There’s a piece missing in NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s attempts to mop up the alcohol-fuelled violence from our streets. A vital piece we seem to overlook when it comes to trying to solve this complex problem.
Sure tougher sentencing is a step in the right direction, but I’m not convinced violence will be stopped in its tracks when confronted with a closed pub or nightclub door.
Yes, booze can push some people over the edge, but what about the rest of us who can still go out and have a good time? I’ve had many a big night out in my time, and I was always more in danger of professing my undying love to random strangers who were now my new ‘best maaaaate’, rather than knocking them out.
If someone is inclined to hurt a person, they will. Booze or no booze. Drugs or no drugs. There is often a correlation between an offender and the environment they have come from. An environment where violence has probably been tolerated – whether it be in the playground, in the living room, on the television, or on the sports-field. Violence becomes a way a life: a perfectly acceptable tool for resolving disputes or exerting one’s ‘power’.
So when we close the pub and nightclub doors what happens then? Well, we all go home. Home where in Australia domestic violence kills more women under the age of 45 than bad health, smoking or obesity. This was a stunning fact I learned when I worked for Women NSW last year – a department of the NSW Government responsible for the economic and social wellbeing of women in NSW.
And if the kids SEE it, in many cases they then DO it, taking their aggression into other places like the playground where teachers don’t always have the backup or time to adequately deal with aggressive behaviour. We then witness kids being moved away from schools by concerned and sometimes terrified parents because the education system seems lost when it comes to dealing with bullying.
The violence perpetuates.
It strengthens its hold in the layers of our society it feeds on to stay alive.
So no. Closing the pub door a little bit earlier isn’t really doing it for me.
What I want to see is campaigns that put violent behaviour under the spotlight. That it’s dumb and cowardly to use your fists but INTELLIGENT AND BRAVE to walk away. Backed up by the harsher sentencing – if you are still stupid enough to do it, you suffer the consequences.
Campaigns that remind men it’s not acceptable to mentally and physically intimidate your partner. And for those being abused, it is your basic human right to be safe and free from harm.
Campaigns that tell kids that it is not ok to intimidate and smack your friends. And that bookish kid hiding in the library? You might want to keep an eye out for him one day in the future if you’re standing up in court. With his smarts he may well have the last laugh.
Campaigns that remind parents that it’s not ok to stand by and watch your kids rough and tumble play spill over into outright intimidation and violence. It might be fun for your kids to enjoy the thrill of being the strongest, but at what cost to others? And no – boys will not always be boys.
I can’t tell you enough how much I think that it’s our willingness to tolerate violence in so many areas of our life that is the core problem here. Sure, a boozey culture is unhelpful but it’s not the primary cause. It’s time we take a more honest look at the way we humans tolerate, and at times glorify, violence in so many areas of our life and decide as a community that it is no longer acceptable.
whatsinemmasbrain says
January 22, 2014 at 4:14 amBravo Lisa. Well said. Domestic violence has such an effect on all aspects of society, From the obvious, homicides, deaths and violence, to the less obvious, such as the children of domestic violence seeking more secure family environments, in Teen pregnancy and gang lifestyles. Domestic violence is everybody’s problem. Great post. xx
Lisa Lintern says
January 22, 2014 at 4:43 amYes – domestic violence is everybody’s problem but it gets such little air-play. Why is that?