By Request: Santarchy!
Yes, it's that time of year again. The weather is warm, the days are long, and the kids are out of school ... and drunk. Oh, and dressed as Santa.
As this link from MSNBC shows, New Zealand is once again on the map. No, it's not for another Peter Jackson movie (that news was last week), but for the drunken revelries of New Zealand's youth.
The mini-riot, for which New Zealand may become more famous than the University of New Hamsphire, took place about 1/2 a mile from our house. In fact, when Evan and I went out to run an errand at dinner time the other night, we saw about 20 kids in Santa suits hanging out at the skate park. They must have been mustering the troops before the raid.
Considering that both the skatepark and the cinema are on what is arguably the busiest street in Christchurch, it is absolutely amazing that no one (i.e. the police) could have seen it coming. Now, I'm not generally a law-and-order kind of guy (and I think having the skatepark for the kids to hang out in is a great idea) but considering the news here lately, it seems that the police in NZ were sent a batch of DVD's of Reno 9-11 and mistook them for training videos.
I've never been a fan of the 21+ drinking age in the US, but I never really thought that dropping it to 18 made a lot of sense either. The problem, as I see it, isn't that 18 year olds are any less responsible than 21 year olds, but that 18 year olds are more likely to be hanging around with 14, 15, 16, and 17 year olds than college-age kids are. I'm not sure how many people noticed the irony of this evening's news, which featured the Santarchy story along with another later report about an horrific accident that occurred at a teen drinking party a year ago.
You can find footage of the rampaging Santas at TVOne News, and a print story at the NZ Herald.
As this link from MSNBC shows, New Zealand is once again on the map. No, it's not for another Peter Jackson movie (that news was last week), but for the drunken revelries of New Zealand's youth.
The mini-riot, for which New Zealand may become more famous than the University of New Hamsphire, took place about 1/2 a mile from our house. In fact, when Evan and I went out to run an errand at dinner time the other night, we saw about 20 kids in Santa suits hanging out at the skate park. They must have been mustering the troops before the raid.
Considering that both the skatepark and the cinema are on what is arguably the busiest street in Christchurch, it is absolutely amazing that no one (i.e. the police) could have seen it coming. Now, I'm not generally a law-and-order kind of guy (and I think having the skatepark for the kids to hang out in is a great idea) but considering the news here lately, it seems that the police in NZ were sent a batch of DVD's of Reno 9-11 and mistook them for training videos.
I've never been a fan of the 21+ drinking age in the US, but I never really thought that dropping it to 18 made a lot of sense either. The problem, as I see it, isn't that 18 year olds are any less responsible than 21 year olds, but that 18 year olds are more likely to be hanging around with 14, 15, 16, and 17 year olds than college-age kids are. I'm not sure how many people noticed the irony of this evening's news, which featured the Santarchy story along with another later report about an horrific accident that occurred at a teen drinking party a year ago.
You can find footage of the rampaging Santas at TVOne News, and a print story at the NZ Herald.
posted by Jon A at
8:11 PM
2 Comments:
That story was disturbing on a variety of levels: general drunkeness, hooliganism, the "boys will be boys" mentality and NZ media's spin that "NZ has made world news?" Are we that desperate for notoriety?
Drinking (whether youth or adult) is one of NZ's most serious problems IMO. It leads to a raft of other problems and I fear it will only get worse as the country's best and brightest continue to be lured elsewhere leaving behind those with little else to do but drink and cause trouble. I was going to use the word mischief, but that seems inadequate to describe some of the outcomes, which include beating little children to death.
I think you make two important points. First, there does indeed seem to be more acceptance toward low-level crime--hooliganism, if you will--that I was expecting. This is evidenced by the broken glass that seems to be *everywhere*, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I recall not long ago there was a story in the Press and I think on TVOne as well about the kids at UC vandalizing property and committing petty theft in the residential areas around the college.
Of course, this seems to occasionally lead to larger incidents, such as the Undie 500 riot in Dunedin and the recent warnings about sexual assaults in the downtown area.
What I find most disturbing, though, is the underlying attitude of 'well, we'll pass a law and that'll fix it.' That's been Mayor Bob's approach to the Boy Racers, and last week I saw a similar story out of the Northlands about banning drinking at some beaches and in some areas in the town. At best, it just moves the problem. At worst, they're just passing laws that the lawbreakers are going to obey just as well as they obeyed the first ones.
As I said, I'm not really a Rudy Guilliani type, but more of a Bill Clinton. Put a few more cops on the streets and make some arrests for real crimes.
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