Each generation apparently thinks the younger generations are going to the dogs, as illustrated by the old criticism of misbehaving youth that regularly makes the rounds in the press that then turns out to have been penned by Cicero, the ancient Roman orator. It always gets a laugh because the 2000-year-old complaints could have been made yesterday.
However, the level of social disorder, mayhem, and senseless violence now erupting on the streets of both urban and regional New South Wales is unprecedented, at least since drunken gangs of convicts roamed the streets of the new colony; it is not harmless fun being indulged in by a few youths. And it is not just so-called ‘wowsers’ who are appalled by what they see happening. The statistics are nauseating: apparently one in four teenagers across Australia has been hospitalised as the result of an alcohol-related incident – being either the culprit or the victim. What kind of madness is that?
Dr Gordian Fulde, Head of Emergency Services at St Vincent’s Hospital described the recent Mardi Gras weekend as “ a war zone, absolute carnage”. Even with extra staff on hand, many partiers had to wait a long time to be seen for their broken bones and smashed faces. He explained with some apparent desperation to the press, “If everybody drank less and thought about what they put into their bodies they wouldn’t get into trouble.” But alas they do not drink less, and do not think about what they put into their bodies. St Vincents, as well as the other hospitals, report the same kind of inundation every weekend by injured drunks and drug users from age 13 and up.
The breakdown of our society has gone so far that alcohol related bashings and murders are no longer unusual; they are now just part of the regular news. The senseless beatings to death of hapless strangers; the stomped heads of innocent people walking home after work or a birthday party; the unrecognisably mutilated face of the Irish backpacker who will never recover full brain function. What kind of savagery is this, and why are we not calling it what it actually is: a state of emergency?
Installing cameras on every corner will not help if this behaviour becomes the standard that society simply accepts. The very telling photograph in the Monday 1 March 2010 Telegraph with young men in a Kings Cross fast food outlet mulling over what to order as they stand next to a floor drenched with blood from an attack minutes before illustrates vividly the desensitisation of our society. I suspect the audience at the Roman gladiatorial games would not have looked twice at the blood, either, unless there was some entertainment value of an attack in progress. Or are we all just too cool to show any human feeling, any respect for life, or any shock?
What kind of people carry on as if it is ‘work as normal’ with their premises bloodied? People who don’t know any better. Besides being an OH&S slipping hazard if stepped in, blood can carry killer viruses Hep B, HIV, etc. If not out of respect for the terribly injured man taken to hospital with his throat slashed why not some basic respect for food safety, or at the very least aesthetics? Looking at and smelling blood spilled in violence should, at the very least, be off-putting. It should make ordinary people with their consciences still intact lose their appetites. But because no one cared the workers carried on, the hungry guys in line carried on. No one said: “Stop. This is inappropriate. Close the shop; it is a crime scene.” Of course not, it would have meant a loss of a few dollars income, wouldn’t it?
What is decency? Can it be taught to adults on a population wide basis, or is that a hopeless task? It does not seem to be a common trait in today’s Sydney. If the populace cannot be spontaneously decent then perhaps they can at least be controlled by the authorities, a suggestion which will appal the civil libertarians. The authorities should renew their commitment and capacity enforce the legislation already on the books such as The Crimes Act 40/1900; the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002; the Liquor Act 2007; the Local Government Acts pertaining to alcohol free zones; road transport legislation with regard to drink driving; and the Summary Offences Act.
And while they are at it, why should we not seriously consider raising the drinking age to 21? Enough research has already established that younger brains are too immature to handle alcohol properly, and in addition are seriously stunted by it. Such age limits work elsewhere, where they are appropriately enforced, why not here? Elements of our society that demand 24-hour access to alcohol for anyone who wants it are not concerned about people’s welfare. Who really needs another drink at 2 am, 3 am, or 4 am? Giving alcohol to people who have nothing better to do with their time than pickle their brains is plain stupid. These are the very people who have no self-control when they finally leave the premises; are quick to be offended, quick to use weapons or their boots. Are drunks’ rights to order another drink or hotels’ rights to sell it a higher priority than the civil rights and safety of the innocent non-drinking people on their way home from a concert or their jobs who will later be set upon?
A few years ago we had not even heard yet of glassings, and now they are happen regularly, damaging faces, destroying vision, scarring people for life. Knives are being used more and more frequently, turning a normal night out into terrible injury in a moment of insanity. And now, in the midst of all this ghastly bloodshed, the demand for ‘cage fighting’ is growing – where, I note, the rules allow for kicking and punching after the opponent has been knocked to the floor. A sold-out arena hosted such a fight last week with the crowd in a frenzy of bloodlust. If this dark side of human nature continues to be indulged and catered to then I foresee the eventual demand for Roman-style gladiatorial games within 20 years, at most. Why not, if that is what people want? Isn’t that the reasoning behind allowing the grotesque spectacle of cage fighting?
Well, I will explain why not. Because blood sports are not decent, they are depraved. They desensitise us, and cater to the savage side of human nature. Public drunkenness is not decent: men and women vomiting and urinating in neighbours’ gardens around the nation’s racetracks and nightspots are not being decent. I believe that laws against public drunkenness should be brought back. The safety for all law-abiding citizens should be made the number one priority for every authority. Standards of decency in public should be reintroduced to a people hardened by drink and indifference to the violence and the suffering of their fellow human beings.
What we need now is a new Telemachus to stand up and say: “This is wrong. Enough is enough!” Better yet we need all concerned citizens to stand up and say ‘this is not acceptable behaviour’, and to force the government and police to make the streets safe again. I will do what I can in Parliament, please do what you can in your communities. We all need to work together to reclaim the streets of our society for decency.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC