called the police. And such a team of "spiritual guys and little sisters" is developing and growing all over the United Kingdom, becoming a public enemy of the whole people that is difficult to cure.
(Schematic diagram)
The village of Barham, located in West Sussex on the coast of England, is a small village of just over 1,000 people.
The scenery here is beautiful, the people are simple, and few outsiders enter, so the law and order has always been good.
However, since the Easter holidays at the end of March this year, there have been frequent incidents of robbery and wounding of underage girls.
On March 30, four teenage girls gathered in a crowd to smoke marijuana and hallucinated inside a local train station, injuring a first responder.
After the incident, the police arrested the four suspects and issued an announcement announcing that they would strengthen police patrols around the area.
But less than 48 hours after the incident, another group of "spirit girls" dressed in fancy clothes and shouting broke into a local store and stole a large number of items. Many residents also reported that their shops and backyard warehouses were looted by these underage girls.
They break in in droves, then carry food, groceries and cigarettes with impunity, laugh mockingly in the face of shopkeepers and homeowners who stop them, and sometimes unpack them in front of their bosses to eat and drink, and then throw garbage all over the floor.
Diagram
A taxi driver also said that groups of spiritual girls stopped in front of the train station and blocked his car so much that he couldn't even ask for customers. He dragged them from the train station to the village, and not only did they not get the fare, but the car was littered with garbage.
In just one week, the peace and tranquility of the small village was shattered by this group of illegal intruders, and more and more victims began to report their losses to the police. The inhabitants of the village have also decided not to sit idly by and unite against the foreign invaders and drive them out of their homes.
On 4 April, more than 200 residents of the village organized a workshop to discuss ways to counter these uninvited guests.
Unfortunately, the results of the counterattack discussed by the villagers left them disheartened...
At the meeting that day, many villagers came forward to talk about their experiences of being threatened and intimidated by the underage girls' perpetrators.
One villager said that on the night of the Easter holidays, a little girl burst into her backyard and shouted for him to open the fence and that they needed to move something to eat and drink.
Diagram
At that time, it was just him and the children in the house. He didn't know how many people there were, and he couldn't see that they didn't have weapons in their hands. Fearing that the other side would be outnumbered, he had to give them all the food he had prepared for the festival and begged them not to come again.
Some villagers were stopped by them on the way home and asked for money, there was no one on the road at that time, these underage girls were wearing wide hoodies and hats that covered their faces, and their faces could not be seen at all, so the villagers could not describe their appearance when they called the police afterwards, and it became difficult to identify them after being arrested.
Some shopkeepers also explained at the meeting that his store was robbed twice by this group of spiritual girls, and he was worried that he would be retaliated against by the remaining comrades, so he did not dare to call the police.
Diagram
In addition, the villagers also generally reported that they were haunted in the village and the thieves did not go empty, resulting in the villagers now going out in groups, and they had to close their doors early at night, and never walk at night.
At the meeting that day, the villagers were agitated and demanded a clear explanation from the police, because everyone was fed up with such fearful days. The villagers wanted to know what practical measures the police could do to deal with the juvenile offenders, in addition to issuing patrol notices.
In response to the feedback from the villagers, the local police's solution is really a drop in the bucket.
They sent 39 police officers on patrol shifts and arrested more than a dozen people involved, but with little success. These offenders are well aware that they are minors, and if they are caught, they will not be sentenced for long.
Just like the four underage girls arrested for the train station attack, the front foot was just caught in the front foot, and the back foot was already released on bail. All the police can do is step up patrols to keep them from approaching the village.
After this period of observation, the police also judged that these underage girls were by no means crimes of passion, but organized and gangs. And the organization behind them may be the notorious "West Coast members" in England. Hearing the police's remarks, the villagers began to worry that the peace of the village might not be restored.
Because the village of Barham happens to be a railway hub, and many of the main train lines through the UK pass through here, it is feared that a large number of juvenile offenders will transfer and steal from here in the future. In their eyes, Balham seems to have become a free "supply station".
This kind of assumption is terrifying and unavoidable.
What's even more terrifying is that just like when there is a cockroach in the house, there may already be 100 cockroaches in the house, such a cold-blooded and violent "spiritual guy and little sister" has become a problem for the whole British society.
Screenshot from the movie "Lake Eden".
In recent years, in the British news section, you can often see the term "teenager".
In the hearts of the British people, Teenager often refers to those "spiritual guys and little sisters" who are under the age of 18 and get together to steal chickens and dogs, fight and make trouble.
Screenshot from the movie "Lake Eden".
They rely on the fact that they are minors and can be exempted from or receive light sentences under the law, so they unscrupulously challenge the lower limits of morality and law.
The two most representative members of the "West Coast Members" group mentioned by the Balham police above are juvenile offenders who have committed vicious cases of assault.
In 2021, 13-year-old George, 14-year-old Archie and 18-year-old Harry were playing frisbee in the park when they clashed with an 11-year-old boy. When the three men surrounded the boy with wooden sticks and beat him, a 47-year-old man who passed by stepped forward to dissuade him, but was beaten by the three of them, resulting in the man's left eye blindness, rib fracture and head loss, which has not yet recovered.
After the incident, 18-year-old Harry was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
During the trial, George was found to have been arrested for alcoholism and assault at the age of 10, and has since had 18 criminal records. Archie also has 2 criminal records and 3 criminal records. However, because the two were minors, they were sentenced to 12 years in prison for several crimes.
At that time, the population expressed incomprehension and dissatisfaction with such a trial. What's even more confusing is that after the demon brothers were imprisoned for a year, the court reduced the sentences of the two by 2 and a half years because the previous sentence was "obviously too heavy".
The verdict in this case has set off a big wave of public opinion in the United Kingdom, and the outside world has also called these juvenile offenders "West Coast members".
Netizens expressed their opinions on the outcome of the trial and the Law on the Protection of Minors:
"Look at the fact that we have a judicial branch that is detached from reality and has made more ridiculous judgments. ”
"What a terrible world we are in!"
"Young people today are vulgar and rude, and there are no rules to speak of, and they all worship the actions of those great and good people. ”
The worries and ridicule of netizens are not untrue.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, in 2023 alone, nearly 20% of the 49,000 armed assault cases in the UK were suspects who were minors. Sexual assault, drug trafficking, and robbery cases are becoming younger and more violent in the UK.
Screenshot from the movie "Lake Eden".
Returning to the incident itself, the residents of Barnum Village are now unable to sleep well, but the police and the law are powerless to do anything about it.
In today's rising trend of juvenile crime, the question of whether to consider re-adjudicating the measurement of the age of offenders has become a question for the global justice system. While not missing the protection of a minor, we must not let go of a potential criminal, which is the real purpose of the existence of the law.
(Schematic diagram)