Tough new laws to combat alcohol-fuelled violence

[alex]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html#ixzz2qzikvgxz
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Pubs and clubs in Sydney's CBD will be forced to lock out new customers from 1.30am and cease alcohol trading by 3am under the state government crackdown on alcohol and drug-related violence.

Premier Barry O'Farrell has also announced bottle shops will have to close their doors at 10pm.
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Do you agree/disagree?

Personally I think this is NOT the answer. Lockouts have been tried before and didn't work. They just push more drunk people onto the streets. How many assaults do you hear happening inside licensed premises?

What we need is 24-hour public transport on weekends. The last train from Kings Cross to Central on a Saturday is 1:41am. With the 1:30am lockouts, this will make matters even worse.

 

[Peaches]

Yeah for me there has to be a way to move people quicker out of the area. Otherwise a lockout and 3am close will just means lots of people who are drunk and drug affected are out on the streets at the same time. Ideally we still wouldn't have an issue but the modern world is one where many people seem to assault others for no real reason.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

 

[system]

The lock outs are a novelty.

What is not however is mandatory minimum sentencing. This is a massive mistake of proportions none of us can understand. Legislating circumstance and judgement away from the judiciary is the first step of a disgraceful judicial system

 

[happy_tiger]

Look maybe this is a touch out of right field , but maybe any person who wants to enter a night club or drinking premises after 12.00 must be breathalysed and if they are over a certain level they are barred entry

The early lockouts won't work , but if people can reach a certain alcohol limit and can't get more maybe this will at least lessen the problems

Increase the drinking age to 21 again also

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

The lock outs are a novelty.

What is not however is mandatory minimum sentencing. This is a massive mistake of proportions none of us can understand. Legislating circumstance and judgement away from the judiciary is the first step of a disgraceful judicial system

Do you have any detail on this Smeg?

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

 

[system]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html

As foreshadowed, mandatory minimum sentences of eight years in jail will apply to fatal one-punch attacks involving alcohol and drugs.
But Mr O’Farrell also announced mandatory minimum sentences would be introduced for other drug- or alcohol-fuelled offences, including reckless wounding (three years), assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty (two years), affray (four years) and sexual assault (five years).
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html#ixzz2qzuDBkSD

 

[Fraze23]

**Look maybe this is a touch out of right field , but maybe any person who wants to enter a night club or drinking premises after 12.00 must be breathalysed and if they are over a certain level they are barred entry**

The early lockouts won't work , but if people can reach a certain alcohol limit and can't get more maybe this will at least lessen the problems

Increase the drinking age to 21 again also

Not really solving the problem Happy, more so just adding to it by increasing the amount of intoxicated idiots on the streets, who can't get let in.
I'm all for increasing the drinking age, if anything it'll just reduce the number of people that are out.

 

[alex]

Increasing the drinking age will lead to more people drinking in parks and alley ways, skulling shots out of a Jim Beam bottle rather thank drinking in controlled locations.

 

[Fraze23]

Increasing the drinking age will lead to more people drinking in parks and alley ways, skulling shots out of a Jim Beam bottle rather thank drinking in controlled locations.

A "controlled" location such as Kings Cross?

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html

As foreshadowed, mandatory minimum sentences of eight years in jail will apply to fatal one-punch attacks involving alcohol and drugs.
But Mr O’Farrell also announced mandatory minimum sentences would be introduced for other drug- or alcohol-fuelled offences, including reckless wounding (three years), assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty (two years), affray (four years) and sexual assault (five years).
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html#ixzz2qzuDBkSD

Ah I see, I hadn't heard about this yet.

I get your angle, but our piss weak judiciary system allows people who commit heinous crimes like this to play the old "I was drunk/high on ice and I didn't know what I was doing" card and get off virtually scot free.

Legislating the circumstances is probably going too far, but the magistrates and judges are considering such circumstances and as such the crime far outweighs the sentence. These people are killing other people, largely unprovoked it would seem which makes it even more sickening.

Just thinking about it also, does any DUI charge coupled with say vehicular manslaughter hold more weight? If so are you not legislating circumstances there also?

Anyway… Time for me to smoke some bath salts, beat a nun to death and get 6 months good behaviour.

 

[Fraze23]

8 years for taking someones life is piss weak.

 

[pHyR3]

Increasing the drinking age will lead to more people drinking in parks and alley ways, skulling shots out of a Jim Beam bottle rather thank drinking in controlled locations.

actually, in the USA having the drinking age at 21 has led to almost NO underage drinking… :unamused:

 

[Kul]

Stupid

Stupid, stupid, stupid

Punishing the 99% who bahave and socialise responsibly.
None of the attacks that resulted in deaths happened after 10pm anyway.

What's needed is deeper reforms:
- lift this mindless ban on new licenses. At present people can only go to the same old places that all exist within a small geographical area. Let small bars open up away from the Cross, spread people out. Kings Cross is a bottleneck so it's no wonder that people are being killed there. Take a leaf out of Melbourne's playbook and let small bars open up all over the place.

- Pederstrianise Darlinghurst Road. It's far too narrow a strip.

- As much as I don't like it, but ID scanners linked to a centralised database that flags repeat offenders would be a powerful deterant.

 

[alex]

Increasing the drinking age will lead to more people drinking in parks and alley ways, skulling shots out of a Jim Beam bottle rather thank drinking in controlled locations.

A "controlled" location such as Kings Cross?

Controlled venues.

 

[alex]

Stupid

Stupid, stupid, stupid

Punishing the 99% who bahave and socialise responsibly.
None of the attacks that resulted in deaths happened after 10pm anyway.

What's needed is deeper reforms:
- lift this mindless ban on new licenses. At present people can only go to the same old places that all exist within a small geographical area. Let small bars open up away from the Cross, spread people out. Kings Cross is a bottleneck so it's no wonder that people are being killed there. Take a leaf out of Melbourne's playbook and let small bars open up all over the place.

- Pederstrianise Darlinghurst Road. It's far too narrow a strip.

- As much as I don't like it, but ID scanners linked to a centralised database that flags repeat offenders would be a powerful deterant.

Agree with everything you say Kul. But the short-sightedness of our local, state and federal governments will ensure these ideas never get any thought given to them

 

[system]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html

As foreshadowed, mandatory minimum sentences of eight years in jail will apply to fatal one-punch attacks involving alcohol and drugs.
But Mr O’Farrell also announced mandatory minimum sentences would be introduced for other drug- or alcohol-fuelled offences, including reckless wounding (three years), assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty (two years), affray (four years) and sexual assault (five years).
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html#ixzz2qzuDBkSD

Ah I see, I hadn't heard about this yet.

I get your angle, but our piss weak judiciary system allows people who commit heinous crimes like this to play the old "I was drunk/high on ice and I didn't know what I was doing" card and get off virtually scot free.

Legislating the circumstances is probably going too far, but the magistrates and judges are considering such circumstances and as such the crime far outweighs the sentence. These people are killing other people, largely unprovoked it would seem which makes it even more sickening.

Just thinking about it also, does any DUI charge coupled with say vehicular manslaughter hold more weight? If so are you not legislating circumstances there also?

Anyway… Time for me to smoke some bath salts, beat a nun to death and get 6 months good behaviour.

All I am saying is zero scope for judgement is a slippery slope.

Example say something happens at your home and you go out to investigate. You get into a scuffle with someone near your property who you suspect was on your property. You have had a few drinks, it causes a member of the public to call Police.

Affray with alcohol see you in 4 years

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html

As foreshadowed, mandatory minimum sentences of eight years in jail will apply to fatal one-punch attacks involving alcohol and drugs.
But Mr O’Farrell also announced mandatory minimum sentences would be introduced for other drug- or alcohol-fuelled offences, including reckless wounding (three years), assaulting a police officer in the execution of duty (two years), affray (four years) and sexual assault (five years).
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/barry-ofarrell-announces-tough-laws-to-combat-alcoholfuelled-violence-20140121-315wg.html#ixzz2qzuDBkSD

Ah I see, I hadn't heard about this yet.

I get your angle, but our piss weak judiciary system allows people who commit heinous crimes like this to play the old "I was drunk/high on ice and I didn't know what I was doing" card and get off virtually scot free.

Legislating the circumstances is probably going too far, but the magistrates and judges are considering such circumstances and as such the crime far outweighs the sentence. These people are killing other people, largely unprovoked it would seem which makes it even more sickening.

Just thinking about it also, does any DUI charge coupled with say vehicular manslaughter hold more weight? If so are you not legislating circumstances there also?

Anyway… Time for me to smoke some bath salts, beat a nun to death and get 6 months good behaviour.

All I am saying is zero scope for judgement is a slippery slope.

Example say something happens at your home and you go out to investigate. You get into a scuffle with someone near your property who you suspect was on your property. You have had a few drinks, it causes a member of the public to call Police.

Affray with alcohol see you in 4 years

I'm not arguing with you Smeg, just my viewpoint on the situation. I agree with your perceived defects of the legislation. Unfortunately this has all built up from years of limp wristed sentencing by soft magistrates and judges who oversee a poor judical system that undervalues human life.

Taking most of these king hit death scenarios into consideration where the victim has been squared up without warning, those blokes should be going away for 25 years. That might not be murder in the legal context, but the results are the same.

 

[system]

I agree to an extent.

I think it has far more to do with the raising and discipline of children along with the instilling of values.

By the time it gets to the legal system it is too late.

For 95% of cases our legal system works. I fear we as a society give up too much with these moves. People getting lenient sentences in these circumstances is the price a society must be willing to bear by allowing the judiciary to shape the law with a view to shape society and rehabilitation of offenders.

We move this way and law and order moves from lip service political issue to politicians following the whims and outrage of society and altering our justice system

 

[Peaches]

From my experiences, over in Europe nightclubs don't even open until after midnight. And the whole drinking culture is different. People were drunk everywhere though the anger and aggressiveness we see here I didn't see over there. People drink to have a good time over there. Over here people turn aggressive.
Which makes me think, it's the drugs and the attitudes people here are taking on.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

 

[alex]

From my experiences, over in Europe nightclubs don't even open until after midnight. And the whole drinking culture is different. People were drunk everywhere though the anger and aggressiveness we see here I didn't see over there. People drink to have a good time over there. Over here people turn aggressive.
Which makes me think, it's the drugs and the attitudes people here are taking on.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

Drugs? The only danger of someone on pills is getting hugged to death