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A comment on Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife. Parent comment

Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by tajen on Saturday February 06, 2016 @04:00AM (#11047065)
For those who don't know Sydney: Kings Cross is a 400m street packed with clubs. It does look shady with its erotic clubs, but short enough that you're out in a few minutes. Newspapers have a focus over night crime in Kings Cross, I've always wondered there was a political agenda or whether that was statistically abnormal. Alternatives are downtown (less dense in clubs), Oxford St (gay clubs) and farther neighbourhoods for more hipster people.

As a French citizen having lived over there 3 years, I was indeed impressed that in Australia alcohol = violence, which is a new concept to me. You often see people down on the pavement cuffed by the police for a few hours until they calm down. I have no idea whether they get fined or arrested after that. My NYC friend says police is still very reasonable, and not as overeager and totalitarian as in NYC, though. So subjects might actually actually drunk and violent.

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by chris_wot on Saturday February 06, 2016 @05:15AM (#11047188)
They are. The lockout laws actually come from Newcastle, which had an even worse problem. Alcohol fueled violence has been and remains a massive problem in Australia. In fact, drinking in Australia remains a massive problem: we have some of the worst cases of binge-drinking and alcoholism rates in the world.

We have a list of dangerous pubs in NSW:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/north-coast-pub-tops-l...

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by exodust on Saturday February 06, 2016 @08:01AM (#11047598)
The scientific jury is out on whether drunken violence is a genetic trait. Interesting enough idea. "So your father was an alcoholic" is common among alcoholics and their friends looking for explanation.

Violence is also one of those "fallback" mentalities that stupid people embrace when cornered. Genetics aside, stupid people have few resources at their disposal. Violence is there, justified by a century of iconic pop culture that says "when your friend sleeps with your girlfriend, punch him in the head, it's what you must do".

As for convict Australia. Very few Australians today are the decedents of convicts, and very few of those convicts would have been violent.

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by tamana on Saturday February 06, 2016 @11:33AM (#11048358)
What do smart people do when they are cornered?
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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by exodust on Sunday February 07, 2016 @04:28AM (#11052298)
A lot of CCTV footage of violence shows initial verbal altercation that turns physical. The perpetrators abandon words due to lack of verbal skills and general violent drunk or 'gangsta-wanna-be' nature. Victims too, often miss the opportunity to walk away, misreading the situation by running their mouths.

Street smart is about reading the situation, like defensive driving. 3AM Sunday morning as you walk home, awareness of you surroundings at all times is smart - also fun and challenging and just good way to be. Doesn't have to mean "guard up", it just means not careless.

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by chongli on Saturday February 06, 2016 @01:19PM (#11048925)
Smart people avoid getting cornered in the first place.
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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by douche on Saturday February 06, 2016 @10:53AM (#11048178)
Around the time that Australia was founded as a penal colony, English property-defense laws were pretty insane, to the point that it became known as the Bloody Code[1]. Grand Larceny, a capital offense, was defined as theft of anything valued at twelve pence or higher. In modern terms, that's somewhere between five and two hundred fifty pounds. There are some interesting lists[2], but mostly they are low-level theft, poaching, livestock-rustling, smuggling and desertion. Also, transported prisoners had a pretty high chance of being Irish.

There are elements of class warfare and repression of minorities that are not unlike current narcotics law.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Code

[2] http://www.convictrecords.com.au/crimes

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by to3m on Saturday February 06, 2016 @09:46AM (#11047914)
It started as an English prison colony - a much more damning link, in my eyes.
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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by chris_wot on Saturday February 06, 2016 @07:33AM (#11047507)
Only if there is a connection between a predisposition of Germans misusing eugenics research to the Second World War.

You honestly are a buffoon.

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Re:Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife by angry_octet on Saturday February 06, 2016 @07:06AM (#11047399)
Can someone please flag the above post as idiotic?
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