This insensitive article which was printed on the same day as the committal of the suspects in the Sophie Lancaster case was originally titled 'Emos and Goths intimidating Blackburn shoppers'. It has caused much outrage attracting comments from many people including Sophie’s family. Blackburn is the largest town near to Bacup being only 10 miles away. The article was later renamed “Teen gangs are emo-tive issue” in an attempt to mollify complaints.
Note the young people involved are guilty of no crime as the police comment indicates but are simply assembling in a public place. There was some inaccuracy in the report the description of the group which mentions the fact a number of people in the group had skateboards. This means a considerable number of them are in fact skaters rather than goths or emos as some of the comments on the article make clear.
While the Telegraph claims the article is objective reporting the prejudiced opinions of one of the locals seems crass in the circumstances as many local people made clear in their comments. It seems Church Street has been a hang out spot for alternative teens before this man’s shop was even opened. If the group were guilty of disorderly conduct then the police would act instead the reality is that the group involved have done nothing wrong.
The paper has now printed a new article on the question which further indicates how reasonable those gathered in Church Street are:
Emos and Goths - 'don't be afraid of us'
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1775489.mostviewed.emos_and_goths_dont_be_afraid_of_us.php
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