Brutal

The city last night was like one big wire cage and everyone wanted to be a cage fighter. From Kings Cross to Oxford Street, Chinatown to Hyde Park I witnessed drunken young adults engaged in no-holds-barred street brawling. It was that brutal.

In Milson’s Point I came across a large crowd emerging from Luna Park. The aggressive vibe caused me to immediately turn off the Vacant light and select two young Indian restaurant workers. Whilst they boarded I watched police trying to quell fighting on the station platform as reinforcements arrived with wailing sirens.

"What’s going on here?” I asked. One passenger replied, “They're from the Freedom concert,” then added sardonically, “They are celebrating the freedom to fight.” Quite.

At traffic lights at Hyde Park two brawling groups of pedestrians spilled onto the roadway and from three cars back I watched as one bloke in a red shirt copped a solid kicking. He didn’t get up and lay sprawled on the road, motionless in front of the cars.

This led to a frenzied, out of control reaction from his mates throwing themselves on him with confected grief and hysterics, “He’s fuckin’ dying! Don’t die on us, bro!”

He was lying on his back gurgling blood from the mouth. I approached and told them to lay him on his side. One mate turned on me, screaming uncontrollably and shaping to hit me. “Mate,” I told him, “I can help you, I know first aid.” Instead he reeled away and kicked a waiting taxi.

My camera was still recording when I pocketed it, capturing the audio as I put the victim on his side, found a pulse and got his mouth open. The following sound excerpt demonstrates the hostility and rage faced by police and ambos on any Saturday night...

(click bar)

Brutal

Last word goes to one of the Indian passengers, a question: "Why do they drink so much if they can't control themselves?"

Comments

[corym]

Was that you on Sunrise this morning?

[oncall]

Thanks Adrian for being a person who will help in that kind of situation. Most people would not stop to render assistance. Although I dont expect it I hope you were thanked by his inteligent mates.

[marcellous]

They drink like that because they want not to control themselves. They want to have a "wild time."

[kae]

Alcohol certainly doesn't make them smarter.

[James]

It's also a creeping control problem - alcohol lowers inhibitions and some people have a couple of drinks and their self-control is inhibited and leads to more alcohol, etc, etc. By the time they realise it's too much they've woken up the next morning in Casualty.

[adrian]

Corym, nup, was me brudda! No, wait...was me brudda's cuz, eh.

UPDATE: Sorry for the flippant reply, Corym, was running late for work and hadn't seen it, still haven't. So, yes, it was me and hopefully the piece will be available online later today. For now there is only a text link.

[boy on a bike]

At times like these, the cops need a shotgun tazer. The cop with the shotgun yells "I am going to count to 5. Anyone not on the ground or running away by then gets tazered".

"1,2,3.. BLAM".

AAAAARRGGH (from various squealing idiots).

"Bugger, forgot to count to 5".

[Involved]

Nice post mate.

[Johann]

This is a shame. It reminds of culture in the UK as well. People just dont understand how to handle their alcohol. Europe is very much different for some reason, their is alocohol in the plenty but for some reason they know how to handle it better. Some Spaniards made that comment to me once. It seems they dont have restrictions on their kids drinking early but parents teach em what limits are!

[Rainer the cabbie]

Great that you got the Sunrise publicity, you deserve it Mate.
As to the post, I felt distressed listening to the audio. Been there, done that, Saturday nights in the cab, I call them Joe Blows big night out.
Good money, but boy, do you have to earn it.
Good on you for helping out, the only one as cool as ice was you on that occasion.

[boy on a bike]

I can't stand the confected grief and hysterics that the current generation go in for.

Whenever I see it, I just want to whack them over the back of the head and say, "get over it".

[Bonnie Leung]

I live in the X, and I was driving home on Saturday night from my parents. It's pretty scary, especially when there are traffic jams and you have hordes of drunk guys straggering in between the cars and you lock all the doors and try not to make eye contact. Personally I think Kings X residents are ok.. it's the people who come to drink on the weekends which are the issue, and the main reason why I don't venture out after 9.

On Saturday night I took the back way through Woolloomoolloo to escape the traffic snarl on William St and noticed RBT units near Harry's. They have been there for the past few Saturdays now and last Saturday I had to verify that I was an actual resident. Is that a permanent thing now to control car hoons? Are the police turning people away if they don't live there? Curious minds want to know!

[Rainer the cabbie]

Bonnie
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense, establishing if you are a local resident.
Unless you supply the car hoons with tyres to burn on the night, I guess.
Boy on a bike
You must be one of the few people that didn't get their basic education from Neighbours or Home and Away. What are ya mate, some ABC dude, or what?
Adrian
Isn't it funny, some nights you get. I have smelled the night you described on a few occasions, you just knew there is aggro and trouble in it.
I often wonder what governs this. Astrology? Sunspots? No matter what, but the phenomenon does exist.

[adrian]

Bonnie, that's sounds like the occasional police operation that occurs at end of George Street in the Rocks where hoon mobiles are inspected and defected, in order to dissuade convoys of idiots clogging up traffic.

Also the cops have now decreed that Kings Cross proper is to be car-free on weekends, except for taxis.

Rainer, usually a full moon triggers said behaviour but it wasn't full over the weekend.

[Peter Deane]

I know a guy who used to do phone counselling for Lifeline who would swear blind they'd get four times as many phone calls on a night with a full moon.

[Scoots1]

I've been there, I wouldn't get out of the car anymore, I just phone the police and keep going. I'm not callous but the last time I tried to help someone tried to steal my car. I've had them kick the car when I refused to let them in, one time I swung the door open and knocked the guy onto his ass.
His mates all laughed and the general consensus I could hear as I drove away, was that he asked for it.
I used to mainly work nights and even though I worked in a city on the North Island the stupidity was the same as it is with you. I'll go back to it soon but I'm still getting my head together at present.