Queen St after midnight
Public order offences in central Auckland soared by a staggering 27.1 per cent last year.
The significant rise - totalling 4237 incidents - was due largely to nearly 1000 liquor ban breaches, new police figures show. Other crimes included disorderly behaviour, wilful damage and urinating in the street.
I live on Queen street, and am out late some nights and I can certainly agree that over the last 12 months things have become far more violent and angry on the street.
I've lived in the CBD on and off for about twenty years and I can't remember when the level of tension at night has ever been this high. It's large groups of very drunk, very angry young men who are actively trying to start fights combined with incredibly lax policing. Over the last month alone I've seen weekly examples of large groups of youth rumbling with no police presence whatsoever.
There is very visible policing during the day with lots of police foot patrols, but as a resident in the article says and I can attest to, after 8pm the police vanish. I have been genuinely surprised by the lack of police patrols on Queen st of late. In the past Central City late night policing always seemed to consist of a pretty proactive police van with a lot of pushy-shovy type cops. I started noticing that I wasn't seeing the van around much and had assumed that they were needed elsewhere.
The inner city now has thousands and thousands of residents (and thankfully we've gained 2 supermarkets at last) so the numbers hanging on the street have always provided a level of security, but the large groups of drunk angry young men actively seeking confrontation seem to have chased many locals off the street at night.
If Len is wanting some answers I'd look at what patrols police are doing at night in the CBD and how 24 hour licenses are impacting the inner city. You can see the failure of our economy every weekend with the aggression on the streets.
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posted by Bomber @ 8:55 am
9 comments
9 Comments:
Similar situation in Nelson area,NZ, around Bridge Street. This central area is always mentioned in the local rag as a trouble hotspot. After all the policing systems being put in place over the decades you may think that the fuzz would have the ability to stamp out the anti-social behavior quickly. Abuse of the legal potent drug,alcohol,factors in the equation. Go figure...legal...taxed...advertised...sold willy nilly...promoted as sophisticated and alluring. What a freakin' mess of societal issues.
I live on K Road, and it's just as bad up here. While I agree it's definitely become worse over the last year or so, I wouldn't say it's only "youth"/young men causing the problems, I see my fair share of older intoxicated men (and women, though less frequently) starting trouble up here as well. Guys in suits stumbling out of Calendar Girls calling K Road patrons "fags", harassing (verbally and physically) young women, pissing/vomiting in the doorway of our apartment building. New Zealand's binge drinking culture is troublesome for all ages, and if we want young people to start being more responsible for their actions, these older guys need to be dealt with as well.
That idiot from the Police Association will probably turn up soon saying that Central Auckland is too dangerous for unarmed police and they need a law change to be able to use Apache attack helicopters, 12 gauge shotguns, a suspension of habeas corpus and the right to torture suspects before it's safe for them to return. Then the government will change the law to give them all that and a bit more. Call me cynical, but I bet the cops have pulled back from Queen St as preparation for another law change.
You reckon we need more police on the scene? More police is more oppression, more violence, more arrests, more fascism.
One day you post about how the Nats are fascist capitalists who use the police to oppress people, and then you write how we need more police to protect you from kids half your age because you don't like them.
The police are not there for your convenience, in the same way you criticize it is not for John Key's.
Why should these latest statistics be so surprising Bomber ? That's what surprises me . Dirty old , dead old muldoon created a lost generation of disassociated youth then deviously bloated our soulless cities with aimless people chasing the lies of the promises of riches then an equally dirty little roger douglas picked up the torch and set fire to the little that was left of that which was humanist about Gods Own . Mad Max meets Idiocracy . The Gimme Gimme or I'll fuck you up generation . Libertines . Born to every imaginable excess except style , class and empathy . Perfect consumers , perfect bullet stoppers . Blank canvasses on to which one can paint all kinds of bland , mind dulling , mouth breathing ideologies . Once it was ' Let them eat cake ' Now , it's ' Let them watch television ' . The chilling reality is that there's no cure for that which afflicts us now . If you live in the city and not behind a walled enclosure masquerading as a housing ' Estate ' I'd be buying a Pit Bull Terrier . If your lucky enough to be able to live in the country , buy several .
To abstract the subject . Did anyone see that hideous and sycophantic little creep Nigel Latta , forensic psychologist and cunning little shit showcasing key-stien as everybody's friend and giggling nice guy on TV1 ? Even though I really wanted to see just how far up key-stiens arse Latta could get , I couldn't do it . I just couldn't watch that which appeared to be becoming psychological mass manipulation . As an over view , try this instead . http://www.blatantworld.com/speech/peter_joseph_social_pathology.html . We've become Bankster / Insurance Scum Money Lender slaves . We're no longer in control of our collective destinies ... they are . So , what's to be done about it ? Any ideas ? Tumeke ! Bring back the ' followup to comments check box please ? ( Oh wait ! You have ! Thanks ! )
@ Cameron - I think the lack of police presence contributes to the problems, I'm not calling for the type of pushy shove policing style that I noted earlier, but as someone who has been in the inner city for two decades I have noted that things have gotten a lot more angry of late.
The collapse of the economy is having many side effects, the level of aggression late at night I think is one of them.
I also think there is a vast difference between handing Police extraordinary spying powers and effective policing of a liberal democracy in the 21st century .
I believe a great many of these young people are homeless and living rough and this is desperately worrying... they will be the baby blippers from 1990 (60,000 live births as opposed to an anticipated 14,000) who have been grossly under-resourced, really from day 1.
@ Jane . You're absolutely correct . Most of them will be the product , or the producers of tomorrows burgeoning under class born out of the muldoon-esque social experiments of the 1970's where this quote might have been ahead of it's time .
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“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and cuts through to the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” – Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas)
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To all you fluffy , fun loving , soft , sport playing , kid having , dog patting , picnic going , hard working , only-just-treading-rising-economic-waters , Kiwis ! You are being abused and lied to . To you warfies whom are now being ' observed ' in your work places and smoko rooms by fascists through CCTV cameras , you know how that feels right .
To fix this old rotting house that we know and love as Nu Zild we must begin with it's foundations and hunt down the perpetrators of our catastrophic and declining social systems and make those 'Good Ol Boys ' atone so as the damage done by them can be identified and all necessary repairs made and urgently . Here's an idea . It'll sound a little wacky so be warned . The NZ Trade Union movement could employ an off shore , top shelf Private Investigator to dig into the political / financial relationships of our country spanning the last , say 60 years . If nought were to come of that , I'll not only apologize to every one and everything , I'll start eating meat , concrete over my garden , buy an expensive suit and become a Banker . I'll go back to University and study for my commerce and economics degrees and see out my days in a beige office with a framed photograph of my silver grey BMW hanging on the wall and I'll replace the photographs of my wife and kids with my favourite prostitute who brings better value for money to the table . Speaking of which , since prostitution is now legal , could I use her , or him as a tax right off ? For you who give a shit watch ' The Bothersome Man ' . That'll be me . That's already ' them ' .
Finally , and this pretty much sums it up . It's all about power , status and ego . We fluffy , loving types haven't go a fucking chance against Capitalist Evolution as it stands .
Personally ;
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“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.” –Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack)
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