Woden walls forever taken over by the Michael Steep memorial [With poll]

all u haters let his mates have this. people like my slf new him ….. he was not all about alcohol and s***… he was one of the nicst kids i ever met

I’m sorry you lost your friend. It’s a horrible experience to go through. And I’m sorry about the way some of the people are treating you on here. I think it’s nice that you want to set up a memorial for your friend.

That being said, I do not like the idea of it being a graffitied wall at a public bus interchange. Maybe it’s because I didn’t know him but it just seems the strangest place ever to me to have a memorial. You say he spent a lot of time there, and yeah, I spent a lot of time at interchanges before I had my licence and a car. But even then, had I died, I wouldn’t have wanted my friends to put a wall up there; it really just seems tacky.

Maybe you could talk to the people at Pine Island about putting something up there…one of you could design something…and you would be able to warn others to be careful there so nobody else has to lose a friend this way. The memorial would be a lot more accepted that way, and I believe it would last longer…at the moment you have the authorities wanting to get rid of your memorial, and at least a portion of the public. And who is to say that somebody might not come along a few months from now if you do get to keep your wall, not realise what it is, and just put some more graffiti over it?

Also, you do realise that you have forced the police into a position where they have to do something about it? From day one, you’ve been kicking up a huge fuss that’s gotten into the media and so, unless for some reason ACTION decides you can keep the wall, the police must act. You are publicly and loudly breaking the law by vandalising public property (that doesn’t belong to you), and not trying to hide it, instead saying ‘We should be allowed to do this.’ Yes, there is plenty of anonymous graffiti already, but the people behind it are anonymous and can’t be punished, so eventually it is just painted over. What you are doing has people behind it, saying we want to get away with this and we will. If the police let you, then it will encourage people to break the laws in other ways because they think they can get away with it. You have forced their position.

And just a note in regards to the drinking allegations that have been made (I don’t know if this is confirmed), no, the alcohol in his system didn’t cause his death. But if he hadn’t been drinking, he might have had more control over the situation, might have realised it was a bad time or place to swim.

Once again, I truly am sorry for your loss. Losing a friend hurts very badly.

dammit said :

Move the shrine to somewhere quiet and peaceful, somewhere where intruders won’t “look too much”. And where you can mourn and reflect in peace, remember and respect.

As I was leaving the interchange on Friday I saw a lone chick there, she seemed uncomfortable in the gloom, sitting in filth, amid the valdalised walls, with strangers walking through. I felt a pang of sympathy for her, but tonight the bus interchange had three police cars parked near the little grocery shop with six officers standing and watching an idiot monkeying on the walkway above that was vandalised with more graffitti.

At this rate the memorial vandalism will leave the bounds of Phillip next month and start invading neighbouring suburbs.

This story is awfully upsetting, and I send my condolences to his family and friends.

But I strongly believe that this ‘Shrine’ is in the wrong place. Somewhere quiet and less public, where it can give people the chance to reflect and mourn in privacy would be more appropriate. For someone like me, who is in the interchange everyday it becomes very overwhelming and somewhat intimidating.

Every time I have passed this ‘Shrine’ there has been people smoking and drinking all around, and people have been verbally abused for “looking too much” and not “being respectful”. I believe that disrespect is when you drink, smoke and abuse others, in a place that you class as ‘sacred’ and meant to be in memorial of someone you love.

It makes the interchange even less appealing and safe than it was before these events took place.
Move the shrine to somewhere quiet and peaceful, somewhere where intruders won’t “look too much”. And where you can mourn and reflect in peace, remember and respect.

That was a very moving video tribute but wait……how many of the mourners are already planning to get rat- faced tonight to “celebrate” Michael’s life? Don’t you think he would have a message for you all? Don’t you think he would say “Guys, get a life, don’t squander your time getting so drunk you can’t remember what you did and leaving every one of your mates to go through this grieving process time and time again”?

georgesgenitals said :

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I was drinking with him (yes underaged – stone me in garema place now) the night he was arrested. I saw how his death destroyed his family and the long term damage it did to his friends.

It had very far reaching effects on a lot of people. Another of our friends went quite off the rails after the funeral.

A lot of people did, a lot of people did. Which is precisely why these kids should be cut a bit of slack.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I was drinking with him (yes underaged – stone me in garema place now) the night he was arrested. I saw how his death destroyed his family and the long term damage it did to his friends.

It had very far reaching effects on a lot of people. Another of our friends went quite off the rails after the funeral.

georgesgenitals said :

colourful sydney racing identity said :

BerraBoy68 said :

If you still can’t see what I’m getting at then think about this option: track down a guy who goes by the name of E.L.K, he’s a top stencil artist right here in Canberra. Ask him what he’d charge for a stencil portrait on the wall of Michael. Then take up collection and approach ACTION or the ACT Gov’t for permission. I dare say even many of us on this forum who hate graffiti would approve of an E.L.K street portrait of your friend on the wall.
.

If you take this suggestion on, please post details of how to contribute. I never knew Michael but I feel your pain. When I was 17 a friend of mine, Francis, tragically died in police custody, the hurt lasts many, many years.

I also knew Francis. I was 14 when he died, and attended his funeral. Very, very sad for all concerned.

I was drinking with him (yes underaged – stone me in garema place now) the night he was arrested. I saw how his death destroyed his family and the long term damage it did to his friends.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

BerraBoy68 said :

If you still can’t see what I’m getting at then think about this option: track down a guy who goes by the name of E.L.K, he’s a top stencil artist right here in Canberra. Ask him what he’d charge for a stencil portrait on the wall of Michael. Then take up collection and approach ACTION or the ACT Gov’t for permission. I dare say even many of us on this forum who hate graffiti would approve of an E.L.K street portrait of your friend on the wall.
.

If you take this suggestion on, please post details of how to contribute. I never knew Michael but I feel your pain. When I was 17 a friend of mine, Francis, tragically died in police custody, the hurt lasts many, many years.

I also knew Francis. I was 14 when he died, and attended his funeral. Very, very sad for all concerned.

I find all this hand-wringing and faux outrage over the death of this young chap to be fairly disingenuous and illustrating a disconnect between today’s youngsters and the wider world around them.

When I was at Phillip College in 1976-77 we had three deaths and one serious injury. One boy died of cancer, another committed suicide, one girl died in a car crash and one boy had his leg amputated after a motorbike accident. The latter returned to his studies after a few weeks.

After the deaths we quickly accepted it and moved on. We didn’t take over public places for maudlin displays and memorials, or hit out at our elders via public forums.

I would suggest to everybody to just take a chill pill and get over it. Life goes on and you take the good with the bad. How we deal with grief is a major determinant as to how our lives as a whole either progress or regress.

Young people should realise that the road ahead is not always smooth, and in life you encounter periods such as this. It won’t be the first time this happens, so you should be aware of this basic truism from the start. It is not insensitive to say this, just a simple fact of life.

Keijidosha said :

The hallmark of GenY (like the bogan) is an irrational sense of entitlement.

The irrational sense of entitlement is certainly on display here. Spoiled kids with criminal tendencies who behave offensively and then scream with rage when people criticise them for it. There’s some parents out there who have done a really crap job of raising their kids.

As for being bogans, let’s see. Loud, offensive behaviour? check. An uncomfortable relationship with grammar, spelling, and logic? check. Fascination with alcohol, cigarettes and drugs? check. Regard the police as their natural enemy? check. No comprehension of how to relate to other people in society? check.

Yep. Bogans.

busgirl said :

These young folk are talking so much about showing some respect…has the meaning of the word ‘respect’ changed since I was young? I believe respect is earned not expected…do they know that?

The hallmark of GenY (like the bogan) is an irrational sense of entitlement.

BerraBoy68 said :

If you still can’t see what I’m getting at then think about this option: track down a guy who goes by the name of E.L.K, he’s a top stencil artist right here in Canberra. Ask him what he’d charge for a stencil portrait on the wall of Michael. Then take up collection and approach ACTION or the ACT Gov’t for permission. I dare say even many of us on this forum who hate graffiti would approve of an E.L.K street portrait of your friend on the wall.
.

If you take this suggestion on, please post details of how to contribute. I never knew Michael but I feel your pain. When I was 17 a friend of mine, Francis, tragically died in police custody, the hurt lasts many, many years.

thatsnotme said :

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

Are you serious?

When I was 16, I was drinking way too much, and so were my friends. We did drugs. We wandered around the suburbs making a nusience of ourselves. We thought nothing could go wrong. Thinking back, we were probably bogans.

Almost 20 years later, we’ve got respectable jobs, and we’re earning good money. A couple of us have children, or are expecting them soon. We don’t do drugs, we don’t go out to get drunk. We own our own homes. All in all, we’re decent members of society.

It could have all gone wrong, so easily. Like the new years when we went and camped on the beach down at the bay, and went for a midnight swim. It could have been any of us drowning that night, and alcohol would definitely have been a contributing factor.

We grew up though. We survived our teenage years, matured, and realised that effort can be rewarded in life.

This kid didn’t get that chance – and to draw the conclusion that he was probably going to waste his chance at life based on the actions of his friends is just ridiculous. Gman, you’ve got a whole lot to learn about life buddy. I’d reckon the first lesson you could learn is to not read stuff from a forum (or, the news for that matter) and assume you know enough facts to pass judgment on anyone. Your holier than thou attitude won’t get you far.

And to Michael’s friends – I really hope that you’ve noticed some of the constructive posts here, and take note of the suggestions that people have given you about creating a fitting memorial to Michael. You’re grieving right now, and that process needs to pass. But before you know it, your life will start to return to normal, that grief will abate, and all this wall stuff won’t seem so important. I just hope that when that happens (and it will), that you can use some of these suggestions to create a permanent memorial to your friend.

Amen. There but for the grace of (insert deity) go I.

Gman # 215

He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

Well good for you! If you didn’t know Michael in life, you don’t have the right to comment about him in death! No I didn’t know him.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

Are you serious?

When I was 16, I was drinking way too much, and so were my friends. We did drugs. We wandered around the suburbs making a nusience of ourselves. We thought nothing could go wrong. Thinking back, we were probably bogans.

Almost 20 years later, we’ve got respectable jobs, and we’re earning good money. A couple of us have children, or are expecting them soon. We don’t do drugs, we don’t go out to get drunk. We own our own homes. All in all, we’re decent members of society.

It could have all gone wrong, so easily. Like the new years when we went and camped on the beach down at the bay, and went for a midnight swim. It could have been any of us drowning that night, and alcohol would definitely have been a contributing factor.

We grew up though. We survived our teenage years, matured, and realised that effort can be rewarded in life.

This kid didn’t get that chance – and to draw the conclusion that he was probably going to waste his chance at life based on the actions of his friends is just ridiculous. Gman, you’ve got a whole lot to learn about life buddy. I’d reckon the first lesson you could learn is to not read stuff from a forum (or, the news for that matter) and assume you know enough facts to pass judgment on anyone. Your holier than thou attitude won’t get you far.

And to Michael’s friends – I really hope that you’ve noticed some of the constructive posts here, and take note of the suggestions that people have given you about creating a fitting memorial to Michael. You’re grieving right now, and that process needs to pass. But before you know it, your life will start to return to normal, that grief will abate, and all this wall stuff won’t seem so important. I just hope that when that happens (and it will), that you can use some of these suggestions to create a permanent memorial to your friend.

creative_canberran said :

Those by the road tend to be flowers and a small cross. Rather unobtrusive and they mark the spot where the accident occurred. Their location is relevant to their purpose and they will hopefully warn other drivers of what can happen.

Funnily enough, these are sanctioned by the Government, accepted by the community and formalised in Government Policy. Wanton vandalism of public property is not.

And for those that say that this wall doesn’t hurt anyone – bollocks – my taxes should be put towards something more useful than rectifying the results these criminal actions.

Gman668 said :

cleo said :

He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

Harsh.

But true.

Gman668 said :

cleo said :

He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

Those by the road tend to be flowers and a small cross. Rather unobtrusive and they mark the spot where the accident occurred. Their location is relevant to their purpose and they will hopefully warn other drivers of what can happen.

Gman668 said :

cleo said :

He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation. This guys bogan friends will probably leave school, go on the dole, use what money they have on drugs, and then die of an overdose, and society will be happier for it

seriously, stop. hes dead. stop going on about it as if you knew him as well as all his mates did. he wasn’t drunk when he died. wanna know how i know? i’m mates with his mates. so seriously everyone just stop commenting and move on from this site. as berraboy said, we could argue about this forever. but lets not. its about the same BS over and over again. we all have our own opinions and i think its about time we stopped. its a memorial, like the oens on the side of the road. there on gov property to. probably didnt get permission. so lets just all stop.

cleo said :

He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

I hope you are joking. the typical young man does not get drunk at the age of 16, and their friends do not swarm around public property when their nuisence is bring removed. You ask, How would i know what the typical young man does??, well, i am 16, i go to school, i am not the smartest, but i am not a high school drop out. When i go to parties, that does not mean that i get wasted, go to hospital and get my stomach pumped. I have never done drugs, and i bet that this guy has. oh, and i will contribute to society when i leave school, go to university, and get a job advancing civilisation.

imissyou said :

BerraBoy68 said :

imissyou said :

So fair sure you wouldn’t know what happened. He WASN’T drunk at all. The current pulled him under and he was found just metre’s from where he went missing jammed in between things. but thats none of your business anyway.

Wait till the police/coroners report comes out, you may feel differently. And swimming in fleecy tracksuit pants isn’t a great idea, they tend to get heavy… just saying.

Too bad i have already spoken to his family and they say different so keep on coming up with more and more accusaions it only makes you look even worse then you already do. Your sarcastic comment is not needed.
If any of your family members or friends pass away and they make into the paper or on the news i hope this abuse and disrespect is done to you three fold!

We can argue about this forever (really we could) but in the end it isn’t important. You’ve had so many good comments in response to yours offering you constructive advice but you just don’t seem able to stop, take a deep breath and think about it. Your graffiti on the wall won’t last because the broader community says it can’t.

Now, as you’ve raised the spectre of death in my family let me give you an example of where you could go, instead of just ranting here. My 17 year old brother (just 1 your older than Michael) died when I was 15. He used to spend loads of time at the interchange in Woden with his friends and girlfriends. When he died though, not one bit of graffiti was written on a wall there for him. Instead his mates got together and planted a tree in a place where they could get together and remember him. Furthermore, he was in the paper and on TV as you suggest because in his short 17 years, and despite many hours at the interchange after school, he still found time to contribute and help a lot of people. 28 years after he died, scholarships are still given out annually in his name. Oh, and by the way, he was also in trouble with the police once so he was no saint.

Basically, just because your friend spent a lot of time at the interchange, you should find another more caring way to remember him that WILL last. Trust me, I go to Woden interchange now and barely think of the many good times I had with my brother there. Now I’m older I get that it doesn’t represent who he was, it’s just where he was.

If you still can’t see what I’m getting at then think about this option: track down a guy who goes by the name of E.L.K, he’s a top stencil artist right here in Canberra. Ask him what he’d charge for a stencil portrait on the wall of Michael. Then take up collection and approach ACTION or the ACT Gov’t for permission. I dare say even many of us on this forum who hate graffiti would approve of an E.L.K street portrait of your friend on the wall.

I hope you take these comments in the spirit they were given.

imissyou said :

If any of your family members or friends pass away and they make into the paper or on the news i hope this abuse and disrespect is done to you three fold!

After numerous rants about respect you come out with this…?

These young folk are talking so much about showing some respect…has the meaning of the word ‘respect’ changed since I was young? I believe respect is earned not expected…do they know that?

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Woden interchange finally gets knocked down and replaced with a Westfield Belconnen-style bus station. I wonder if Michael’s mates will be lying down in front of the bulldozers to prevent them desecrating his shrine… I’d say not, chances are they will have moved on from this whole thing by this time next week.

squirell said :

dundle said :

lukeyp said :

yea he had a criminal record, so do i ? so do alot of his mates, so do a lot of mine, it doesnt make us bogans, or rats, or anything else, were still valued members of soceity

Um…

Also um…

I’ll raise that um, and add an “irony much?”

shadow boxer said :

If any good is to come of this ACTION, the ACT Govt and if required the AFP should clean this place up, there are a number of methods for doing this (cameras, muzac, lighting, private security)

The interchange already inflicts Muzak on passengers, once it was country music about the dog dying and the house burning down and this that and other tragedy – half an hour of this was followed by another half hour on a bus where the driver decided to inflict exactly the same drivel on the pasengers. By the time I finally arrived in Civic I was nearly ready to slit my wretched wrists it was so depressing.

It’s bad enough having crap music pumped out through poor quality speakers while you’re waiting for a bus that may or may not arrive, but it’s pretty bad having to put up with it knowing it so failed so badly to discourage the pests that they’ve started to nest there.

BerraBoy68 said :

imissyou said :

So fair sure you wouldn’t know what happened. He WASN’T drunk at all. The current pulled him under and he was found just metre’s from where he went missing jammed in between things. but thats none of your business anyway.

Wait till the police/coroners report comes out, you may feel differently. And swimming in fleecy tracksuit pants isn’t a great idea, they tend to get heavy… just saying.

Too bad i have already spoken to his family and they say different so keep on coming up with more and more accusaions it only makes you look even worse then you already do. Your sarcastic comment is not needed.
If any of your family members or friends pass away and they make into the paper or on the news i hope this abuse and disrespect is done to you three fold!

squirell said :

dundle said :

lukeyp said :

yea he had a criminal record, so do i ? so do alot of his mates, so do a lot of mine, it doesnt make us bogans, or rats, or anything else, were still valued members of soceity

Um…

Also um…

hmmmm, yeah ok………….valued is an interesting way to put it.

dundle said :

lukeyp said :

yea he had a criminal record, so do i ? so do alot of his mates, so do a lot of mine, it doesnt make us bogans, or rats, or anything else, were still valued members of soceity

Um…

Also um…

I believe Michael Steep’s funeral is being held today so I will try to refrain from posting anything offensive to his loved ones. However, I would like to point out to his friends who feel that a wall at a bus interchange is the best place for his memorial that their behaviour reflects on Michael’s memory. If his friends are yelling at and abusing people in public (or even on the internet), people will assume that Michael was also the kind of person to lash out at the general public (ie, he will be thought badly of in the eyes of the public). Because of the actions of a few understandably upset but badly behaved teenagers, the public will not remember Michael as a boy who died far too young but will remember him as “that idiot boy that drowned becuase he went swimming drunk and his bogan mates went mental and the cops had to get involved”. This is not my necessarily my view but seems to be that of a few people on here. Please, if you want Michael to be remembered as something other than being some “bogan”, stop vandalising public property and stop threatening violence to people who object to your taking over part of a bus interchange in the name of grief.

lukeyp said :

yea he had a criminal record, so do i ? so do alot of his mates, so do a lot of mine, it doesnt make us bogans, or rats, or anything else, were still valued members of soceity

Um…

I wonder if we are missing the real point here, the woden bus interchange has been a notorious hang out for bogans and trouble makers for some years now. Word has even filtered over to the more respectable north side of Canberrs and I know I banned my 16 yo daughter from using it at night some time ago and my brother in law has banned his disabled son from the area when he travels to his little job.

If any good is to come of this ACTION, the ACT Govt and if required the AFP should clean this place up, there are a number of methods for doing this (cameras, muzac, lighting, provate security) or if that fails the AFP have sufficient move on powers to clean this area up. Indeed the move on powers are designed for just this purpose.

imissyou said :

So fair sure you wouldn’t know what happened. He WASN’T drunk at all. The current pulled him under and he was found just metre’s from where he went missing jammed in between things. but thats none of your business anyway.

Wait till the police/coroners report comes out, you may feel differently. And swimming in fleecy tracksuit pants isn’t a great idea, they tend to get heavy… just saying.

To the friends of Michael: respect his memory at his funeral tomorrow. Support each other. Enjoy your memories of your time together. Cry, laugh, cry some more. Then start doing something that he can’t: grow up.

If you take one thing out of this whole experience, don’t just do something because”that’s what he would have done”. If he’d made some different choices, he probably would still with you now. Do you think he would do absolutely everything he did again if he had a chance to come back to life a week ago? I don’t think so…

Be your own person. Learn from his mistakes. THAT will honour his memory – not some scawl on a bus interchange toilet door.

I would just like to say something, I personally don’t wish to take sides cause I knew Michael to an extent and I can see why everyone is so upset is he was a wonderful boy, yet I personally don’t approve of things such as vandalism under-age drinking smoking (at any age) ect.

Anyway what I would like to say is that I can see why people…. NOT Bogans (there is no point in being derogatory) would like to have something in this area I myself went to see Michaels wall the other day… although I did not take the vandalism any further I did place some flowers for him as I will be unable to be at his funeral… and I am joining the Navy soon (I know WOW a 17 year old kid with a good job! Shock horror… -.-) so I will be unable to see his grave for some months… In saying this though when I did get to the sight I was shocked to see how much has gone up on the walls… It dose look messy and I understand how it might anger people.

I can see that each of Michaels friends (including myself) would like to add something to whatever his memorial might be…. But guys! Pant wont last…. Even if they don’t paint over it it will peal off and look tacky this may not be an issue for you when I just put it to you like this but what if I said as it peals and fades so will Michaels memory…..

Everyone keeps saying we will remember him forever why don’t we make this true?!?!?!?! could there not be a plaque or some other memorial that we may be able to add to a little put in its place?

I do also believe that the “painting” and ideas about it all have come a bit to soon… Maybe Action can sit down with the immediate family and see what they have to say… Because I am sure they are the people who need to be listened to first before friends and before people opposed the memorial…. It might even turn out that Michaels family don’t want what is there and would rather something small…

Any way in summing up all I have to say is that yes this has gone too far but what can be done to fix it so both sides are happy… this started out as a harmless memorial to Michael can we take it back to this… and personally I don’t want this to be used as any more ammo agents him he dosen’t deserve it he didn’t make his friends do anything…. it was their choice…

R.I.P Michael <3

Post Script: I apologise for any errors I have my own issues with spelling and grammar….

What would you know, i am friends with his family. So fair sure you wouldn’t know what happened. He WASN’T drunk at all. The current pulled him under and he was found just metre’s from where he went missing jammed in between things, but that is none of your business anyway.

i meant he wasn’t drunk***

imissyou said :

As for you saying its stupid to go swimming whilst drunk yes it is but the thing is he was drunk you idiot! He got taken by the current.

No, it wasn’t the current, he probably just couldn’t stand up or swim. I get that he was 16, and 16 year old aren’t known for excelling in common sense, but it seems drinking next to a river led to this.

Smarter people that you and me have determined that grief has the following 5 stages:

1) denial – “I can’t believe he’s gone”;
2) Anger – “it’s not fair” and finding someone to blame;
3) bargaining – “I’d do anything to have you back”;
4) Depression – “I’m so sad” etc. but that’s OK, seriously.. loss is hard to take, I know I’ve lost 3 family members including two young brothers when I was 15; and
5) acceptance – accepting he’s gone and moving on (note: this doesn’t mean forgetting, just accepting the facts).

I think those of Michael’s friends posting here are still at stage 2, but are angry at the wrong people.

Both Michael and his friends who thought it’s cool to get drunk and go for a swim are the ones to blame, not the current or those that just want to get on with their own lives without having the death of a stranger rammed down their throats when catching a bus. He died through what will be legally termed ‘misadventure’. If you want to get angry, make it a positive and make sure your friends who were there don’t drink near water again.

When you kids move on to stage’s 3 and 4 over the next few days and after the funeral tomorrow, you’ll be thinking more clearly. Once you get to stage 5, have a think about a better memorial. One that can last and which you’ll all be proud of.

EvanJames said :

steepyforever said :

and he didn’t have a bad criminal record. kay? thanks.

What sort of criminal record did he have then?

by that i meant he didn’t have one AT ALL.

imissyou said :

As for you saying its stupid to go swimming whilst drunk yes it is but the thing is he was drunk you idiot! He got taken by the current.

What are you trying to say? Calling someone an idiot for pointing out your associate’s contributory negligence. Blaming the river?

Slapp_monkey said :

Dear Steepyforever,

Hi Stupidity is fairly self evident by his continuing to skip school, hang our at the bus interchage and his deciding to go swimming whilst drunk. Oh wait perhaps those are the acts of a sensible intelligent person. So you know for a fact he only had two sips of Alcohol on that day? You were there?

Nope those are the actions of an idiot and quite frankly it is for the better of gene pool that he has ermoved himself from it.

Thank you Steep, i for one appreciate your noble act of sacrifice.

As for you saying its stupid to go swimming whilst drunk yes it is but the thing is he was drunk you idiot! He got taken by the current.

what’s with the logic of ‘he was there all the time’ in the bus interchange validating the act of scrawling messages on the back of a toilet door. god i hope if i die people don’t write on the back of the toilet doors at work just because i’m there ‘all the time’ (at work, not in the loo – you know what i mean!) – i hate the thought! kids we get you’re sad, we all get sad when someone we know and liked dies but we don’t pretend that it’s cool to commit criminal acts – and if you’re honest with yourself, and some of you have admitted it outright here, you know it’s not cool. there are far nicer things you could be doing to commemorate your friend’s death. have a quiet think about it rather than getting all your friends on here to spit rancid abuse – all you are doing is living up to the stereotype.

#184

Could you be anymore of a disrespectful f***?
You are praising the fact that he died? what the HELL is wrong with you?! It’s a sad thing when anybody dies. You never even knew Michael how can you be so harsh on him? Perhaps the world would be a better place without completely rude and judgemental people like you!
Lets say you die and we all celebrate it. How would your friends and family feel? Honestly. Low blow.

I’m curious from the video and before I judge this child too harshly.

Is anyone aware of his criminal history ?

Does he have one ?

It seems by the comments of his friends that he was an amazing bloke that only did good. I somehow find this hard to believe judging from the video and his near idiotic behaviour at Pine island.

Is it sad that he died ? Well lets look at the worth he contributed to society ? has he done anything of value ? is he just another of these tax leeching parasites that is doomed to become another junkie inmate of Alexander leisure centre.

Really let’s just accept that his stupidity has done the world a favour before he could breed and pass down this trait of being an F-Wit. I applaud these young people for going on with his tradition of being ignorant, self absorbed douche Bags. I cannot wait for one them to walk into the same pub as me or cross paths with me. Then they get to discover that really they are weak little kids who will get their pathetic jaws slammed shut by my size eleven boot.

I’m in for a repaint of the wall over this lame blood clot’s tribute. Stuff pandering to these jumped up little brats that need a good lesson in discipline.

sure michael wasnt the best kid out, he was a good mate but, a quality person, he deserves to be respected, because he’d respect you back

missin ya steepy, love you bro

i saw a “memorial sticker” today on the back of a car for ‘steepy’. the bogan shrines continue.

while i think its sad he died, and how he died is certainly not anything like mully, the way they are remembering him is. i wonder if they were related?

Dear Steepyforever,

Hi Stupidity is fairly self evident by his continuing to skip school, hang our at the bus interchage and his deciding to go swimming whilst drunk. Oh wait perhaps those are the acts of a sensible intelligent person. So you know for a fact he only had two sips of Alcohol on that day? You were there?

Nope those are the actions of an idiot and quite frankly it is for the better of gene pool that he has ermoved himself from it.

Thank you Steep, i for one appreciate your noble act of sacrifice.

rinny said :

ur all idiots leave the wall!!!!

it’s spelt “you’re” – short for “you are”. It also needs to start with a capital letter.

squirell said :

At 21 years, i am so, so ashamed to be seen as a part of the ‘youth of today.’

a little bit older myself, but i feel your pain.

steepyforever said :

and he didn’t have a bad criminal record. kay? thanks.

What sort of criminal record did he have then?

Gee, now up to six pages. Is this an RA record, JB?

squirell said :

At 21 years, i am so, so ashamed to be seen as a part of the ‘youth of today.’

No need to be ashamed unless you’re one of the semi-literate, inconsiderate bellends posting on this thread.

The wall should’ve been re-painted by now, giving the message that intimidation and threats will not be rewarded.

squirell said :

At 21 years, i am so, so ashamed to be seen as a part of the ‘youth of today.’

Amen to that. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been disadvantaged by people looking at my age and writing me off. It’s only when the first contact is in person rather than facts on paper that I can demonstrate not all 20 somethings are deadbeats.

Now this is just boring. It’s the same stuff over and over. All we get are suggestions for stuff we could do instead.
I agree with what was said ages back. About when they put up the poster and the candle did they think it would last? No they didn’t. That would have been one of those things just for a little bit. But then it turned into something more. So now it means something to these young people.
No matter what the thing might be, have you ever tried to fight for something you care about? and just felt powerless? thats how they all feel. You should understand that. It wasn’t supposed to be permanent. And i don’t think it will be. I agree that ACTION should just give everybody some time.
And if they wish to get rid of R.I.P messages maybe they should paint over all the other ones too. Just to make it fair.

Really let’s just accept that his stupidity has done the world a favour before he could breed and pass down this trait of being an F-Wit. I applaud these young people for going on with his tradition of being ignorant, self absorbed douche Bags. I cannot wait for one them to walk into the same pub as me or cross paths with me. Then they get to discover that really they are weak little kids who will get their pathetic jaws slammed shut by my size eleven boot .

how dare you. his stupidity? that day he had TWO sips of alcohol. and saying hes gonna pass down his traits? oh please i know many people whos parents were just like that when they were young. and many of these friends have great lives, doing well in school and getting jobs. he wasn’t stupid, he still isn’t stupid. and he didn’t have a bad criminal record. kay? thanks.

At 21 years, i am so, so ashamed to be seen as a part of the ‘youth of today.’

Back when Mully did the world a favour, someone wrote this moving statement on the Woden Bus Interchange bathroom door:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_yOV8dhzN4jk/S7q7k-wCApI/AAAAAAAAT-8/pWRuYkLh3TE/s400/4485138081_779b6b84e7_o.jpg

ACTION painted over it.

And what does this same door look like today?

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_yOV8dhzN4jk/TWwt6v6jV9I/AAAAAAAAfiw/uYadPHc6Fh8/s600/DSCF0338.JPG

This means one of two things:

1.) Those of you who wrote on this bathroom door are desecrating the shrine to Mully.
or
2.) ACTION is going to paint over your graffiti as it’s vandalism.

Your wall will be painted over. Your door will be painted over. If you vandalise it again, it will be painted again. It has nothing to do with insensitivity, disrespect, or any other arguments proposed. It’s a public area, for the public to share and use, not for the exclusive use of a self-appointed few.

How about designing a bench and approaching the council to see if it can be placed somewhere. Then you’ve got a place to sit and think about your friend, as well as providing something the community could use?

rinny said :

THAT WALL WAS HIS SPOT!

please provide a scan of his deed to prove ownership of the land.

rinny said :

just because u dont want to be rememberd in that way doesnt mean micheal wouldnt!!!

oh really? have a read of post #113, question applies to you too.

rinny said :

micheal was the most amazing person on earth

How can you argue with that.

rinny said :

ur all idiots leave the wall!!!!

Interestingly, that’s what many of us are trying to tell you silly kids.

rinny said :

ur all idiots leave the wall!!!! micheal was the most amazing person on earth and yes i know there are many ways to remember him but for us this is the best! THAT WALL WAS HIS SPOT! it’s not as if youse all spent all day everyday there like micheal is it!?!?! have a heart, just because u dont want to be rememberd in that way doesnt mean micheal wouldnt!!!

R.I.P micheal u were a friend to most and a brother to more you’ll always be in our hearts love you! <3 xx

Was it the best thing? Or perhaps the easiest?

ur all idiots leave the wall!!!! micheal was the most amazing person on earth and yes i know there are many ways to remember him but for us this is the best! THAT WALL WAS HIS SPOT! it’s not as if youse all spent all day everyday there like micheal is it!?!?! have a heart, just because u dont want to be rememberd in that way doesnt mean micheal wouldnt!!!

R.I.P micheal u were a friend to most and a brother to more you’ll always be in our hearts love you! <3 xx

what is wrong with all you people have a heart!!! micheal happend to be the most amazing person i’ve ever met!!! yeahh so what if he was a baogan, im sure u all acted the same way we do when youse were all teenagers!!! i think everyone in the community needs to grow up!!!! all you say is it’s just a wall, it means nothing to you but to me and sooo many other people out there at this moment that wall means the world!!! it’s not as if you spent alol day everyday at that wall is it???

saying that you havent graffitied on a wall for ur friend when they have died almost says u dont care about them!

R.I.P STEEPY u were a friend to many and a brother to more you’ll always be in our hearts <3 lovee you boyy xxxxx

Davo111 said :

Lucy687 said :

Thank god there is an adult out there that will admit to doing some of the stuff we’ve done.

wow, thats all you got out of his post. /speechless

hahahaha. No that’s certainly not all i got from what was said. I agree with them. They actually thought of what to say instead of insulting us from the outset.

But you really are funny.

Davo111 said :

Lucy687 said :

Thank god there is an adult out there that will admit to doing some of the stuff we’ve done.

wow, thats all you got out of his post. /speechless

ahahaha. No that’s certainly not all i got. I did read the whole thing and i pretty much agree with him. Well thought out.
But you are totally funny.

To the people who built this shrine. We hear you. But you don’t hear us.

Did you respect the families – young school kids, mum’s and bubs or older people who were probably scared and worried when they went to catch their bus yet a bunch of people were yelling, swearing and abusing police and others? YOU don’t have respect.

Maybe a mother wallked passed you all yelling about ‘freedom’ and ‘respect’ and she had recently miscarried a baby just as precious as Michael. You don’t care, you don’t respect that she might just want to quietly catch a bus home without having to see all your bling and ranting. Maybe a elderly lady just lost her husband she had been with for 30 years, she has to catch a bus as he always drove her before. She is scared of the yelling, of the rubish being thrown. Do you show respect?

Selfish, selfish, selfish.

Thanks Davo111 but post #66 is telling them to do things for people they don’t know and I have kids that age and they are the ones that suggested to me that something like a plaque on the wall would be good. I agree with my children on this one because sometimes you need to think like a 16 year old and we all need to remember that we have all been there. We all may have not smoked or had a drink underage but we are not all perfect.

triffid said :

That, to me, is a measure of respect and honoring soemone’s memory. And that’s respect rightfully earned, not just another commodity that is bestowed as of right or given in response to demand. For respect can only ever be earned.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Seems like the modern trend is to treat respect as a commodity that is demanded by, but not shown by, people. Respect is a two-way street. It should be earnt (as true respect is) – but it can also be extorted.

chooks said :

Has anyone tried to talk to these young adults and given them some advise

Yeah it has been done, (post #66 and many more). However we just get the usual response: “YOU DUNNO WAT ITS LYK TO LOSE A FRIEND”

Has anyone tried to talk to these young adults and given them some advise about putting up a plaque with Michael’s details on it for the life of that wall???? This is a situation where the kids are upset and they are not to sure what to do….. This is where they need some guideance from an adult. Wake up and smell the roses, Michael by the pitcures seems to be an average kid that was trying to make something of his life cause why would he be attending CIT. I think the adults need to take the upper had here and grow up!

I didn’t know Michael, but I wish I had’ve. He sounds like the greatest guy EVA.

My first loss of a good close mate happened when I was 17.

He went down in the Falklands on HMS Sheffield. Me and some of the lads still meet when I’m back in the UK, to crack a glass of cider, Ostrich’s* prefered tipple, down at the beach, where we had spent a many happy evenings with him.

His name is on several memorials, so I suppose I have no need to do a scribble in honour of him down the bus depot toilets.

*Not his real name.

Lucy687 said :

Thank god there is an adult out there that will admit to doing some of the stuff we’ve done.

wow, thats all you got out of his post. /speechless

Well said, Triffid. I certainly respect that.

#152
– Thank god there is an adult out there that will admit to doing some of the stuff we’ve done.

What the hell . . . I’ll take up the challange and reflect back to my earlier days. Smokin’? Check. Drinkin’ heaps a p*ss? Check. Flanno shirts (yesterday’s ‘hoodie’)? Check. Angels and AC/DC? Check. Hangin’ round doing nuffin? Check. Hoonin’ round in modified, barely legal cars? Check. Friends my age dying around me? Check (the ‘score card’ from back then reads one light aircraft crash, one motor vehicle operation, one leukemia. All in the space of just over one year). So, yeah, I’ve suffered some loss. And, in terms of these days, I’d would probably have been classified as a bevan / bogan by many . . . was fine with me at the time.

The mate I lost in the aircrash bought the most hurt. He was part of a very close circle of friends. Like the rest of us, he’d had his rough times but was starting to make headway in the world. The aircraft he died in had hit the ground that hard that the knives belonging to the chef he was travelling with were literally shattered by the force of the impact. Bizzarely, though, the two bottles of quite expensive red wine my mate had in his luggage were intact. He had called me only two days before to tell me that he’d discovered this drop and that he was coming by on his days off to share it. It was the last time we spoke.

Our ‘group’s’ common bond was motorsport and rallying in particular. His funeral procession was led by a dozen of the the state’s (then) top competiors in their rally cars. The service was very moving. We had a wake, drank far too much, and all got very ’emotional and tired’. At that wake, our group made a vow.

Three months later we met to carry out our vows. It was during the running of a round of the Australian Rally Championship (told you we were bevans / bogans). We all drove to a particular spot in the forest the event was being held at: a specator point that our mate was especially fond of, as it was there that the rally bug first bit him. We watched the competing cars all come by as we had first done with our departed mate all those years ago. Once the last car went by, and the crowd eventually dispersed, there remained, in the isolated solitude of the forest, just our group. By then it was near midnight. It was then that we opened one of the bottles of red wine that had survivied the aircrash and, with nary a dry eye among us, shared it into the glasses, enamal mugs and coffeee cups that we had bought and toasted his life and his memory.

My point? Many of us lost people close to us when we were young. Heaven knows I had more than my fair share (and seem to have continued to do so as well). But, at no time did we yearn for such open and public displays of grief. To us, grief was a very private thing. It affected us all differently and manifested in many, many ways. One of our group used to get himself into brawls down the local pub so that, in getting pummeled, he’d feel something . . . anything. But, every year thereafter, those of us who could would meet in the forest on a given weekend and share a bottle of our mates favourite drop. And, when I, in later years, competed in that event, I drove it while wearing one of my mate’s pieces of clothing (he was always seen in his favourite dress of jeans and a blue singlet: flanno optional. I wore a singlet).

That, to me, is a measure of respect and honoring soemone’s memory. And that’s respect rightfully earned, not just another commodity that is bestowed as of right or given in response to demand. For respect can only ever be earned. Fitting tributes are not written on a dunny door or a bus interchange wall. My mate never hung around in the forest (we used to ‘hang’ at the local bogan pub), but it was while there, while he was still with us, that our gathering had a special sense of togetherness and occasion.

So, I get it . . . I really do. I get the grief and understand and feel for the loss some of you are experiencing. But, what I really struggle with is the manner of expression of that loss. You’ll simply have to excuse me if I see that as very, very dissonant to what the emotions ought to be telling you.

blakeincanberra said :

I’m trying to give a voice for the youth of Canberra, and to show a different side to all those ‘adults’ who keep saying its stupid to have a memorial at a bus interchange. Perhaps you may not want to be remembered the same way that Michael will be remembered, which is fine. But you didn’t know Michael.

Oh come on, I am also part of the youth of Canberra, I had a friend die last year, and I still don’t agree that grief means you have the need and the right to vandalise large areas of public places for make trashy illegal memorials and then go crazy when, understandably, you find out it has to go.

It’s Thy Dungeoman, look up the strongbad reference.

Mully Mully Mully, Clift Cres Clift Cres Clift Cres, Mully Mully Mully, is all that I am reading.

Skidbladnir said :

Few things are more common than teenagers thinking they’re original or special, and bureaucrats with no imagination.

ACTION giving the okay is just inviting an arms race of teenaged tragics looking to out-grieve eachother in public spaces, but in the most tacky ways possible.

This bowing down to their bad behaviour just enabled them, and made them think what they were doing was OK. It’s about time people stopped truckling to anyone who declares I’M OFFENDED! or I’M GRIEVING!. So what?

And I concur with Angreymonkey’s suggestion. These kids need to chill out, have a nice drink and a nice swim.

Lucy687 said :

What’s wrong with being a bogan anyway. I am so sick of generalisations and people treating the youths like we are worthless.

Stop saying it’s illegal; the police don’t care! If they did they would have been having quite a chat with the people involved.

As this thread has evolved, there have been relatively refreshing counter-arguments. There were a couple teenagers who took the time to provide insightful, logical, and reasonable arguments. Those were the responses I’ve been paying attention to, and thank those contributors for taking the time to think.

Then there were those like yours, arguments that immediately lost their teeth by contrasting an act of vandalism with respect for the deceased. These arguments used swearing, incoherent logic, threats, and straw men, finally concluding with a complete disrespect for the community that you are demanding respect from.

Adults were obviously kids at one point, but now have the benefit of experience to understand why society functions the way it does. Some of us were raised in times in which society was egalitarian in a different manner than it is today, where we didn’t run around demanding every little thing go our way. Demanding that your generation is somehow inherently special and immune to the rules accomplishes nothing. Complaining when adults do what they have to do (i.e. paint a wall to remove graffiti) leads to the responses you’ve seen here.

The painting will happen whether it be in a week or a month. And if you graffiti that wall again, it will be painted again. Eventually you’ll grow up and some other generation of kids will come through and vandalise that wall. Again it will be painted. Just as there will always be some group of kids who believe they deserve the right to do whatever they feel like, there will always be someone there to paint that wall.

Boganity is heavily under attack on this site as it’s not ok. It’s a degradation of society into an unthinking, anti-social, selfish lifestyle. It glorifies the most arrogant parts of society as aspirational goals. It demands to be treated as superior to everyone else. It has a blatant disregard for the rules by thinking that it’s above those rules for no rational reason. It brings out some of the worst this country can offer both domestically and internationally, which makes it a national embarrassment.

More than likely, the police didn’t arrest any of you the other day partly because they knew it would attract further boganic attention and spread the graffiti at a much higher rate, but also because this is a crime that can be just as easily rectified with a can of paint. Both ACTION and the police know that if they just wait it out, your attention will shift and the wall will be painted with little-to-no complaint.

Like myself and others have tried saying. There’s plenty of tributes and memorials that are respectful and inspiring. Writing on a wall at a bus stop is not a tribute. Making video that highlight the deceased giving the middle finger, drinking, and making fun of the homeless demeans the deceased person’s legacy.

Douche said :

blakeincanberra said :

Wow. The ‘adults’ of Canberra really have no compassion for Michael. My name is Blake, I’m 17, and just to be perfectly clear I only made an account on this website so that I could comment on this topic.

Whenever you ‘adults’ drive to work, do you ever notice how many crosses there are on the sides of the roads? Regardless of how those people died, or for whatever reasons they did, no-one tries to take them down even though they are clearly in the public eye. Has anyone stopped to think that maybe the wall reflects the same message?

Yeah but a cross on the road is not what that wall in the interchange is.

Chaz said :

blakeincanberra said :

I think the main difference between the youth and the ‘adults’ of today is passion…

Look, nobody cares about the actual wall. You’re not understanding this at all. This is a larger social comment on todays youth and how you think you are so special that you are above the law and you can do what you please in the guise of “oh, we’re hurting”. Boo hoo! Everyday Canberran’s are losing loved ones due to illness, disease, accidents, etc. A friend of mine who has passed away loved the Art Gallery. Does that give me the right to go in and steal his favourite works because I’m upset? No.

You kids can’t seem to think about anybody but yourselves and it’s getting out of control. You have no respect for anything or anyone and it’s only going to lead to a horrible future

chris820 said :

Blake’s dramatic post @ 131, accusing adults of today of not having passion.
Losing mates is a fact of life. It’s always hard. And it’ll happen a lot. But please don’t confusing the ability to deal with grief in a mature and dignified way as a lack of passion.

The criticism is only due to the fact that the kids are showing it by defacing public property. Not about the grief itself.

Chaz and Chris – I concur. As for Blake – the voice of youth – you will never understand how ridiculous your argument is until you are an adult. Currently, hormones are controlling your thought processes and so, this debate will go on and on with no end in sight. I have learnt from experience, it’s pointless arguing with teenagers, instead just tell them they have to follow the rules or else!

BTW, Blake, don’t put adults in same basket – loss of hair, weight problems, lack of energy, no passion etc. I know many middle age people (myself included) who still have their hair, have loads of energy (especially for sex and motorbike riding) and are happily married.

blakeincanberra said :

Wow. The ‘adults’ of Canberra really have no compassion for Michael. My name is Blake, I’m 17, and just to be perfectly clear I only made an account on this website so that I could comment on this topic.

Whenever you ‘adults’ drive to work, do you ever notice how many crosses there are on the sides of the roads? Regardless of how those people died, or for whatever reasons they did, no-one tries to take them down even though they are clearly in the public eye. Has anyone stopped to think that maybe the wall reflects the same message?

I sure do see it, no one removes them because this is where they have died.So, why not put up a wall at the Pine Island-is it not where Michael died?Not where he was hanging out (toilet door tribute is a cracker!).Do you see my point?

Blake’s dramatic post @ 131, accusing adults of today of not having passion.
Losing mates is a fact of life. It’s always hard. And it’ll happen a lot. But please don’t confusing the ability to deal with grief in a mature and dignified way as a lack of passion.

The criticism is only due to the fact that the kids are showing it by defacing public property. Not about the grief itself.

“You kids can’t seem to think about anybody but yourselves and it’s getting out of control. You have no respect for anything or anyone and it’s only going to lead to a horrible future”

I believe you plagerised this from an Egyptian tomb. Sooooo old…….

Slightly off topic but just checked out the Facebook tribute page and one of the advertisements on the side is “Canberra Bucket List – 365 things to do before you die”. Facebook may need to look into their ad placements (or is it Google?) as I have seen this type of thing happen a few times now!

Adults can stop repeating themselves. You keep calling us bogans; Are you kidding me? Sometimes people don’t get the best lifestyle and they just fit in with their friends.. What’s wrong with being a bogan anyway. I am so sick of generalisations and people treating the youths like we are worthless.
Stop saying it’s illegal; the police don’t care! If they did they would have been having quite a chat with the people involved.
You don’t know us. From what i’ve seen tonight and this morning i could be going round saying “all adults are rude and harsh on my generation!” but i’m not because that couldn’t be less true. In exactly the same way, not all youth are Bogans or immature. So honestly. Get over yourselves you are not better than us.

blakeincanberra said :

I think the main difference between the youth and the ‘adults’ of today is passion…

Look, nobody cares about the actual wall. You’re not understanding this at all. This is a larger social comment on todays youth and how you think you are so special that you are above the law and you can do what you please in the guise of “oh, we’re hurting”. Boo hoo! Everyday Canberran’s are losing loved ones due to illness, disease, accidents, etc. A friend of mine who has passed away loved the Art Gallery. Does that give me the right to go in and steal his favourite works because I’m upset? No.

You kids can’t seem to think about anybody but yourselves and it’s getting out of control. You have no respect for anything or anyone and it’s only going to lead to a horrible future

Lucy687 – i haven’t forgotten you, post #113

Yeah sorry but i didn’t mention the toilet at all. So don’t be asking me. Though i do agree. Why a toilet? it does seem rather odd. They should have just kept it in the one spot… But not the toilet.

However. A lot of people write on the back of toilet doors with just anything. So i don’t know why but they wrote it there. Get over it? Are they actually fighting to stop that being painted over?

So to all ‘adults’ who are still against keeping Michael’s Wall, you may have to wait around for those 4,000 names (depending on how regular you are), because the proof was in the pudding..

That is laughable. A Facebook ‘petition’ carries no weight whatsoever. I could start a petition calling for the banning of small boobs in public and get about 400,000 supporters.

Secondly, the picture of Michael next to a homeless man was obviously considered as ajoke at the time, so get over yourself.

Sure, few things make me laugh harder than a bloke who doesn’t have a home to go to and has to sleep on a bench. Someone, please stitch my sides back together.

imagine you were a teenager and one of your best/close friends passed away

I don’t need to imagine it. FWIW, I always found the best place to be was with the family of the deceased, as they need all the love and support they can get. That meant actually going to the parent’s house and offering support and sympathy, not hanging out where he used to hang out and breaking the law.

‘the ‘defacing’ of public property is our way of dealing with it if you don’t like it fine but no need to intimidate us saying you will paint over it and all the rest of it.’ Really? Well no, that is not acceptable. It is illegal on any level to deface property, and the government is not going to stand for it just because your friend has died. Yes obviously we don’t like it.. everytime we go to the interchange its written all over the bus timetables, making it hard to read. In what, 20 years time are we just supposed to be like oh yeah see that wall.. some kid drowned at pine island twenty years ago.. and yeah he owns the wall at the interchange now. I still cannot believe that remark. It’s not going to stay.

Also, it is not his fault for what happened, although he was drunk, police reports show that nothing could of happened to stop him from drowning, and that him being drunk had nothing to do with it, it could of happened to anyone.

It would not have happened to someone who had enough sense not to get drunk then go swimming. Your appalling lack of self responsibility and self respect, coupled with your idea that scribbles on a bus station wall constitutes a “memorial”, shows where you are going wrong in life.

Another pet peeve; “could of” is abhorrent, the term is “could have”.

Show some maturity guys, stop judging him, stop judging todays youth, stop comparing. Nobody cares what you have to say, do something better with your time.

The problem is that what you are seeing and reading here is “maturity, it would be wise of you to pay some attention to it. If you do not wish to be “judged” do not rub the public’s collective face in your vandalism, and do not try to justify said vandalism by claiming grief.

We can deal with our grieve the way we wish, yes vandalising a wall in an interchange might not be the right thing to do, but so what, its not hurting anyone, and your opinions are pointless.

Do you really think painting over it will stop this ? All it is going to do is encourage kids to go buy or steal spray cans and pens & paints and other shit to graffiti even more of the interchange.

So guys have fun with your taxes in painting over even more graffiti <3 have fun wasting your money, i love stealing it from you <3 <3 xoxoxooxoxox suck shit you pathetic disrespectful f****. THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS .

There you have it, the ultimate expression of immaturity. Like a child throwing his toys out of the pram, you demand every one conform to your wishes or you're going to continue to be naughty. And you really expect to get people to respect you by this? Grow up deal with your "grieve"[sic] by becoming a better person for it. Show some respect for your friends memory by growing up a bit.

If you really want to make a memorial, raise the funds to have a permanent tribute to him, set near where he died, or at the bus station, something the public can use and see his name associated with it.

Wow. The ‘adults’ of Canberra really have no compassion for Michael. My name is Blake, I’m 17, and just to be perfectly clear I only made an account on this website so that I could comment on this topic.

Whenever you ‘adults’ drive to work, do you ever notice how many crosses there are on the sides of the roads? Regardless of how those people died, or for whatever reasons they did, no-one tries to take them down even though they are clearly in the public eye. Has anyone stopped to think that maybe the wall reflects the same message? And which ‘adult’ came up the brilliant idea of painting over a wall that (was a regular hangout for Michael and his friends, and therefore) was commemorated as his memorial the day after his death. Did you not think of the timing? Or what might happen as a result of your hastiness?

I’m trying to give a voice for the youth of Canberra, and to show a different side to all those ‘adults’ who keep saying its stupid to have a memorial at a bus interchange. Perhaps you may not want to be remembered the same way that Michael will be remembered, which is fine. But you didn’t know Michael. Perhaps the messages that have been left for him of brotherhood, friendship and loyalty seem stupid and offensive to you, but you didn’t know Michael. The fact is, you didn’t know Michael, and after reading most of your posts, chances are you’ve never had a friend like him either. Many youths in Canberra knew him well, and a petition has been circling around Canberra asking people to lend their support for Michael’s Wall to remain, and after about 3 days, we have accumulated almost 4,000 names. This wall doesn’t just represent the memory of Michael Steep, it represents the youth of Canberra standing up for something we believe in. It represents friendship, brotherhood, passion and love. It represents all that Michael stood for, and everything that he’ll be remembered for.

I think the main difference between the youth and the ‘adults’ of today is passion. Somewhere in between your messy divorce, your hair loss and weight gain, your lack of energy, your back pains and your general loss of love, you forgot what it felt like to be a ‘child’ in today’s society.You say you were all teenagers once, and you know how it is, but you aren’t teenagers now. You don’t know how it feels to live as a teenager in our modern society, or how powerless we feel trying to save something that we are obviously passionate about. I didn’t know Michael, but I have a lot of friends who were very close to him. I wouldn’t be writing this post at 2 in the morning if I didn’t want to emphasize how much one 16-year-old’s death affects our small city of Canberra.

So to all ‘adults’ who are still against keeping Michael’s Wall, you may have to wait around for those 4,000 names (depending on how regular you are), because the proof was in the pudding..

Chaz said :

Lucy687 said :

What i find truely disrespectful is the generalisation of young people as ‘bogans’. What makes us bogan?…blah blah blah

What makes you bogan? Every guy having the same stupid rats tail hair cut, drinking down at pine island when you should be in school, caring more about hair straighteners than education, multiple pictures of middle fingers in what should be a tribute to reflect on the positive in ones life, yapping on about respect when there is a pic of the deceased making fun of a down & out homeless man (where is the respect there?)..

Should I keep going?

It’s very sad that a boy lost his life at a young age, but the world doesn’t revolve around little punks who feels they have the god given right to do what they please.

Okay, firstly. Don’t even try stereo type my whole generation. I’m sure you don’t approve, when people do the same to you.
Secondly, the picture of Michael next to a homeless man was obviously considered as ajoke at the time, so get over yourself.

do you people have any f***ing respect at all?
how does a wall we made for someone that was loved by everyone, affect you in any way?
grow up, you’re calling us “kids”, how about you read your comments over again.

steepyforever said :

who are you to call us bogans? sure we have rats tails, we drink, we smoke, we may dress wildly. but honestly, think back to when you were our age. no doubt the majority of you were doing the same.

Yeah…you’re really getting “being a teenager” confused with “being a bogan”. They’re different.

Few things are more common than teenagers thinking they’re original or special, and bureaucrats with no imagination.
ACTION giving the okay is just inviting an arms race of teenaged tragics looking to out-grieve eachother in public spaces, but in the most tacky ways possible.
Even for CIT students, calling toilet-door scrawlings a “shrine” is a pathetic effort.
Next time (and believe me, there will be a next time, everybody knows of someone who died during their time at high-school, and then more people will die while you’re in your early 20s, that much isn’t special) get serious about it, and use some chisels to really make your mark on the concrete.

Or get some friends to chip in, and see if you can’t get a few run Thats My Face dolls done up.
Or something simple, get something simple put up on top of Mt Taylor.
EG: A larger version of say, Christ the Redeemer modified to look like him.
It can’t be any more tacky than toilet scrawls.

Otherwise the only people who notice the memorial scrawl are going to be people who want to use the public toilets for glory holes, wondering why ‘Michael Steep’ never bothered to leave a contact number if he was getting such good reviews.

johnboy said :

Unless you’ve sat in the mods chair you’re in no position to judge the moderation.

Doing my best to give the kids an even break.

They have had their break.. 3 pages of repetitive BS. They should now all just chill out, have a drink and perhaps go for a swim.

johnboy said :

The interesting thing is it’s other teenagers who are being harshest.

Possibly true, I’m no longer a teen but still fit in that generation and these people are just embarrassing me.

breda said :

I thought adults weren’t so pathetic, picking on teenagers ahah. This is so pathetic get over it, its a free world….we’ll do what we want. You disrespectful people don’t know anything. Just because we wear trackies and hoodies and have jedis/rats tales does not make someone bogan. Michael was one of the best kids i knew. And nobody deserves to die at 16 years young.

You have no right to be judging him. We chose to put the memorial in the Woden interchange as this was one of the places he hung out most, and he hung out most there as he went to school about a 5 minute walk from there. So think about it before you start accusing and judging.

Also, it is not his fault for what happened, although he was drunk, police reports show that nothing could of happened to stop him from drowning, and that him being drunk had nothing to do with it, it could of happened to anyone.

Show some maturity guys, stop judging him, stop judging todays youth, stop comparing. Nobody cares what you have to say, do something better with your time.

We can deal with our grieve the way we wish, yes vandalising a wall in an interchange might not be the right thing to do, but so what, its not hurting anyone, and your opinions are pointless.

Do you really think painting over it will stop this ? All it is going to do is encourage kids to go buy or steal spray cans and pens & paints and other shit to graffiti even more of the interchange.

So guys have fun with your taxes in painting over even more graffiti <3 have fun wasting your money, i love stealing it from you <3 <3 xoxoxooxoxox suck shit you pathetic disrespectful f****. THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS .

AND WHAT THE F*** ;;;;

[snip]

shut the f*** up and go suck a f***en dick you f***en moron

RIP MICHAEEEELLL MWAAAHZZZ <3 xx
——————————————————————————–
Noice.

I especially like the 'show some maturity' line.

There are jobs waiting for you and your friends writing press releases for the ACT government, luckily.

Your parents must be so proud.

So JB I thought this site was moderated.

I’m voicing my opnion as others have on this site.

I’ve experienced death also – from close friends, babies, best friends, boy friends, brothers, parents and grandparents. You could say not such a lucky life “in life”. It has come in many forms, suicide, murder, old age, accident, gods wish. Whilst I get the need to reach out and express the feelings at whatever level – there is also a difference between expressing feelings and damaging property.

oh one more thing, R.I.P Steepy <3 'a friend to many, a brother to more' i'll always love you!

teenageyouth said :

because it’s not public enough and that’s what this phenomenen of public grieving is all about: people looking for attention and sympathy. “Look at me. Look how hard I grieve.”

I’ve got enough stuff to think about then giving selfish teenagers attention and sympathy because their idea of “grieving” is ruining a public site. No one cares how hard you grieve, no one really cares about you, besides of course your drop kick mates.

To tell you the truth I don’t really care for the bloke that died, it doesn’t sadden me, I didn’t know him, he doesn’t affect my life.

There are over 260 people dead in Christchurch, thats A LOT of bus interchanges, you and your mates should get cracking on them.

aw yeah heres just another comment from a typical ‘bogan’ you’ll all be thinking. well it’s not, alright?
i only had the privilege of meeting michael 1-2 times. and his passing has made a huge affect on me. not only me, nearly 4,000 other who have all clicked ‘attend’ on the facebook event. (sounds stupid to include facebook, but just trying to get my point across’

who are you to call us bogans? sure we have rats tails, we drink, we smoke, we may dress wildly. but honestly, think back to when you were our age. no doubt the majority of you were doing the same. and yeah i totally agree that spray painting the wall is vandalism. whos it affecting by having it at the interchange? theres SO much graffitti there. how come they wont paint over that but there painting over a memorial which means alot to more people then you can imagine.

he hung out there basically everyday. it was right next to where he went to school. basically theres so many memories there with him. its somewhere where we can all come together and be together and show how much we miss him. i know its stupid to have it at an interchange. but if it was his hangout shouldnt it be reasonable. and people saying ‘have a shrine at a pine’ honestly do u think his family and friends can go down there now? after all thats where he died.

its been less then a week since hes passed. why would they even try paint over it? i mean seriously leave it a little longer? we’re all grieving, we all do it in different ways and somehow this is helping us.

you all say ‘yeah we all lose friends and family members, someone dies everyday’. sure that statement is true. we’re young. for most of us this is the first death we’ve experienced and we don’t know how to handle it. maybe give us words of advice instead of being inconsiderate and telling us we’re in the wrong. you’re older then us, help us out a little?

‘it’s not classy to have it at an interchange’ well clearly its not classy. of course we know its not classy. we dont intend on making a memorial classy. ‘kids yelling abuse to randoms’ yes i to agree thats wrong. but its hard for us, were all angry.

‘do i get a memorial at an interchange when i die?’ oh please, do you hang around the interchange with all your mates everyday? no you don’t.

i’m not going to go on about respect. cause i think that point is proven.

i didn’t wanna write a novel but i just wanted to express myself. everyone can ‘have a dig’ at what i said now. but i was doing stating opinions from both points of views really.

really? i understand when someone older passes away that you can go and have a drink at a pub or you can go to the spot in which that they passed away and have a memorial for them. for everyone who this incredible boy was friends with woden was.the spot in which they may have met him, had some good memories with him. we cannot all just hop into our cars and drive around to any spot to pay respect. we all grieve in different ways so who are any of you to judge the way another gets through this time. imagine you were a teenager and one of your best/close friends passed away and this was set up for them and someone tryed to take it off you, you would do everything in your right mind to make sure it stayed. imagine it was your child who had passed away and their friends had done this for them, you would respect it and leave it alone. you all by the sounds of these comments older then most of the people this wall truely has an impact on. so why dont you respect how we all grieve and leave this wall. there is so much more/better things for you to have a little cry over then a public remembrance of an amazing boy.

i couldn’t have said it any better myself, he was an amazing person whom was and still is loved by so many people. the ‘defacing’ of public property is our way of dealing with it if you don’t like it fine but no need to intimidate us saying you will paint over it and all the rest of it. Skyfire is not a bogan festival, if it was barely anyone would go so how about try thinking about TRUE comebacks next time you start to type.

I use the interchange everyday as well.. I am the same age as and know a lot of the teenagers affected by the death of this boy. He went to my old school .. and yes I did regularly see him at this said “wall”. Yes.. It is sad, and maybe one thing lead to another in the process of making this ‘shrine’, but really .. did you expect it to be there in a year or so in time? Get real. You cannot deface public property just because someone used to hang out there and they’ve now died. That does not make the wall theirs. I as a teenager do disagree with how the other teenagers on this site and at the interchange have been acting.. it’s ridiculous. Just because your mate has died does not mean we all have to drop what we are doing and acknowledge that. We all lose people! My grandma hung out at a singing group .. Does that mean I should go and vandalise the facilities there? No. It was acceptable on a temporary basis.. but the idea of it staying was always out of the question. If he really meant that much to you .. give him more than a spray painted all at a bus interchange, it’s not a process of grieving anymore.. It’s a call for attention. In saying that, yes he was a good kid. And it’s extremely sad that he died the way he did, I am in no way disrespecting him, but these kids are out of line.

because it’s not public enough and that’s what this phenomenen of public grieving is all about: people looking for attention and sympathy. “Look at me. Look how hard I grieve.”

really? i understand when someone older passes away that you can go and have a drink at a pub or you can go to the spot in which that they passed away and have a memorial for them. for everyone who this incredible boy was friends with woden was.the spot in which they may have met him, had some good memories with him. we cannot all just hop into our cars and drive around to any spot to pay respect. we all grieve in different ways so who are any of you to judge the way another gets through this time. imagine you were a teenager and one of your best/close friends passed away and this was set up for them and someone tryed to take it off you, you would do everything in your right mind to make sure it stayed. imagine it was your child who had passed away and their friends had done this for them, you would respect it and leave it alone. you all by the sounds of these comments older then most of the people this wall truely has an impact on. so why dont you respect how we all grieve and leave this wall. there is so much more/better things for you to have a little cry over then a public remembrance of an amazing boy.

people people people… dont you get it… the bogans will find something else to occupy themselves soon enough and then action can paint over the wall in a few short weeks when they go back to smoking their cones, drinking their bourbon and polishing their fully sick rides.

dont forget, the bogan festival of skyfire is coming in a few short weeks. all the pretty lights will distract them.

johnboy said :

lukeyp said :

he was reported missing at 5 30 mate, i dont know anyone who goes to school at 5 30.

Apologies, the tribute page page said 2.30 until this morning, but has since been changed to 6.

It still says it took 5 hours to find his body and he was located about 8.00-8.30 so 2.30-3.30, they should have just said that Thursday afternoon is our Rec Units, well that’s what we did on Thursday’s after lunch, that was a couple of years ago now though!

johnboy said :

Lucy687 said :

Also, I don’t know if you realised or not but michael died… at night time. I dunno about you but i sure don’t go to school at night.

Pretty sure he was last seen in the water around 2.30pm. Anyone else have a different time?

Also would love to see the police report saying alcohol was not a factor, I’ve seen no such document.

I have it on good authority alcohol (2-3 litres of it) was a factor as was the heavy materiel he was wearing instead of swimmers.

lukeyp said :

he was reported missing at 5 30 mate, i dont know anyone who goes to school at 5 30.

Apologies, the tribute page page said 2.30 until this morning, but has since been changed to 6.

FallenStar said :

wow. you have got to be kidding me. so do any of you have hearts?? yeah,f***ing blame all of his mates and family for being so upset,he was 16,friends with everyone and an amazing guy. the wall should stay,and trust me haha..we are all doing everything and anything to keep it there. thats where he was always chilling,his spot,where we new we could find him with a smile on his face. i bet if you guys new him as well as we all did,you would be all in to keep it. so yeah, maybe we need to grow up,but at least we have respect.

Respect? Who are you respecting by drawing on a wall like a 3 year old? Certainly not the community who have to walk past your vandalism every day. You pay your respects at his funeral or at his grave, there is no respect in writing on the back of a toilet door.

“#103”

plenty of people go to school at 5.30 or later.
It’s called university. You may not have heard of it.
There’s also night classes, AIE, CIT, all of which offer after hours learning.

Oh really make that time up to? Congratulations detective your wrong once again!

Chaz said :

a tribute to reflect on the positive in ones life

That seems to be the problem – someone who spent their time hanging around a bus interchange drinking and smoking didn’t achieve anything to speak of. At least nothing worth mentioning by the people who claim to know him the best, friends who are indulging themselves in property damage and talking about stealing spray paints.

Lucy687 said :

Chaz said :

drinking down at pine island when you should be in school, caring more about hair straighteners than education, .

Also, I don’t know if you realised or not but michael died… at night time. I dunno about you but i sure don’t go to school at night.
People drink when they are young. The drinking didn’t make him die. So.. Sorry, but what is your point? haha.
You’d be surprised how many people appreciate their education.

Umm I think you will find that if he wasn’t drinking, but still swimming, he would have been fine. Like wise, if you and all the people down there weren’t drinking you probably would have been able to help him. That is not the point of this discussion.

The point is you are disrespecting the people of Canberra by writing on property that does not belong to you and property that you have no right to deface.

You are focusing on people not respecting your friend is dead, it has gone beyond that. You and your mates getting on here saying “We just gonna keep on drawin on that painted up wall, we taint got nuffin better to do, dis is all bullsh!t.” It is childish and seen as the ultimate mark of disrespect to every person who has died, EVER!

Believe it all not, people die every day, like every day. Every day someone’s friend, son, daughter, mother, father, uncle, aunt, grandmother or grandfather dies. How many of them do you see getting together and writing all over the walls of a bus interchange? Yeah, not many, because society say’s that that is not the right way to conduct one’s self.

Why aren’t you responding to the post’s offering advice, like using the graffiti wall to make a mural, or setting up a fund, or anything like that? All you are doing is saying “You’se are all f#ckin c#nt’s, you’se dunno wot it’s like to be hurtin, you’se would do the same if your mate died. Sh!t, poo, bum, f#ck!” We wouldn’t do the same if my mate died, yeah I’m a bit older then you, but what your doing is not classy.

You’re not special, you aren’t different, you are a member of society, whether you decide to be a productive member or a burden on society is up to you. What you are doing now is not the best way to remember your friend. It isn’t the best way to show people how you and your friends are. Do something productive for the memory of your friend, not something that will make the people of Canberra hate him and you.

johnboy said :

Lucy687 said :

Also, I don’t know if you realised or not but michael died… at night time. I dunno about you but i sure don’t go to school at night.

Pretty sure he was last seen in the water around 2.30pm. Anyone else have a different time?

Also would love to see the police report saying alcohol was not a factor, I’ve seen no such document.

he was reported missing at 5 30 mate, i dont know anyone who goes to school at 5 30.

Lucy687 said :

“

georgesgenitals said :

RIPmichaaaelsteep said :

guess what you heartless adults, they’re leaving the wall up.

Maybe I’ll head down there late tonight and put some of my own graffiti up. Something about Darwin at work mixing drinking and swimming.

“

Wow. Mate, if you do that… Thats disgusting. Insulting somebody who has died like that.

I’ll be doing it to insult you, not the late Michael.

That nasty feeling you have about someone defacing something is how many of us feel about you stupid kids defacing the bus interchange. Vandalising public property does nothing but make you look like a bunch of total losers.

Lucy687 said :

Also, I don’t know if you realised or not but michael died… at night time. I dunno about you but i sure don’t go to school at night.

Pretty sure he was last seen in the water around 2.30pm. Anyone else have a different time?

Also would love to see the police report saying alcohol was not a factor, I’ve seen no such document.

It seems that bogans are celebrating victory?Not too early?
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=167549956629929

so us voters should be pushing for national service, yes?

michael was my mate, a good mate at that, sure he wasnt the best kid, but after what him and his family went through as kids you cant blame him, what we did on the wall was is in his honour, and it deserves to stay there, ACTION has every right to take it off, seeing as it is their property, but they shouldnt, because if it was one of their mates, their family members, they definitely wouldnt want them to take it down, its not a sign of graffiti, its a sign of respect, it doesnt need to be taken down, its not hurting anyone, its not bothering anyone, why should it be taken down ?

Pommy bastard said :

Pet peeve alert; there is no such word as “alot”, it is “a lot”, or more correctly ” great number of”. (Also you have memorises “of him” not “with him.”

“memorises”!

LMAO alert: Old farts lecturing kids about anything and everything and mucking it up themselves!

if you have the right to graffiti this wall over your care for his passing, then by your logic i have the right to graffiti ontop of your graffiti, for whatever i care about? otherwise you’re just an immature hypocrite

Chaz said :

drinking down at pine island when you should be in school, caring more about hair straighteners than education, .

Also, I don’t know if you realised or not but michael died… at night time. I dunno about you but i sure don’t go to school at night.
People drink when they are young. The drinking didn’t make him die. So.. Sorry, but what is your point? haha.
You’d be surprised how many people appreciate their education.

I thought adults weren’t so pathetic, picking on teenagers ahah. This is so pathetic get over it, its a free world….we’ll do what we want. You disrespectful people don’t know anything. Just because we wear trackies and hoodies and have jedis/rats tales does not make someone bogan. Michael was one of the best kids i knew. And nobody deserves to die at 16 years young.

You have no right to be judging him. We chose to put the memorial in the Woden interchange as this was one of the places he hung out most, and he hung out most there as he went to school about a 5 minute walk from there. So think about it before you start accusing and judging.

Also, it is not his fault for what happened, although he was drunk, police reports show that nothing could of happened to stop him from drowning, and that him being drunk had nothing to do with it, it could of happened to anyone.

Show some maturity guys, stop judging him, stop judging todays youth, stop comparing. Nobody cares what you have to say, do something better with your time.

We can deal with our grieve the way we wish, yes vandalising a wall in an interchange might not be the right thing to do, but so what, its not hurting anyone, and your opinions are pointless.

Do you really think painting over it will stop this ? All it is going to do is encourage kids to go buy or steal spray cans and pens & paints and other shit to graffiti even more of the interchange.

So guys have fun with your taxes in painting over even more graffiti <3 have fun wasting your money, i love stealing it from you <3 <3 xoxox———–
Noice.

I especially like the 'show some maturity' line.

There are jobs waiting for you and your friends writing press releases for the ACT government, luckily.

Your parents must be so proud.

Lucy687 said :

What i find truely disrespectful is the generalisation of young people as ‘bogans’. What makes us bogan?…blah blah blah

What makes you bogan? Every guy having the same stupid rats tail hair cut, drinking down at pine island when you should be in school, caring more about hair straighteners than education, multiple pictures of middle fingers in what should be a tribute to reflect on the positive in ones life, yapping on about respect when there is a pic of the deceased making fun of a down & out homeless man (where is the respect there?)..

Should I keep going?

It’s very sad that a boy lost his life at a young age, but the world doesn’t revolve around little punks who feels they have the god given right to do what they please.

“

georgesgenitals said :

RIPmichaaaelsteep said :

guess what you heartless adults, they’re leaving the wall up.

Maybe I’ll head down there late tonight and put some of my own graffiti up. Something about Darwin at work mixing drinking and swimming.

“

Wow. Mate, if you do that… Thats disgusting. Insulting somebody who has died like that.

Also, Lucy687 the reason why people are calling your friends bogans is because what has been done is blatantly illegal, and very disrespectful to Michael.
Imagine the next time someone is taking has horrendous diarrhoea in that toilet, and looks up to see his name written there. Do you think that’s something you’d like to be associated with?

Wow. I’m sorry but how on earth would you know what MICHAEL would find disrespectful. His friends did it. They knew him best. So you are saying his friends… The people who knew him… Disrespected him by Showing everybody how much he is missed? Goddddd. You don’t know him. Don’t say that.

RIPmichaaaelsteep said :

guess what you heartless adults, they’re leaving the wall up.

Maybe I’ll head down there late tonight and put some of my own graffiti up. Something about Darwin at work mixing drinking and swimming.

kreeeyl said :

well they obviously didn’t know michael, therefore don’t understand our loss.

Oh my god, its like speaking to children… oh wait. Please read the first part of post #17 & #79

Lucy687 said :

However, it was said that they sought permission. If permission was granted the person who gave them permission to paint on the wall should really shoulder some of the blame.

Sure, let us know who gave permission. *IF* it was given, which i doubt – They probably expected you to leave some flowers, not graffiti 3 walls and a toilet door.

Lucy687 said :

I do not condone the memorial wall. But i don’t see how it directly affects you.

I pay tax. Tax money was used to fix up the vandalism and to pay for 30 police to protect a wall (and the painters) when they could be doing more important things.

Lucy687 said :

Also what would be hard for Michael’s friends and family would be watching their last respects to Michael be painted over. What are they going to do? Write the exact same thing somewhere else? it loses meaning when you have to write it again. (…)

See post #66. You really should have had a meeting at school, asked teachers for advice BEFORE creating memorials.

Lucy687 said :

Their intentions were obviously NOT to hurt or disrespect anybody

Really? then why did 80 youths run down to “protect the wall” when it was being painted over. Also, why were you out of school? (another legal obligation). What about the students who were yelling abuse at passers-by who looked at the wall?

Also, Lucy687 the reason why people are calling your friends bogans is because what has been done is blatantly illegal, and very disrespectful to Michael.
Imagine the next time someone is taking has horrendous diarrhoea in that toilet, and looks up to see his name written there. Do you think that’s something you’d like to be associated with?

guess what you heartless adults, they’re leaving the wall up.

Lucy687 said :

Michael’s death was a tragedy to many. Don’t undermine that.
I do not condone the memorial wall. But i don’t see how it directly affects you.
Also what would be hard for Michael’s friends and family would be watching their last respects to Michael be painted over. What are they going to do? Write the exact same thing somewhere else? it loses meaning when you have to write it again. These ‘kids’ (which i find to be a derogatory term; does being a ‘kid’ mean we have any less importance in society and does it mean we cannot voice our veiws!) were just trying to show the community how much he meant to them. Their intentions were obviously NOT to hurt or disrespect anybody.

But the thing you and the others just don’t understand is that people don’t mind that you and your friends are grieving for your friend who died. Thats fine. There may have been some insensitive comment made about the guy but thats part of semi-anonymous commenting and people should have thick enough skin to expect and disregard things like that. But, what people have a problem with is blatant vandalism of their community. Whether permission was granted is another matter and since I haven’t seen any actual proof, I will assume that it wasn’t. The government has to spend money to clean that up, the workers who tried cleaning it up were harassed and that resulted in police having to attend to sort things out when no doubt they had better things to do. This does affect people. It may surprise some of you but people generally don’t care for graffiti and vandalism. Right across the road there is countless metres of blank walls to go nuts on that a lot less people will see. Even better, a cemetery! Or what was the problem with organising something at school? This is just thoughtless vandalism. No quarter given.

well this is sad on your behalf because we’ve lost someone and your worrying about a wall? maybe one day everything will have to be painted over, but why now? why not in a few months. The interchange is special to us because its where we spent time with michael everyday, maybe its bogan, but so what, it’s where he happened to be. and it might be a wall to you, but to us it’s where we can publically express how much we love and miss him. If we believed that we were disrespecting Michael by doing this, we wouldn’t be doing it.

Respect? You idiots know nothing about it. If you did, you wouldn’t be vandalising public property.

“maybe woden interchange is a bogan place to hang out, but when it happens to be right next to where he was educated there’s really no question as to why he was there everyday.”

well clearly he should have spent more time at school and less time bumming around the interchange. Maybe if he went to school he would have learnt not to get drunk and go swimming.

Lauren Watson is a terrible witness. After this story was posted, she clearly stated on FB

Obviously him and his friends exhume intelligence.

Have you ever heard of the word RESPECT?! Clearly you haven’t because most of you are not showing any at all along with compassion. It makes me sick to think you could all be so awful towards someone who has passed away.

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

Well I hope this is an eye opener as to why young people shouldn’t drink. You get drunk and something terrible like this happens…

Don’t do the graffiti thing, it shows you have no respect for society and it’s property, why would you expect society to respect you?

You should be focusing on helping his family and ensuring this does not happen again, instead you are worrying over something that was never going to last forever.

“it’s only a wall!”

Okay, if that’s the case, why don’t you go and write & paint this ‘memorial’ crap all over the side of your your parent’s house and then stand in front of them, stamp your tiny feet and tell them “It’s only a wall!”?

See how far that gets you.

And to all the idiots on here telling us about respect – do you seriously think getting all angst ridden and defacing a wall & a toilet door ‘in memory’ of your mate is showing your deceased mate any real respect?

well they obviously didn’t know michael, therefore don’t understand our loss.

What i find truely disrespectful is the generalisation of young people as ‘bogans’. What makes us bogan? I am a young person and no i didn’t know Michael personally but a lot of my friends did. It’s really quite disgusting how SOME of you adults have been speaking to these young people (who are infact older than me). I can understand both points of view. But is it hurting the people that think it is wrong? Has it negatively impacted on your life? Maybe it is wrong, i understand that. However, it was said that they sought permission. If permission was granted the person who gave them permission to paint on the wall should really shoulder some of the blame.

Obviously, Michael has impacted on a lot of lives. These people who wrote on that wall did so because they loved and respected him. Mistakes are definitely made by the youth of today. But when you make mistakes no matter how old you are.
As i am aware some of you are in fact parents; how would you feel if somebody was saying things like this to your children? calling them ‘bogans’ and ‘criminals’ ? I can pretty much assure you that you don’t know everything about your child especially if they are 15-16.

Michael’s death was a tragedy to many. Don’t undermine that.
I do not condone the memorial wall. But i don’t see how it directly affects you.
Also what would be hard for Michael’s friends and family would be watching their last respects to Michael be painted over. What are they going to do? Write the exact same thing somewhere else? it loses meaning when you have to write it again. These ‘kids’ (which i find to be a derogatory term; does being a ‘kid’ mean we have any less importance in society and does it mean we cannot voice our veiws!) were just trying to show the community how much he meant to them. Their intentions were obviously NOT to hurt or disrespect anybody.

So honestly. I am a teen. Only 14. And i am saying that we are young and finding our footing. What makes you better than us? What give you the right to call us bogans? Nothing. So please do not treat us as though we are immature and worthless.

kreeeyl said :

this is disgusting. you all have no respect, and you all make that so clear. people grieve in different ways, and sure, maybe woden interchange is a bogan place to hang out, but when it happens to be right next to where he was educated there’s really no question as to why he was there everyday. we, as his friends have chosen to grieve there because its somewhere where we can all be there for eachother, everyday or whenever we need, because it’s a place where we always had a laugh, or a hug with him. its naive how you arrogant adults are trying to impose rules over us kids again, when all we’re trying to do is remember our friend. you say graffiti on the walls is disgusting, when really what you’re doing is 10000 times worse, because your taking away something that is so important to some people and if you have no respect for this, then you clearly have no respect for him. we love him, and we miss him and how we deal with losing him really shouldn’t be for you to judge.

The interesting thing is it’s other teenagers who are being harshest.

this is disgusting. you all have no respect, and you all make that so clear. people grieve in different ways, and sure, maybe woden interchange is a bogan place to hang out, but when it happens to be right next to where he was educated there’s really no question as to why he was there everyday. we, as his friends have chosen to grieve there because its somewhere where we can all be there for eachother, everyday or whenever we need, because it’s a place where we always had a laugh, or a hug with him. its naive how you arrogant adults are trying to impose rules over us kids again, when all we’re trying to do is remember our friend. you say graffiti on the walls is disgusting, when really what you’re doing is 10000 times worse, because your taking away something that is so important to some people and if you have no respect for this, then you clearly have no respect for him. we love him, and we miss him and how we deal with losing him really shouldn’t be for you to judge.

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.

I will agree that I drank and smoked as a teenager, I did not, however vandalise. More to the point, I did not vandalise using the excuse of bereavement to damage property which was not my own.

we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree,

To say it is “not the classiest” is an understatement, to vandalise it further makes it less classy.

but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him.

Pet peeve alert; there is no such word as “alot”, it is “a lot”, or more correctly ” great number of”. (Also you have memorises “of him” not “with him.”

why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

What they want is a non-threatening bus interchange unsullied by your graffiti, and probably without your presence.

By all means grieve, by all means share your loss, by all means support one another. But you do not, and should not need to do it in this way. If you want to mark your friend’s passing, do it in ways which bring his memory credit. Do it in ways which bring you credit. Use this experience to become a better person.

This is not the way to celebrate your friends life.

I’m not agreeing that what these kids have done is right, because in fact we all know that you can’t defame a public wall just because someone has died and if we all did it every time someone died then there would be a lot of sad walls around. But I want to let you all know that I am pretty disgusted by you, as adults you are of course wiser and know better, and yet you’re picking apart this sixteen year old girl here on the riot act for what reason? Oh she’s a “bogan”? I think you need to think back to when you were sixteen and question some of the choices you all made, were you all so perfect? When you were sixteen did you ever have someone you know just suddenly die? Can’t you see that this poor girl is grieving? Yeah she’s not the most eloquent of us, but she’s sad! He only died a week ago! So why don’t we give her a little bit of room to grieve. These might be your definitions of ” bogan” but I imagine a lot of them have never experienced the loss of a friend and they are doing whatever they can to cope with that. Like I said at the start, I agree that the wall should be painted over and the memorial can go somewhere more appropriate, but for the purpose of this discussion forum, I really just want you all to stop and think that when you’re making these comments, you’re talking to a little sixteen year old who has just come into contact with her first instance of someone close to her age dying. These kids think they’re invincible and they’re finding out that they’re not. This will probably stick with some of them forever. It’s a sad thing, and it was no more than a few days ago that this was first reported on here, and before you knew anything about who Michael Steep was you were all expressing how sad it was too.

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

I feel for your loss, I really do. It is sad and shocking to lose a friend so suddenly.

But the interchange is NOT yours to graffiti, nor is it your right to impinge on the rights of everyone else who use the interchange and don’t want to be confronted by a terribly ugly memorial.

As has been suggested previously, why don’t you all chip in and commission a more permanent memorial from a skilled artist on the spaces that are provided for graffiti art. Not only will it look better than the current ugly mess, I’m sure it would appreciated by all that knew and loved Michael.

Hey crystal 94! I once was a teenager who smoked too many Winny Reds and drank too much KB (now I’m showing my age). I lost friends too but I did not consider vandalising property as part of the grieving process. Consider this – the bus interchange is owned by the taxpayers and the government, not you. Stick to FB and video tributes.

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

So you dribble on about respect, yet turn around and say that you and your idiotic friends will graffiti the entire PUBLIC bus interchange if the site gets cleaned up?

Bogans are so ironical

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect,

for what? Some angry, vandalistic anti-social kids who think they have the right to do anything they want because a friend died? You have got to be kidding.

These bogan grief-fests are depressing though, because we’re confronted with the current and future social problems that we will have to deal with, and pay taxes to have dealt-with.

Clue Time: just because you are sad and upset about something does NOT give you carte blanche to behave badly, deface public property, behave like deranged chimps and not be criticised for it.

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us…etc etc etc.

Why is it always poorly constructed paragraphs, full of swearing and redundant logic, that you and your friends choose to defend your points?

Is this the same person with a different username, or just a general trend in scholastic ability amongst your social circle?

As I stated earlier, use those critical thinking skills and learn to differentiate between critiques of bogan culture and vandalistic behaviour (which is the entire point of this thread) from attacks specifically against the deceased as an individual (which aren’t occurring but repeatedly form the core of these ill-conceived arguments).

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend.

They are just coming from a different place that’s all. That’s one of the problems with online public forums. Just ignore it for now and get on with what you are going through. Trust me, you are much better off not dealing with this people at this point in time. Later on you might want to consider some of what they have said or not and that will be your choice. For now, it’s not important.

…Or here’s an idea

You could establish a foundation in Michael’s name and seek donations from members of your neighbourhood to do charitable events or community service such as repainting the interchange, fixing peoples fences, pavements, clean up days, car washing etc etc… and donate all proceeds raised to kids alive do the five or a local swimming school or alcohol awareness programs.

Or volunteer your time for a day/week/month/year in his honour at said facilities or numerous charities in town. (depending on your attention span, which I imagine is small)

BTW no one smokes anymore it is bad for you. TIme to grow up and face the big bad world that uncaringly takes and takes while all we have is what we do for each other. Here’s a lesson as well. NO ONE ELSE CARES.

Good luck.

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

Don’t lump us all in with the 4chan wannabes. I understand why you have chosen to remember your friend the way you have. I lost a dear friend in tragic circumstacnes when I was 17 and my ways of grieving would have been met with disdain by the same crowd that were apparently born old. My heart goes out to you and your friends.

crystal94 said :

they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

Is that a threat of some sort?
I, for instance, do not want to pay higher rates just because chuv scum like you and your friends deface public property, it all adds, we, as rate payers, have to pay for it.
My kids are your age, but they don’t waste their time like you do.And seems to me, that they will be supporting you through their taxes soon. I’m pissed off!!

crystal94 said :

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

Go on, you wont do it….

obviously you people have no respect, all of us have just lost a really good friend. yeh were teenagers we drink and smoke, so f***ing what!? im sure you all did when you were younger, just think that your not f***in innocent.
we miss michael and that wall is a way of us expressing our feelings. the interchange isnt the classiest place i agree, but its where michael used to hang out and its where we all have alot of memories with him. why doesnt action paint over the other crap everywhere instead of painting over something that means alot to all of us. its not hurting anyone being there. they can paint over it but it will just outrage all us kids and make us graffiti through the whole interchange im sure thats not what they want.

Pommy bastard said :

kaylamayy said :

. i am apart of this wall.

The ultimate existential dilemma, how profound is that? Camus, Satre, and Kafka eat your hearts out! There’s a new kid on the block.

This needs to be posted again haha

kaylamayy said :

now we are fighting for it to be there for good.

But what happens when the next young bogan dies, will you find some more public space to deface or will you recycle that wall?

And how do you determine who merits some public vandalism in their honour, and who doesn’t? Is there an age requirement… if they’re under 20, they’re in, if it’s your mum or granddad, they’re out?

kaylamayy said :

Davo111 said :

kaylamayy said :

. i am apart of this wall.

Please post your details so we can report you to the police for vandalism. My guess is you won’t because you’re a selfish coward.

Also, its interesting you asked for “respect” to keep this wall going. Did you “respect” public property when you wrote on it? Did you seek permission from the local council before embarking on your spray paint adventure? i think not.

this is great, cops already have my details. i spoke to them the day the painters came to paint over it & nothing happened to me. i told them to arrest me for god sakes cause i was not going to move from that wall. i think we also need to realise, it isnt all spray paint. there are messages there for friends of michael & his family. & we actually did get permission the day of writting on the wall. now we are fighting for it to be there for good.

Tsk tsk tsk, poor young Kayla.

There are ways to grieve, I’m not one to tell you how, I was busy telling people the day after the young fella passed away to give you time to grieve, but now, now you’re taking it to far. Some candles, a photo, a poster, yeah that stuff wont annoy the public to much for a day. It is something that will not last.

He did not die at the interchange, just because he hung out there does not mean there should be a memorial there forever and a day.

Who did you get permission off? The Chief Minister? I’m sure he said “Yeah sure, go ahead, write on all the walls, I normally spends millions on public art, you guys will do it for free, brilliant!”

Don’t mistake the people on here for being heartless, or not understanding, but I can not mistake you for not understanding THEIR point of view.

You have some valid points, they don’t hold much weight, but you do have some valid points, he was your friend, he had a family and he had friends, good yes. They are valid points, it does not mean you should deface property of the Territory. People here have more valid points, that actually have substance, what you have done is against the law, the walls will be painted over because it looks atrocious. It is the way it is.

Why don’t you pool your resources, find a local graffiti artist and make a big mural on the approved graffiti wall down the street? It may cost some money, but it would be more tasteful, people will respect it more, you wont be a public nuisance AND it will be legal.

Use your head a bit more, your pain is not everyone else’s pain, everyone has felt pain before, but that isn’t your pain. You don’t have to deal with their pain, why should they have to deal with your pain?

kaylamayy said :

now we are fighting for it to be there for good.

Dream on……..

…there are messages there for friends of michael & his family. & we actually did get permission the day of writting on the wall. now we are fighting for it to be there for good.

Here is a tip for free – michaels friends and family are more likely to get the messages if you send them to them directly, rather than leaving on a random wall in the bus interchange.

Davo111 said :

kaylamayy said :

. i am apart of this wall.

Please post your details so we can report you to the police for vandalism. My guess is you won’t because you’re a selfish coward.

Also, its interesting you asked for “respect” to keep this wall going. Did you “respect” public property when you wrote on it? Did you seek permission from the local council before embarking on your spray paint adventure? i think not.

this is great, cops already have my details. i spoke to them the day the painters came to paint over it & nothing happened to me. i told them to arrest me for god sakes cause i was not going to move from that wall. i think we also need to realise, it isnt all spray paint. there are messages there for friends of michael & his family. & we actually did get permission the day of writting on the wall. now we are fighting for it to be there for good.

kaylamayy said :

. i am apart of this wall.

The ultimate existential dilemma, how profound is that? Camus, Satre, and Kafka eat your hearts out! There’s a new kid on the block.

kaylamayy said :

. i am apart of this wall.

Please post your details so we can report you to the police for vandalism. My guess is you won’t because you’re a selfish coward.

Also, its interesting you asked for “respect” to keep this wall going. Did you “respect” public property when you wrote on it? Did you seek permission from the local council before embarking on your spray paint adventure? i think not.

Wharrgarbll said :

This comment needs a bogan-to-english translation.

Hahaha, brilliant work.

Respect!

Wharrgarbll said :

This comment needs a bogan-to-english translation.

Nice job.

The word Respect is much mis-used these days, by people who feel entitled to respect when they give none to others.

Reminds me of another such word: tolerance, used by people who expect to be allowed to do what they like unchecked but who never have considered allowing others to do the same.

Wharrgarbll said :

Again, why aren’t you all bogans already! My specious reasoning and restraint in typing out an entire swear word must’ve convinced you, right?

Actually I’ve been starring out the obscenity

This comment needs a bogan-to-english translation.

kaylamayy said :

you all should have some respect.

I can’t comprehend why everyone else on this planet isn’t a bogan.

kaylamayy said :

do you think we planned for the wall to turn out the way it is? NO.

While our intentions are boganically pure, our social caste can’t plan much of anything as that requires forethought.

kaylamayy said :

it started will a poster and two candles.

It started with an act of vandalism, that grew into a large act of vandalism. Because the original vandalism is of a smaller nature than the current act, it’s perfectly acceptable.

kaylamayy said :

people came to this wall (where michael always was) to pay there respect & be there for family & friends of michael.

If this statement is taken literally: Michael, his family, and friends are homeless. They lived against a wall in the Woden Bus Interchange. Technically, we’re just decorating his house for him.

kaylamayy said :

i am apart of this wall.

Personal note: the logical contradiction of being “apart of this wall” in the context referenced has temporarily broken my translator, as well as made me sad for the future of humanity.

kaylamayy said :

i was the one who started the petition to keep this wall up.

I made a fully sick facebook page.

kaylamayy said :

you are all being so disrepectful to everyone that has lost a goodfriend, family & loved one.

I can’t differentiate between comments that jointly condemn an act of vandalism and bogan culture in general from comments that actually disrespect the dead.

kaylamayy said :

maybe you all should think twice before saying s***.

I’m not going to think at all, so can you think twice as hard to make up for my lack of mental acuity.

kaylamayy said :

i am sure if you had a family member pass away & something happend for them you would not like it to be taken down or even covered up (whatever it may be) so some f***ing respect before you start talking s*** & telling people it should be painted over.

Again, why aren’t you all bogans already! My specious reasoning and restraint in typing out an entire swear word must’ve convinced you, right?

Good old BCB said :

Says alot about the person in question. the future will be in the hands of youths like these one day. boy are we screwed.

Yes, there have never been arrogant and disrespectful teenagers at any point in the past, and these guys represent the entirety of today’s adolescents instead of just a sub-culture. There are absolutely no responsible, bright or hard-working kids at school or in part-time jobs any more.

It’s got me thinking. For the record when I go I want New Orleans style parade of friends and family walking behind a punk band that’s playing Ramones covers in the back of an XH Falcon ute, with participants drinking Islay whisky from battered hip flasks as they doff their hats in a considered and respectful acknowledgment of loss. I want wailing and gnashing of teeth, dammit, and will personally poltergoost anyone who sees fit to scribble some half-arsed tribute on a public wall. That’s the way to go out, kids. [/endrant]

Kayla – do you not think that many people here twice, or three or four times your age haven’t lost friends through our lifetimes? of course we have. Time and time again. But we don’t go out and wantonly vandalise and destroy public property that does NOT belong to us just because we’re sad.

How many others in the community go out and be rude to painters simply doing their job requiring the police to go there to keep control.

You may have only set up a poster but its gotten out of hand. A good number of kids have commited vandalism on public property that is NOT yours to destroy. Would you like it if someone went and sprayed your home or your parents car costing you money, effort and time to clean up? Did you go out and actively try and stop others from spraying everywhere? did you say no, you should not be doing this?

You say we need to respect Michael. How about you and your friends respect others in the community. What you all have done is wanton vandalism – nothing more. You would gain FAR more credibility in the community if you got your mates to stop spraying anything more, and actually encouraged them to clean up the grafitti.

Why do you lot think its ok to destroy public property that does not belong to you. Go over the road to the drain – there you can go for your life and give him a kilometre of honour if you want.

He died. It may have been a tragic accident, or there could have been something on his own part that contributed – eg alcohol. We don’t know the full story yet – so we don’t know if he’s worthy of your “hero” status. That is what the coronial process is for.

you may be sad. you may be grieving. That does not give you kids a god given right to stop workers simply doing their job and be rude and obnoxious to people simply passing by. I copped a foul mouthed spray the other day just for looking at some kids there. that was particularly charming! … Not. It is not your wall. It is not Michael’s wall either.

Pommy bastard said :

When I die, will someone graffiti a bus exchange wall in my honour please? What class, what panache, what style!

Man, all those years of clinical psychology, and what we really needed to know was that scribbling some illiterate garbage on a bus interchange wall is the way to stop the hurting. Jung, eat your heart out.

Bogans eh? Bless their empty pointed little heads.

When I die I don’t want an interchange wall in my honour, far too low brow. I expect my friends to carry out some real vandalism, like spray painting old parliament house or the NGA. In fact I’m going to put it in my will.

sunshine said :

it’s only a wall!

yeah, its just a wall, that doesn’t belong to you. You and your friends are guilty of something we call – vandalism.

sunshine said :

Who cares if they are sticking up their middle fingers in their own pics – surely you’ve seen it all before.

not in a tribute video, no.

Well, I guess at least this time they didn’t take over some poor householder’s front lawn for their shrine and drinking venue.

It’s weird how kids these days feel they have a right to vulger displays in public when one of their number dies. It does seem that the more self-inflicted the death, the more public and inappropriate the celebration of the death by the deceased’s friends.

There’s a rather pagan aspect to these displays too, which is interesting.

When I die, will someone graffiti a bus exchange wall in my honour please? What class, what panache, what style!

Man, all those years of clinical psychology, and what we really needed to know was that scribbling some illiterate garbage on a bus interchange wall is the way to stop the hurting. Jung, eat your heart out.

johnboy said :

Bear in mind the repainting didn’t happen, the painters got attacked by 80 odd kids and had to be rescued by 20 odd police.

That would make sense, didn’t read that properly. It’s now spread to most of the other walls in that part of the interchange though.

“10:30 am, 01 Mar 11
Not sure when the alleged repainting happened, but it’s due for another coat already. There are tags and ‘RIP’ graffiti everywhere there this morning. Looks really sh*thouse.”

The painting over actually hasnt happened. they agreed to leave it up after we all stood there & let them do nothing. This isnt a game to us. this is one of our friends that died – have some respect.

you all should have some respect. do you think we planned for the wall to turn out the way it is? NO. it started will a poster and two candles. people came to this wall (where michael always was) to pay there respect & be there for family & friends of michael. i am apart of this wall. i was the one who started the petition to keep this wall up. you are all being so disrepectful to everyone that has lost a goodfriend, family & loved one.

Bear in mind the repainting didn’t happen, the painters got attacked by 80 odd kids and had to be rescued by 20 odd police.

sid said :

Not sure when the alleged repainting happened, but it’s due for another coat already. There are tags and ‘RIP’ graffiti everywhere there this morning. Looks really sh*thouse.

I think it will turn into a game for these kiddies..

#18 – agree totally, there are places for memorials, cemetaries.

Tired of seeing these “roadside” bogan memorials and memorials now being allowed everywhere – a public bus interchange/walkway FFS people get a grip. There are three places for memorials for our loved ones, our hearts, our minds and their final resting place – no where else.

Not sure when the alleged repainting happened, but it’s due for another coat already. There are tags and ‘RIP’ graffiti everywhere there this morning. Looks really sh*thouse.

FallenStar said :

the wall should stay,and trust me haha..we are all doing everything and anything to keep it there.

but at least we have respect.

Bit ironic don’t you think?

i bet they are all skipping school to go protest at a bus stop wall. he died from stupidity combined with underage drinking, but do any of them stop drinking ? Nope. What does it take for them to learn their lesson. How many of your friends need to die related to alcohol before you actually learn. Someones life who can be summed up on a wall, at a bus stop, with graffiti… Says alot about the person in question. the future will be in the hands of youths like these one day. boy are we screwed.

Oh come on people, don’t take away this kids honor of being memorialised next to the shrine o’ the OB (original bogan) Mully.

It sounds to me like they are using this boys death as a means to get away with graffitting a public place.
I thought that graffitti was a criminal offence

sunshine said :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp44pyzmNFY&feature=player_embedded#at=133

before everyone starts saying the memorial needs to be painted over – watch this. the youth of Canberra are clearly hurting, let them remember their friend

i understand their hurting but its not their interchange what gives them the right to put it there? he didn’t die there for starters.
do i get one there when i die?

Get rid of it. Take it to Pine Island or to Woden Cementary. When people are at a bus interchange, they don’t want to see a memorial for a kid they don’t know.

I knew Michael, and not in a good way.

While I don’t wish death on anyone, I won’t be missing him, that’s for sure.

wow. you have got to be kidding me. so do any of you have hearts??

the wall should stay,and trust me haha..we are all doing everything and anything to keep it there. thats where he was always chilling,his spot,where we new we could find him with a smile on his face. i bet if you guys new him as well as we all did,you would be all in to keep it. so yeah, maybe we need to grow up,but at least we have respect.

I just think it’s so sad, a young man has lost his life, so sorry for you loss, to the parents and his friends.
He looks like a typical young man that had his life ahead of him. RIP Michael.

Maybe his friends should have counselling also.

there’s designated ‘graffitti’ walls in Woden near the bus interchange, maybe doing something there would be the way to go

Davo111 said :

sunshine said :

the youth of canberra are clearly hurting, let them remember their friend

Oh, and they’re the only people who hurt when they lose a friend? I have lost friends & family members over the years, and have *never* felt it necessary to vandalise public property.

Not only has it cost the council the clean-up costs, 20 police had to spend 1/4 of their shift protecting a wall from angry youths, yes a wall.

PS – i think its interesting you cut the video so it starts after Micheal (and his friends) were giving middle fingers + cunnilingus hand signs to the camera.

it’s only a wall!
and in regards to cutting the video – did no such thing – just cut and pasted it. surely you could have just started from the beginning. Who cares if they are sticking up their middle fingers in their own pics – surely you’ve seen it all before.

sunshine said :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp44pyzmNFY&feature=player_embedded#at=133

before everyone starts saying the memorial needs to be painted over – watch this. the youth of canberra are clearly hurting, let them remember their friend

If that is a representative sample of “the youth of canberra” the future here looks pretty bleak… The second comment posted underneath the video seems to sum these particular youths nicely.

Charming..

We all have a place for this. It’s known as a cemetry. I wonder how many will attend his funeral.

sunshine said :

the youth of canberra are clearly hurting, let them remember their friend

Oh, and they’re the only people who hurt when they lose a friend? I have lost friends & family members over the years, and have *never* felt it necessary to vandalise public property.

Not only has it cost the council the clean-up costs, 20 police had to spend 1/4 of their shift protecting a wall from angry youths, yes a wall.

PS – i think its interesting you cut the video so it starts after Micheal (and his friends) were giving middle fingers + cunnilingus hand signs to the camera.

The bus interchange is a public place, not appropriate for shrines. I think it should be removed, let them have a shrine where he died, not where he used to waste his time hanging out. Why don’t they do what all kids do today, have a memorial page on facebook – at least they would have their own wall to manage there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp44pyzmNFY&feature=player_embedded#at=133

before everyone starts saying the memorial needs to be painted over – watch this. the youth of canberra are clearly hurting, let them remember their friend

Can’t these idiots just stick to posting their R.I.P. crap on FB, and leave the real world to the adults?

Yeah, your mate died, and that is sad; but it doesn’t mean you have to publicly deface a wall.

buzz819 said :

Considering there is a legal graffiti area a short distance away, maybe they should have used it!

Don’t bring logic into this conversation PLEEEEASE ……….

Look at me, I know a dead person.

The bus interchange – apart from being about the least classy place to have a memorial – is just not the appropriate place for it.

Why not have a gathering at Pine Island? Nice open area for friends and family, bbq area etc. Let me guess (and I know I’ll get flamed for this) – because it’s not public enough and that’s what this phenomenen of public grieving is all about: people looking for attention and sympathy. “Look at me. Look how hard I grieve.”

Bubsie @3

Thank you.

i think the government should send the clean-up bill to Michaels family. I’m sure they would be very pleased to see their sons friends have vandalised public property to “remember” their son.

BerraBoy68 said :

This apparent need for every teenager that dies to have a ‘memorial’ somewhere other than the cemetery seems to be getting out of hand. .

totally agree. Facebook memorial pages, used/unused alcohol at “shrines”, doing commemorative burnouts in the street, attending church funerals in mini skirts & FMBs, its getting really out of hand. I think the parents need to step in on this one.

Chaz said :

should’ve had a shrine at the pine

But then, innocent families who just want a day out would have to see it. I’m waiting until the facts are released on this case as I think there may be more to it than has been reported to date.

should’ve had a shrine at the pine

Considering there is a legal graffiti area a short distance away, maybe they should have used it!

To be honest, the shrine shits me.
I witnessed a large group of them, at lunch, yelling abuse at anyone. Wait, no, not just today, pretty sure they were doing so on friday as well. (when you have to walk past it every single day to get to/from work, and start feeling slightly nervous having to go past, something’s up..)
Yes, i know they’re greaving, but you know, there are better ways to release anger, than to verbally attack random passerbys.

Yes, it was a touch insensitive to try and paint over it today.
But please, take it somewhere else, perhaps out of direct sight of passers by. (somewhere quiet .etc to reflect perhaps?)

(P.S..if his friends want to have a stab at me, whatever. I’m also a teenager. I’ve had to deal with this sort of shit happening myself. You arent alone..)

This apparent need for every teenager that dies to have a ‘memorial’ somewhere other than the cemetery seems to be getting out of hand. The interchange is nothing more than a bus stop that the deceased seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time at. What they have done is graffiti a public wall and I’m all for this being painted over. They can set up a shrine at one of their own houses if they must. No doubt cans of bourbon and coke will feature largely in it’s design.