oh my! I hope you're alright. There are a couple of posts on QL just now about rude locals. . . it starts with cutting in line, it ends with assaulting people?

yes this happens all over the world: a few years ago I remember hearing about this all the time, gangs of teenagers beating random people. And they would typically target people they knew no one would care about-- homeless, etc. Here, unfortutely, I think most of these kids just assume they're untouchable. . . either because the police actually don't follow up, or most of the victims and witness don't report it, for fear they'll be blamed or it will just be a waste of time.

An example: A friend had an incident one Thursday night with a guy in a thobe following her in a parking lot. THe guy just would not leave her alone, trying to approach her, trying to get her to come with him, wanting her number, wanting her to stop. Eventually he came close enough to put his hand on her, to physically make her stop. She had her mobile in hand and called the cops before running to her car. When she reported this tto the police, they were more interested that she had had a glass of wine with dinner-- if anything had happened, it was clearly her fault.

The kids need to be held accountable, they need their parents and their society to punish them and not let them think they can get away with anything.