Dundee’s ned culture is alive and kicking as the pictures of youths careering around an Aldi store in Broughty Ferry on bikes prove.

The video footage in The Courier on Monday shows what happens when there’s little fear of the law by a feral class.

With the SNP’s soft-on-crime stance, such youngsters feel invincible and untouchable when it comes to their behaviour.

They have complete disdain for anyone who gets in their way and no compunction about indulging in criminal and reckless behaviour.

We’ve seen it among some youngsters in the balaclava-wearing ultras movement at football matches with their use of banned and dangerous pyrotechnics at the likes of Dens, Tannadice and McDiarmid Park.

And we witness it with the sinister masked and hooded e-scooter and e-bike neds who threaten public safety on our pavements, roads and parks, without a moment’s thought for children and older folk.

‘Luck that no one was hurt’

We see it among the joy riders in stolen cars who career through our streets and schemes, racing up roads like the Kingsway the wrong way, knowing that there’s more chance of a police officer who attempts to stop them falling foul of their bosses than them being caught or punished.

The Courier reported on the Aldi incident: “The youths are wearing dark jackets and hoodies with their hoods up and can be heard shouting and screaming.”

Tough luck for old Mrs Miggins who only popped in for a half loaf or the young mum who went in for nappies; they found themselves in the middle of a supermarket cyclo-cross race.

It’s just pure good luck that no one was hurt.

Now wild and dangerous behaviour from young folk is as old as the hills.

What is different now is the latitude and indulgence given to it, in the mistaken belief the wee cherubs are themselves actually the victims or have been somehow disadvantaged by their circumstances.

The SNP, with their amateur hour psychology approach, have overseen and encouraged this lax and loony situation by continually making excuses for those who commit crimes on the basis of their youth or their background.

From a lack of discipline in schools, where most good pupils are penalised by the disruptive behaviour of a few bad ones, to the ludicrous sentencing policies whereby those under 25 are treated with leniency on account of their brains not being fully developed at that age.

Meanwhile, prisoners receive early release having served very little of their original sentences, proving that the justice system is now increasingly weighted in favour of those who laugh at the law and the law abiding.

‘Big difference in recent years’

I said earlier that bad behaviour is nothing new.

But the big difference is that when Dundee had a serious youth gang problem, members of the Kirkton Huns or the Lochee Fleet – or any of the other wild bunch coming up before the likes of the legendary Sheriff Graham Cox on the bench – didn’t get the kid gloves treatment.

They could expect the full force of the law to come down on them.

Stiff fines and jail or borstal dissuaded many from further criminal behaviour and those who weren’t persuaded to pack it in could expect to go down for lengthy sentences at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

The usual excuses for out-of-control behaviour are trotted out, like the lack of youth facilities, but there were plenty of youth clubs and community centres when I was in my teens and it didn’t stop an element from indulging in criminal behaviour.

What eventually did stop them were the strong deterrents like the punishments handed down by Sheriff Cox and other no-nonsense judges.

I’m not suggesting that we should lock up daft youngsters racing around a supermarket on bikes.

But the danger is that, left unchecked, wild behaviour which attracts no real punishment can lead to much more dangerous delinquency.

Nipped in the bud early, wild behaviour can hopefully be stopped from escalating into something more serious.

When there’s no real deterrence, though, the threat is that it spirals into more alarming territory.

© The Courier