Wow, remind me never to get into an argument with a nightclub bouncer in melbourne… The Geelong Advertiser reports today that “drunken thugs” will be banned from Geelong for up to six months to “weed trouble-makers out of the city”.
Police will also be over to pull-over taxis so they can issue fines to people drinking during their ride into the CBD. This comes on top of the police already having the power – without a court order – to ban people from the CBD for 24 hours. Bad news for work tomorrow if you work in the city but get too drunk at after-work drinks on a thursday night.
The question is, will these kinds of policies work to reduce problematic drinking in Australia? Having worked in a bar for six years, I can tell you that the answer, in my opinion, is a resounding “no”. This is a cultural problem that exists in among all groups – not just the young men who are obviously the targets of this type of legislation.
Futhermore, giving police more power to exact harsh punishment on any drunk idiot who annoys them is only going to lead to trouble - as this story about a man who was tasered while walking away from police on Oxford Street, Sydney shows.
Amy is a Sydney-based journalist and commentator with an interest in politics, music, culture and evidence-based medicine.
She is currently working as a medical journalist for a series of "Specialist Update" websites, and she has also been published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey, New Matilda, and Vibewire's anthology "Interface".
She was a panelist with the Sydney Writers' Festival in 2007 and 2008, organised the Sydney Writers' Festival event "erotic fan fiction" in 2009, and is a regular broadcaster on FBi radio.
Nice post! Yeah – the answer to everything seems to be “more police powers”. What’s the bet that these powers, along with all the others, will be used predominantly against non-white people.
Banning drunken thugs from an area will just make them be drunken thugs somewhere else.
Banning someone for 24 hours could be problematic, as you pointed out, and would just lead to either cluttered courts with people appealing orders or convoluted laws with caveats like ” not to attend …. whilst under the influence…etc” – impossible for police to enforce.