Is Teesside getting worse for violent crime?

TheBoroBuzzard

Well-known member
..or is this a one off weekend?

Police are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with footage to contact them after an alleged incident in Ibstone Walk, Stockton, around 9:05am on Saturday 24th July.

Two men are alleged to have approached a Ford Fiesta, dragged the driver from the vehicle and made off in it.

The 62-year-old male driver suffered a stab wound and was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees for treatment before being transferred to James Cook University Hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

Two men aged 23 have been charged with wounding with intent, robbery and possession of a sharp or bladed article in a public place. One man was additionally charged with dangerous driving.

The Ford Fiesta has been recovered by police.

Anyone with information is asked to contact A/Detective Sergeant Carl Blenkinsop from Stockton CID on the non-emergency number 101, quoting incident number 123048.

Independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111, or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.

Police are appealing for any witnesses to an altercation in Stockton, whereby a man aged in his 50’s suffered a head injury.

Officers attended a report of an altercation on Stockton High Street near to B&M around 12:30am this morning, Sunday 25th July.

A man aged 53 suffered head injuries and was taken to James Cook University Hospital and later released following treatment.

A 39-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident and he remains in police custody at this time.

Any witnesses are asked to contact Stockton CID, on the non-emergency number 101, quoting incident number 123530.

Independent charity Crimestoppers can also be contacted on 0800 555 111, or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.


Police are appealing to any witnesses, anyone with dash cam footage or private CCTV after a robbery was reported at Best Buy on Norton Road, in Stockton, around 10am this morning, Friday 23rd July.

Two males entered the store, one with a hand injury, and distracted staff whilst attempting to steal items.

A man was pushed to the floor by the suspects and another man, aged in his 30’s, was then assaulted and suffered minor head and facial injuries which did not require hospital treatment.

Items were then stolen from the shop, before the suspects left with another male and a female in a silver Vauxhall Astra.

The suspect with the hand injury is described as a white male, aged 35-40 years old, of slim build and wearing grey clothing, and around 5ft 6” tall. He had a full head of hair which was grey like and cut short with grey stubble.

A second suspect is described as a dual heritage male, around 30-40 years old, of slim build but muscular, and wearing a black tracksuit top and bottoms. He was around 5ft 10” tall and had a shaved head with some black hair on the top. He was clean shaven.

The third male is described as a white male, around 40-45 years old, of slim build and around 5ft 6” tall. He had short stubble like facial hair.

The female is described as white, around 30-35 years old, of average build, with black hair down to her neck and around 5ft 2” tall and wearing blue jeans and a colourful top.

Officers are keen to trace any witnesses or anyone with information and in particular a female customer who was entering the store around the time of the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Inspector Louise Sproson from Stockton CID on the non-emergency number 101, quoting incident number 122316.

Independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111, or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
 
Was in Swatters Carr tonight, a bloke walked up and punched a bloke at the bar, wiped him out completely, his **** sucking mates all bigged him up for it doing it it. The lad who got hit must have been in his late forties, the guy who hit him early twenties. **** house house, walked off straight away, hope he gets his come uppance.
 
Perhaps lockdown and restrictions has had an effect . Itl be business as usually soon hopefully unless of course more restrictions come in or continue
 
I really don't think that it has. I think that you just notice it more as yet get older. But it isn't any rougher than most of the other places that I've lived in anyway. Manchester and Swansea were both worse.
 
Was in Swatters Carr tonight, a bloke walked up and punched a bloke at the bar, wiped him out completely, his **** sucking mates all bigged him up for it doing it it. The lad who got hit must have been in his late forties, the guy who hit him early twenties. **** house house, walked off straight away, hope he gets his come uppance.
To me it's always been so - there was a paper that had Eston to Normanby tagged as the 'mad mile' back in the day and not without reason. Nearly every weekend was a wild west scene in places like the Miners and Normanby pubs, those along the way also suffered outbreaks of spontaneous fighting. It got worse as that reputation brought outsiders in to make it even worse.

There was I recall bother between the different districts at the match from time to time, reputations and ego's all in play. In my late teens my parents ran a very popular pub in Boro for a while and that was very similar, fights breaking out every weekend, the 'police heavy mob' wading in and the resulting damage with glass, tables, chairs, windows and worst of all people was extraordinary, not to mention sickening at times with glassings and very bad beatings.

There's a cult of worship that seems to surround those portrayed as hardcases that never goes away it seems, with every new generation bringing on the latest top dog wannabe.
 
Perhaps lockdown and restrictions has had an effect . Itl be business as usually soon hopefully unless of course more restrictions come in or continue
Maybe, maybe it's more to do with a decade of lost investment in social services to help people get out of their issues, lost economic opportunity leading to a loss of hope, and support for people with mental health issues dwindling, slashing of police funding, and of course slashing of local government finances to actually make a town seem a nice place to be and entertain people. It's what happens under neo-liberal ideology is taken to its extreme.
 
I really don't think that it has. I think that you just notice it more as yet get older. But it isn't any rougher than most of the other places that I've lived in anyway. Manchester and Swansea were both worse.
I do imagine myself when I get to my 70s being a victim of some coward who sees me as a soft target. Prays on you a bit.
 
I do imagine myself when I get to my 70s being a victim of some coward who sees me as a soft target. Prays on you a bit.
But that could happen anywhere, surely? Not just a Teesside thing. I agree with you though (for once ha ha!). I am a lot more careful out and about now that I'm in my fifties than I ever was when I was younger.
 
Last edited:
Maybe, maybe it's more to do with a decade of lost investment in social services to help people get out of their issues, lost economic opportunity leading to a loss of hope, and support for people with mental health issues dwindling, slashing of police funding, and of course slashing of local government finances to actually make a town seem a nice place to be and entertain people. It's what happens under neo-liberal ideology is taken to its extreme.
Mixed thoughts reading that. All what you say doesn't excuse the thuggish behavior outlined in the OP. As individuals we need to take responsibility for our own actions. Countries without welfare state do not have this kind of behaviour to this extent and are suffering much more right now than in the UK
 
But that could happen anywhere, surely? Not just a Teesside thing. I agree with you though (for once ha ha!). I am a lot more careful out about now that I'm in my fifties than I ever was when I was younger.
No its not a Teesside thing , and probably less on Teesside than the rest of the UK. Im in my mid 60's and fortunately don't live in what I perceive as an ever increasing violent UK. But I'll be back one day.
 
But that could happen anywhere, surely? Not just a Teesside thing. I agree with you though (for once ha ha!). I am a lot more careful out about now that I'm in my fifties than I ever was when I was younger.
Yep it''s the same in all towns and cities - always have an eye on the crowd wherever I have been. No doubt a result of the upbringing.
 
Was in Swatters Carr tonight, a bloke walked up and punched a bloke at the bar, wiped him out completely, his **** sucking mates all bigged him up for it doing it it. The lad who got hit must have been in his late forties, the guy who hit him early twenties. **** house house, walked off straight away, hope he gets his come uppance.
This happened to a colleague of mine in hartlepool he was sat at a bus stop after a night out when this bloke came up to him and lamped him. He's now got a permanent disability because of one punch.
 
Kids are less sensitive nowadays , see something bad and the first thing to do is take a pic of it it seems . Social media is a Catalyst for some things , I’d say it certainly effects their mental health.
 
No its not a Teesside thing , and probably less on Teesside than the rest of the UK. Im in my mid 60's and fortunately don't live in what I perceive as an ever increasing violent UK. But I'll be back one day.
I think it is the 'perception' thing that you mentioned though. I did really daft things and probably put myself in a lot of danger in my younger days without even realising it. I'd never do those things now. I just don't believe that Teesside now is any rougher than it was when I was a teenager. I'm just not as confident and cocky as I was back then. I've never had a gun pointed at me by a would be robber here like I had happen to me in Manchester when I was a student.
 
I really don't think that it has. I think that you just notice it more as yet get older. But it isn't any rougher than most of the other places that I've lived in anyway. Manchester and Swansea were both worse.
It's strange you mentioned Swansea, I was working there for a week a few years ago. It was the most wild west town I had ever been in. I have hardly ever seen bother , but saw three incidents in the week, and that was midweek.
 
This happened to a colleague of mine in hartlepool he was sat at a bus stop after a night out when this bloke came up to him and lamped him. He's now got a permanent disability because of one punch.
Happened to me once when I was still at school. Think I was about fifteen and had both hands full of carrier bags because I'd been in to town to buy some records and clothes with my paper round money and two older lads approached me and one of them just tw@tted me one out of nowhere when I was in no position to defend myself. Luckily he couldn't really punch for toffee but I still needed half a dozen stitches in my lip. Never seen either of those lads before in my life and I was just minding my own business and walking home. No idea why anyone would do something like that.
 
It's strange you mentioned Swansea, I was working there for a week a few years ago. It was the most wild west town I had ever been in. I have hardly ever seen bother , but saw three incidents in the week, and that was midweek.
There are two Swanseas in my experience of the place mate. The west side is pretty civilized most of the time but the East and up on Townhill can get very dicey.
 
Happened to me once when I was still at school. Think I was about fifteen and had both hands full of carrier bags because I'd been in to town to buy some records and clothes with my paper round money and two older lads approached me and one of them just tw@tted me one out of nowhere when I was in no position to defend myself. Luckily he couldn't really punch for toffee but I still needed half a dozen stitches in my lip. Never seen either of those lads before in my life and I was just minding my own business and walking home. No idea why anyone would do something like that.
It's horrendous, it can do so much damage, l would have to be in severe danger for me to throw a punch. A lad I went to school with went to jail for punching a barman and he hit his head off the bar and died. Its so dangerous.
 
Mixed thoughts reading that. All what you say doesn't excuse the thuggish behavior outlined in the OP. As individuals we need to take responsibility for our own actions. Countries without welfare state do not have this kind of behaviour to this extent and are suffering much more right now than in the UK
It doesn't excuse I agree, I wouldn't aim to excuse them all and they all have to own and be responsible for their behaviours, but it's important to understand WHY those behaviours happen. There are two types of people that behave badly.

Firstly those that do it because they were born with serious personality disorders, society needs social systems in place manage their irreversible conditions, to monitor them, to control their impulses and where necessary to imprison them.

The other type is those that are a product of their environment and behave the way they do through poor education, poor economic opportunities and a lack of a societal safety net to stop them falling when life is proving hard, stopping poor choices like drug abuse snowballing into a lifetime of bad choices such as a life of crime.

Of course these people should be punished for the things they do wrong, thugish behaviour, violence anti-social behaviour etc. but demonisation and punishment alone won't eradicate the problem. This is where government has a responsibility to create a society that works to eradicate root causes of violence and disorder, not just resolve the incidents. Sadly the last 2 lengthy Tory neo-liberal governments have really undermined this. They claim to be strong on crime, and strong on the causes of crime yet slash funding of anything that would do either of those things.

We the people must call that out for what it is, this government has fostered an environment where the anti-social underclass has grown they have failed.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top