It’s our culture, sick as it is

GREG JAMES
I have worked on the waterfront for years and in hospitality for 23 years. I have watched the waterfront grow from derelict abandoned buildings, when I first arrived in Salamanca in 1985, to the cafe nightclub culture of today.

The first point is, I have observed a decrease in violence across the whole hotel trade since 1985; at Knopwoods I use to call the police once per week, through the 80s and then towards the end of 23 years and much later in a country hotel at Kettering, I would not have called the Police once per year. My experience, yes, change in customer behaviour, yes: DUI, non-smoking, health and fitness the biggest affects, Police intervention little to nil effect.

The second point is since leaving Salamanca, many years ago, I converted to a sporadic customer and enjoyed the Fridays, that formally I spent working and creating something raw but fun. Naturally, I can see the difficulties from both sides customer and operator.

Third point, many of the businessess in the hospitality industry on the waterfront, have a loyal customer following, Barcelona, Knopwoods, Syrup, Telegraph etc. Many of the newer establishments only open three nights per week and cannot create loyality, ownership, or control of their customers. Their customers appear from the outlying dormitory suburb, once a week and do what the Westies do to Kings Cross every Friday and Saturday night, they trash it.

Fourth Point, the Police, their leadership and the results. I was laughing when the State government at the request of the Police passed laws banning consumption of Alcohol in the gardens around the Waterfront. I wasn’t laughing when I passed through the Mall with my five year old in tow and was harassed by a drunk. I was laughing when at midnight 10 Police emerge from multiple transports outside Syrup and start harassing peaceful queuing customers, behaving as if they all had drug deals going down and then the trouble started, thats when I stopped laughing and realized how out of control the Police leadership was.

Clearly, they have failed, if they cannot direct the constables to respond positively, if they cannot lead positively, if they are blind to the realities, then, they will fail. I see Police leaders in Salamanca marching their troops, dressed like South American Generals, strutting around looking completely foolish and out of sync with the culture and environment. The Police on the beat look embarassed and out of place. No wonder they don’t care, they have realized that their leaders are parade-ground idiots.

My fifth and last point and I tell this story often. It was New Year’s Eve at Knopwoods and the bouncers who I had usually hired for the night and who I had learnt to watch thoroughly because they were volatile, cancelled at 6pm. I called out to the staff and a customer offered to do it with a group of friends, for fun and the party afterwards. Average age 50, three females with two male backup who controlled the crush at the door. We had no trouble on the biggest trading night I had ever had. These ladies waved their fingers in the faces of big thugs, politely seized their drinks and scruffed them out of the pub without a problem. Not one act of violence or trouble all evening. Think about an inebriated thug confronted by an equivalent male of 25 years and then think about that same confrontation with the thug’s granny.

Why is it that this young lad is hammered in the way he was, as bad as it is and I have seen much worse, it happens in the Mall, it happens in Launceston, it happens all over this country every weekend, just ask an Indian Student or a Metro traveller.

It’s our culture, sick as it is, we tolerate excessive drinking, we tolerate the connection to sport, we tolerate under age drinking, we think that we are doing the right thing to the Aboriginal communities, but has anybody asked what role the breweries have in any of this, they control the advertising, they control the attitudes, they control the alcohol, notice the new VB adds congratulating losers…

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