This kind of attack is rooted in people brought up to feel that they're no good and who resent anyone who seems to be "better off" or different.

If a person, or group of people are markedly different, as the people from Spain were, it increases the possibility of attracting an attack.
When we talk about deprived areas - of which much of Sheffield S2 could be categorised as - we are talking about a self-limiting, self-perpetuating oppressive culture, passed along the generations.

It is hard for people born into that, to move away from it, emotionally and physically.

It doesn't help when people feel pressurised from pillar to post and that when they do attempt to break the cycle of social deprivation, educational and intellectual deprivations, they find that they are always "kept down."

There is no excuse for this kind of attack though, and there are far too many, minor and serious, for any of us to be complacent.
From violence in the home, verbal and physical, to bullying at school to this kind of aggression on the streets, it is all of a piece, and Sheffield has its fair share of it all, make no mistake.

You either take a stand against it, and for changing standards of behaviour, together with genuinely making time and space to encourage youngsters to develop and giving them opportunities to feel that they are as worthwhile a part of society as anyone else, or you just stand by and watch disintegration.

You fight by putting your efforts determinedly where they will count the most, not by wasting resources - that is yet another insult added to injury to those you say you want to help.

There are a lot of these kids - maybe amongst the group who turned on the group of Spanish people - who, individually, can offer more than a lot of those in control and wasting resources at the moment, because they know, when anyone bothers to ask them, what needs to be done.

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