Originally Posted by albania

I'd have to say that if you simply keep on going out there and politely bother them away a few times they aren't too likely to return. Nobody likes to be annoyed, or put in an awkward situation. Most humans of all classes and backgrounds employ a rationale; committing crimes doesn't generally exclude one from the truism, although it means their rationale is different from yours.

The reason I say that they are likely to leave is because you mentioned they were young. If they're of high school age or pretty close to it that's good. In a group that size there's bound to be at least 3 or 4 that will have a hard time even making eye contact with you. If the group as a whole is not moving, you can take a gander at these few individuals. They're likely to leave first and the group will probably disperse afterwards.

I also don't think you’ll encounter any violence that’s directed towards you (vandalism, on the other hand, idk). The most feasible scenario in which I think violence is likely to occur is if one of the members of the group tries to impress the others. This would probably be an inexperienced fighter who may simply walk up and try to punch you. If they’re truly inexperienced he won’t try to hit you squarely on the chin and he’ll go for somewhere around the lower jaw. His expectation would be that you’ll fall like a sack of potatoes to the ground. You wrote that you had fight training, evaluate the situation to see how much danger you’re really in. If he hesitates then lunge forward and he’ll flinch. You probably won’t even need to attack him, and if anyone in the group asks why you didn’t fight back all you need to state is, “There are 10 of you guys, there is only one of me”. They’re likely to accept this and just leave. (BTW, something very similar to what I describe above actually happened to me, so I’m not trying to bs you, but I’m also not an expert. I’m quite a pacifist, yet, somehow, I’ve been around some pretty volatile situations in my childhood and adolescence)