Out Of Control Violence In Melbourne
Aug 14th, 2009 by Squizzmaster
Clearly, the violence, or reported violence in Melbourne has taken a massive leap in recent years. We’re hearing and seeing reports of violence every week. But when I’m watching the media there’s just some things that I have to question sometimes.
Are “Victim’s” Asking For It?
I have no doubt that for some people the attacks that have occurred are completely unprovoked such as the racist attacks or those attacks on individuals for money or assets. However, the word unprovoked in the case of attacks is thrown around all too liberally these days. We have to ask ourselves, what about those that are in a way provoked by a comment here, or a look there.
Questionable
- Were this couple back in 2007 REALLY just ”admiring” the hummer? According to the couple, yes. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/09/2027952.htm
- Are we sure there was no previous altercation of any sort between this carpenter and a member of the group? According to the brother, he had no history of violence and probably did not deserve the severity of this attack
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25923213-661,00.html
Quite Possibly Asking For It
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25892074-2862,00.html
Recently an actor from the theatre show Jersey Boys was in the news for an altercation that left him bashed on a Saturday night/Sunday Morning. We know there were words exchanged in this case.
“Scott had a verbal altercation with an unknown man at about 3.50am…”
Can The General Public Learn Something From The Violence
I don’t expect people to handover the streets to those who carry weapons or who are likely to be violent. Nor do I justify the violent behaviour, particularly the severity of it. But we could definitely take note as to the serious consequences of our attitudes and actions. If you are going to say or do certain things, there MUST be a understanding that this could result in a consequence of a violent nature.
Take for example the weekend just past. I was walking the streets with some friends on the way to a club and we observed the inappropriate staring and comments many people made to other people in the street.
- Men learing at woman
- One man with 2 friends passed a much younger man with some girls and said hello to the girls in a suggestive tone
- The much younger man, possibly in his teens slurred a response that was loud enough to be heard
- In a busy street a man in his car with a friend continued to beep his very loud car horn in amusement, gathering attention and irritating people standing by
- People looking at the appearance of other people, making it quite obvious they were watching and talking about them
In any of these cases, the people involved could very easily have been the “victims” of violence as a result of their behaviour regarldess of how petty it may have seemed to them at the time.
Are these people REALLY victims? Do people need to learn to pull their heads in a bit?