It was night, and yet a room lit up. In filled a group of young men. It’s surprising, because young men don’t turn out like this. At least, not in the UK at the time.
It was a dark time – a winter of discontent – for young males, as they were turned against due to a number of alleged “failings” in society. These were spread over indistinct social media channels, off-Web WhatsApp groups, and by a multitude of email addresses.
It was a bullying effort to corner, and denigrate, anyone fitting the basic profile of “young” and “male”. It’s not quite like Tinder, but more like a school playing ground bullying effort.
The truth will ‘out
In Yorkshire, the situation was particularly acute. It had been reported to police but after a short while they weren’t contactable. It couldn’t be marshalled by law enforcement as it was too dangerous.
It was eery as there were scuffles, outbreaks of antisocial behaviour amongst young, energetic women, and unconnected to national events. They were self-motivated, daring to interfere in people’s lives.
In the meeting, cramped in a small room, participants opened up about what had been happening. They’d found a gap in events and decided the best thing to do – the last thing – was to get together.
A ‘secular’ miracle
They summed up the events, and expressed their views. They were hurting, too, but they’d seen it in other people’s lives. “The outbreak of it is disturbing, since young girls don’t do this”, one had said.
He’d said a truth, but in his own words. The reality is young males and females don’t do it, but it was still happening. They had already agreed it was a difficult issue, but concluded it needed to be sorted out.
The days after were remarkably different. They heard that help had come. Their talk had proved fruitful, after all. It was all down to the detail shared, and so reinforcements were able to arrive to help out.