Amaroo - hotbed of criminality?

Near as I can tell, a certain proportion of youth has *always* indulged in a bit of recreational criminal damage. Blowing up mailboxes was the fashion when I was young.

True vg, but they’ll whinge that there’s nothing to do. Worst still you’ll get some that will whinge that they weren’t “consulted” on “appropriate” things to suit their needs.

Society functioned just fine when we had less. It just required a bit of self-motivation. Look at the facilities already provided, skate park being just 1

burnouts are fun

burning things is fun,

chucking TV’s out the hotel window is fun

putting flaming poobags on people’s doorsteps and running away is fun.

if not for fear of retribution they’re’d be nothing left standing.

Oddly enough though it’s the fear of retribution that makes it fun, I pity the modern youth living without that fear.

Ok, so people should not commit crime – noone’s arguing that. But if providing a few facilities helps to prevent that then why not do it.

Societies function better when people have access to fa

Problem my big bum! But then again it is hard to compare the youth of today with that of yesteryear. In past times the youth would do a heap with bugger all, nowadays they do bugger all with a heap of things to do.

No-one ever said anything about chopping down trees and building garden sheds. When we were a little bored we generally didn’t resort to arson or criminal damage.

I used to live in Amaroo, and now I live in the next suburb. What’s so boring out there? On and off road bike tracks, ovals, shops, McDonalds, a properly made skate park (we had to make our own), access to public transport to catch a bus into town (or a 20-30 min ride on your bike).

The youth of today seem, to a certain degree, to lack initiative and inventiveness. If you can honestly say that it’s boring trying explaining your boredom to a kid that grows up on a farm but never seems to be bored.

Understand and control what problem? Get off your lazy asses and do something for yourself. You don’t have to be spoon fed your own fun. Be a little bit more inventive than committing crimes

That is not an excuse.

That’s like saying I’m bored so i’ll burn someone’s fence down or firebomb their car.

I’m pretty sure thats exactly what schmerica is saying. Or something similar to that. This stuff is always going to happen, maybe not so extreme, but young people will always be bored with normal things.

If it’s a saturday night with mates, and the only thing within walking distance (say, a bowling alley) you have done 100 times so you are bored of that. Not being able to get anywhere else, you are stuck in one spot. Not a lot you can do except go outside and make your own fun. It just so happens that making your own fun usually involves doing stuff like lighting bins on fires, simply because there is very little to do.

And if one of you says “oh thats bullshit, back in my day we would make our own fun, we would chop down a tree and build a new garden shed”, remember this is no longer your day. Stop comparing yourselves to the youth today, the sooner people start accepting this the sooner people will be able to understand and control this problem.

“Everyone knows the Gungahlin Police Station closes down the same time as the Belconnen Mall.”

Bullshit it does

This talk of boredom is complete and utter bullshit. I grew up here and there was considerably less to do as a child/teenager/young adult. Having said that I managed to spend my time not burning bins and performing bogan-like burnouts in Mum and Dad’s 180B.

Until I left home at 18 I could amuse myself all day with a sunny day, a pushbike and a football. I’m sick of hearing ‘the kids are bored’. Try having 2 TV stations, no PS1, 2 or 3, less public facilities and 1 car families. You learnt to get off your ass and amuse yourself practically.

Boredom my ass, abject laziness I’d suggest

The only reason they’re out ‘our’ way is because of a lack of police presence. Everyone knows the Gungahlin Police Station closes down the same time as the Belconnen Mall. It doesn’t require Einstein to figure out why Ngunnawal,Amaroo,Nicholls and Palmo attract all the derros. So saying there’s nothing to do for them out there is crap. There’s plenty of businesses, homes, playing fields, street signs, cars and parks to wantonly damage, destroy and graffiti.
They don’t need recreational facilities built.
There needs to be some repercussions for their behaviour and the bloody stanhopeless govt needs to get some backbone and start coming down on their errant behaviour.
And its got to start in our schools. Until someone realises that the behaviour of students in our high schools ultimately leads to unruly behaviour in our streets, nothing will change. What we see in our classrooms is played out on the streets. The crackdown needs to start there!!

electrified fence and checkpoints. the only answer.

That takes care of the deaf, dumb and blind kids.

Like what Kramer? There really isn’t a whole lot to do in Canberra that doesn’t cost. Bowling, Ice Skating, Shopping, Movies, Swimming all cost money. So unless you start work, you will have next to no money, and even if you did work, you would be on next to nothing wages anyway, so you wouldn’t be able to afford to go to those places anyway.

Todays youth (including myself and my siblings) arn’t particularly insterested in riding bikes around, going for scenic walks and watching free concerts put on by the govenment. I think that when your growing up, you reach a point where nothing can cure the boredem, hence the behaviour.

Then you turn 18 and you go to clubs and pubs.

bring back the pinball parlour campaign

I’m sick of people blaming anti-social behaviour on kids being bored. It is not the government’s responsibility to provide entertainment. There are plenty of ways young people can amuse themselves safely, healthily and without a lot of cash.

True bigred but it is interesting to note that after a few years, a new development area has that problem in spades.

Perhaps it’s because the housing was cheaper on the outskirts as opposed to the city, then young families move out there, it takes ages for anything to be build up and the kids are now teenagers with nothing better to do than melt ottos, blow up letterboxes and hoon around in shitty cars.

Perhaps more thought should be put into providing infrastructure BEFORE the houses are built.

Don’t be surprised if we have the same conversation in a few years about the Forde and Harrison communities.

Yeah why is Amaroo special? This sort of behaviour is just part of normal everyday Canberra humdrum existence. Give us a break.

I don’t think we should just expect to put up with hoons and vandals – we should at least try to do something about it, via community facilities, policing or both.

Probably because you already have them…..

I think maybe the residents of Amaroo should learn to deal with it. Vandalism and hoons are going to be everywhere no matter what. Where I live its quite common to have your bin nicked and melted in an underpass. people steal, drag and BURN cars around here. You don’t hear us asking for bowling alleys and cinemas.

bowling alley? ‘hey guys instead of doing burnouts tonight, let go bowling!’crazy times!’ Another politician in touch with the community….

im still hoping the majura park idea goes ahead. there are no real problems with having the dragway out there, apart from loud nimbys who dont like anything occurring which might let people have some fun.

these wowsers also whip themselves, misquote the bible, vote green, are vegans, and practise ritualistic forms of onanism to detrimental excess.

i hear they also favour recumbent bikes.

Also, building a dragway may also help alleviate the situation, but both Labour and Liberal ACT govts have managed to tie that one up with red tape.

Would be good to see the proposed Gungahlin dirt jump park go ahead. This would give these guys a good place to expend some of their excess energy.

We live near the school in Amaroo and think that “no extra police patrols are necessary” is rubbish. Our main problem is with the hoons, who are largely 20- and 30-somethings.

They’re out the back of Amaroo nearly every night, in the school carparks, along Horsepark Drive and Katherine Avenue, so police patrols WOULD do something.

Sure, give them something else to do, but surely giving something to deter them is needed to?

(by the way, I like living in Amaroo and still feel safe walking around there at night, our main annoyance is the hoons and if they’re going to come crashing into our loungeroom one day.)

Seeing the ‘hoons’ have vehicles, why don’t they just drive to another area, where they apparently won’t be as ‘bored’?
Or gee, maybe it’s got nothing to do with them being bored, more to do with them being idiots that don’t respect the community they live in! Creating sporting clubs etc. might help the younger generation NOT commencing this behaviour, but I doubt it will change the behaviour of the already ‘bored-ised’ youths.

G’day all

The issue came up when I was talking to residents during the past week, and has been an ongoing point of concern for some time. Basically, there isn’t a lot to do in the area and kids get bored.

There are a lot of signs saying Future Community Facility offering some form of entertainment. Its seems as if the only entertainment offered is in the signs themselves as they have been there so long they have become a joke.

Some of the local traders are working to set up a community youth group, and residents are starting to form some new sporting teams. It’s not the total solution but bit by bit it will help.

All the best

Troy

I’m impressed that Amaroo apparently has rubbish bins in public parks – they have all been removed from inner north parks and busstops.