27 April 2008

New police intel tactics?

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I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but I was out with a couple of mates in civic the other night doing a photography assignment and saw something quite strange. Police vans doing were laps around the main venue block of civic (i.e. the phoenix, ICBM, mooseheads – the latter two I’m more than glad to see cleaned up! Well, at least the drunk trashbags that mill around outside and cause trouble). After taking a closer look at the vans which were doing about 10k’s an hour, the side panel door was slightly opened, and darkened inside (I think I saw a lens at some stage). The interesting thing, is that every time whoever was looking out the door saw us watching them, the side panel slammed shut quickly – and several vans were performing exactly the same operation. They’d drive round the main block with the side door panel open, park out the front of where impact records used to be for about 5 minutes, and then a different van would do exactly the same thing. Anyone else noticed this? Might have something to do with the new crackdown on binge drinking?

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Well, this has been most educational! In yankland, you can get really cheap spirits (the larger bottles, several litres, are often plastic). Fleischmanns is one widely available el cheapo distilleries. You can get a large bottle of fairly tasteless gin for about $12. Now THAT’S goon! Trust the yanks, talk prohibition and you can buy beer at every servo and spirits are cheap as chips. Funny how they haven’t got an epidemic of teenage binge drinking necessitating huge taxes.

At night I don’t leave the safety of the Kambah Tavern.

Sadly, Thumper is correct for once.

But the frozen, eaten with a spoon\highly alcoholic slurpee was always Froon (frozen goon) in our end of town.

Joe Canberran4:50 pm 28 Apr 08

Surely everyone played goon of fortune when they were young? (i might even bring it out again for old times sake this weekend)

And i’d be a bit worried if a time came when our police didn’t drive around looking at stuff. don’t exactly want them looking to start trouble but looking for it (and the places listed sound like good places to start to me) in order to prevent or stop it is fine by me.

Goon is not simply ‘cask wine’.
It is the cheapest cask wine available at the time, and only once the cardboard is removed does it becomes Goon, Nectar of the Gods.

And you get this neat blow-up silver pillow for sleeping off any after-effects of too much wine.

Other variants of Goon-related madness involve either taking a shotglass of goon every minute for as long as the goon lasts, or just freezing the bag and drinking the remaining liquid, which should be even more alcoholic, or just eating it with a spoon.
I recall this being called “Froon”.

Good times…

That’s brilliant! So “goon” is cask wine? I’d never heard of this, people really do it?

ah, good old Goon of Fortune. It’s way more fun if you use 3 or 4 goon bags and have heaps of people around the hoist, that way the fun happens WAY FASTER.

binge drinking? not me. ¬_¬

… or playing wheel of goon (incorporating a hills hoist and a peg).

Back up, what’s that? How do you play it/what are the rules?

Rules vary, but essentially you peg the goon bag to the hills hoist, everybody stands around it, someone gives it a spin, and whoever it stops at has a swig and spins again.

Personally, I like to call it Goon of Fortune

Wonder what else they’ll tax? Unpopular things, hmmm. High-performance cars and 4WDs, perhaps (except Working Families will be able to claim their tax on these back).

Thumper said

I seriously doubt that the initiative has anything to do with binge drinking.

More about a new tax I would suggest. Any bets on what is next? Cigarettes maybe?

Thumper wins!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080427/2/16mwg.html

I guess all those handouts to “families” in the upcoming budget have to be funded. So, premix and ciggies to have their taxes hiked. What else?

Maelinar said:

Mælinar said :

… or playing wheel of goon (incorporating a hills hoist and a peg).

Back up, what’s that? How do you play it/what are the rules?

In a small feeder-town for a ski resort I worked at, every Thursday night the local pub had an excellent game entitled Wheel of Destruction, with a chocolate wheel which was marked variously Full, 75%, 50%, 25%, Free. It was spun every 15 minutes adn wehre it landed dictated how much middies were for the next 15 minutes.

That was a fun game! I’m pretty sure it was borderline illegal, but it was a quiet town. (This was only a few years back).

…I find those tall cans of Woodstock and cola strewn around the place…

would the tax apply to rum&coke/burbon&coke? Because I don’t think of them when I think of the chick drinks they always show pictures of.

And who they hell calls them alcopops anywhy?

Firstly, it is conclusive that lollie drinks give you a misaprehension about how much alcohol you have had to drink.

I disagree. If you drink lollie water, then you know exactly how much is in each bottle. If you drink kirov vodka mixed with something, then you have no idea how much vodka is in each cup. Drinking it neat of course eliminates this problem. Of course it is pretty much assumed that you only need to count standard drinks if you plan on driving somewhere, otherwise you just keep drinking till you either run out, or fall down and can’t get up, yes?

sort of on topic

did they at any stage park? You could go ask them what they were doing… Or call the Terrorist hot line and report suspicious behavior…

err, apart from the wanton labor bashing there appears to be a couple of prevalent issues.

Firstly, it is conclusive that lollie drinks give you a misaprehension about how much alcohol you have had to drink. To cite an existing example that has already been fielded, you are under no such illusions when you are drinking goon, or playing wheel of goon (incorporating a hills hoist and a peg).

Secondly, this Government is prepared to do something about it. The previous government, therefore, was not.

Thirdly, what this has to do with slow moving police photography, is beyond me. I’d say they were busy investigating something criminal, at a pinch.

Field your own conclusions.

(off topic)
May as well add an extra petrol tax as a dis-incentive for young kids not to drive cars while we’re at it. Taxing lolly water is just an excuse to ‘sneak’ in more taxes to the over-age people that buy it.

(on topic)
anal probes and aliens for sure 😉

Gathering footage for “Australia’s ‘Funniest’ Home Videos”?

Kids like those premixes, dont’ they? Around my rural area, I find those tall cans of Woodstock and cola strewn around the place, including in the paddocks, and tend to assume it’s kids wandering around outside, guzzling the stuff.

Seems most people reckon it’s a silly, pointless initiative, going by comments on the radio today. Maybe the gov’t needs more money to give to Families, and this is one of many ways of getting it.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:20 am 28 Apr 08

The police could have been doing a range of things, from training to targetted intel gathering to setting something up. There are controls over what they do, I wouldn’t get too worried about it.

On a lighter note, I remember back from uni days (a while ago now) how a friend and I would buy a bottle of bourbon, drive out to UC Bar Nite, scull the bottle in the carpark as we walked to the bar, pass through the door 2 mins later, and then not have to buy even discounted beers (cos we were that broke and cheap)… Adding a few bucks to a case of lolly water will make no difference to anything…

Thumper, yeah, I used to do the same 10-15 years ago, just wondering whether there are more young kids doing it today? That’s what you hear, but I wonder what the stats show, or in fact if there were stats kept about teenage drinking 20 years ago… I just can’t be bothered searching for them right now.

Haha! That’s awesome! I knew somone else out there had suffered the punishment of Kirov! I -was- hard until Mr Kirov broke down any desire in me to drink spirits straight ever again.

I think you might be right about the dealing thing actually – I was going through some of the photos with my mate who was taking them (up to Brisbane – what are they going to think of us now!?), and it looks like there’s a lot more “activity” going on than there used to be. You know, the classic bumbag around the torso look? To me that screams “I’m dealing drugs!!!” – well, that was definitely the junkie “in” look in the 90’s – maybe it’s back-

scott, i spit on mooseheads 🙂

and yes i DO also speak of kirov LOL. straight from the bottle?? you are a hard, hard man 🙂

p.s. in direct response to your post, my guess is either a training exercise or getting (attempting at the very least) evidence on dealers.

hmmm. those comments were meant to follow on from each other – wasn’t a reply to you toriness (must’ve seemed a bit strange). I’m the same! The big vodka brand when I was in highschool was “Kirov” – ring any bells for anyone? We didn’t even buy the OJ – slugs straight from the bottle. Cheap, BUT IT WORKED – to get us pissed – which i think is the point everyone is trying to make here, and I have to say I agree – booze is like petrol – inelastic. People are going to consume it at any price no matter what.

probably both if you’re at mooseheads. hehe.

2 comments:

1. civic canberra is no more dangerous than any other capital city (or even large town!) cbd area.

2. binge drinking is not a new phenomenon AT ALL.

sorry i’ll add a 3rd little rant now…

i laugh my head off at the ‘screaming headlines’ in today’s media about ‘alcopops tax being upped to combat binge drinking’ – what students buy these drinks? back in the day when i was a povo student, i went halves in a bottle of cheap voddy and mixed it with a giant bottle of orange juice from the supermarket! if ‘students’ can afford to get smashed on cruisers etc, i doubt increasing the tax on them (by a tiny $1 or whatever a bottle) is going make any difference.

I like the conspiracy idea here.. Gonna roll with the conspiracy – now, where did i put my foil helmet, ah i mean my “anti mind-reader wave helmet”? You can never be too careful… Hehe.

On the other hand, I do think while Rudd means the best, getting pissed is so ingrained into this country’s culture that no-one has any hope regardless of what they do! And besides, it’s fun. Until someone loses an eye. Or a liver.

ROFLMAO – what a load of sh!te.

Does anyone really expect this ‘crackdown’ to have any effect?

Bollocks.

Rudd is a knob

I think Rudd will be know for his utterly useless enquiries, chit chats and token jestures. I think he misses Johnny now that he actually has to think up his own policies.

An extra 30c to $1.30 on a bottle of lolly water is not going to stop anyone drinking it, and if someone is truely worried about the extra price they’re just going to pick something a bit cheaper. You may think about it if you’re intending to buy a whole case, but that’s an unlikely purchase anyway.

Anyway, main story. They’re out to get you. It’s a conspiracy that involves aliens and world domination.

It’s a load of bullshit isn’t it? I don’t think anyone is going to change their patterns either! It’s just gonna be – “double vodka and oj thanks” instead of “smirnoff black thanks”

I’d just like to say that Civic is not overly dangerous. Sure, there are lots of fcukwits about, and I wouldn’t walk down the alleys by yourself, but just follow two simple rules: keep your wits about you, and don’t make extended eye contact with anyone. No-one will even notice you’re there.

As for teenage binge drinking, I wonder if it is worse today than it was 10 or 15 years ago?

el said :

What crackdown on binge drinking?

Um, the nationwide attempt to help monitor and prevent binge drinking?

The Rudd Government has announced a new national strategy to address the binge drinking epidemic among young Australians.

This national strategy will begin with three new practical measures to help reduce alcohol misuse and binge drinking among young Australians: $14.4 million to invest in community level initiatives to confront the culture of binge drinking, particularly in sporting organisations; and $19.1 million to intervene earlier to assist young people and ensure that they assume personal responsibility for their binge drinking; $20 million to fund advertising that confronts young people with the costs and consequences of binge drinking.

Binge drinking among young people is a community wide problem that demands a community wide response, including a new emphasis on young people taking greater personal responsibility for their behaviour.

The three new practical measures announced today will be funded by reprioritising existing government spending.

The binge drinking problem
Binge Drinking imposes a huge toll on our community. The 2005 Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) Survey found that in any given week, approximately one in ten – that is 168,000 – 12 to 17 year olds reported binge drinking or drinking at risky levels (defined in this report as seven or more drinks for males and five or more for females). For 16 and 17 year olds, one in five drank at risky levels.

A study of community football clubs in 2000 carried out by the Centre for Youth Drug Studies showed that:
13% of 18-20 year olds drank 13 or more standard drinks each time they visited the club;
83% left the club as the driver of a vehicle; and
70% of males (30% of females) believe drinking is an important tradition at their club.

In addition to the objective evidence on the costs of binge drinking, there is the untold impact on families and communities around the country.

The Government is determined to work with communities, parents and young people to implement a National Strategy on Binge Drinking that includes a new focus on personal responsibility.

While the Australian Government has a number of initiatives aimed at targeting alcohol misuse in the wider community, there has to date been no coherent national approach to tackling binge drinking among young people.

These announcements are only a first step. The Rudd Government will continue to engage with stakeholders on how the community can effectively confront this social problem.

These measures will dovetail with the Government’s wider commitment to establish a National Preventative Health Taskforce, which will examine ways to reduce the health problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption.

The Department of Health and Ageing will also be asked to consolidate relevant data to assist in understanding the scale of this problem, and to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives by mid-2009. Source: http://www.alp.org.au/media/0308/mspm100.php

Here’s some other stories on said “crackdown”

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23603720-24218,00.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23547129-23289,00.html
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=230457
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23495233-5006009,00.html

Anal probes you say hmmm? Hehe. Na, don’t think it’s a conspiracy – just interested as to what’s going on. The assignment was “documenting social interaction in a space” (if you can count stumbling outside mooseheads as social interaction) – took photos of the same spots – day and night.

Deadmandrinking4:09 pm 27 Apr 08

On the odd few occasions I’ve ended up at mooseheads at 3-5am (Yes, yes, I know, but alcohol is one hell of a drug), I’ve noticed them going slow. I thought that was just so they’d be there when the fights broke out. No conspiracy really.

I’m going looking for them right now!!!!

It’s a conspiracy. They are taking photos of people to develop Civic facial recognition software. Careful if you notice them they will snavel you into the back and conduct Government experiments on you involving anal probes.

News flash – “Police look at stuff and take photos”

“Going out in Civic is like playing Russian roulette in my eyes.”

That’s a little dramatic. Yes, there are rare incidents out of leftfield, but no more than elsewhere. More often than not the problems only come to those that seek them.

I avoid places like Moose and ICBM like the plague, but sometimes have to walk past them alone, and its really not that bad. You just have to avoid the temptation to laugh at the clowns.

Lenses? It would be hard to imagine they’d be filming to do with the binge drinking thing. One would think it would be more to track violent people or drug dealers.

What crackdown on binge drinking?

Timberwolf658:44 am 27 Apr 08

No sorry, I no longer go out in Civic, I value my life to much!!
Going out in Civic is like playing Russian roulette in my eyes.

Perhaps they were training for something big, who knows.

What was the photography assignment you were doing about….?

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