Gatecrashing, the latest Sunday Times fear campaign

Some teens in my cul de sac had a small gathering ‘crashed’ a couple of years ago by about fifty people – from all over Canberra. Texting had been the communication medium, and friends of friends of friends had got word. It was VERY scary, for the teens themselves (who hid in a bedroom) and for the street. The police did not fully understand what was going on at first, they just asked them to turn down the music. Result was a trashed house, roaming groups of drunk testosterone-aggro boys, a couple of noisy fistycuffs, smashed windows in a house in a neighbouring street, damaged letterboxes, P-plate cars zooming and screech-braking round the circuit in the wee small hours, smashed bottles everywhere, pissing on fences, etc. Me and another neighbour got together (not getting any sleep) to get the police out again, and they finally were able to move the crashers on (breathalyzing the ones that drove down the hill). They said they had been reluctant to intervene on the first visit as it was a Sat night and they were overstretched- there were several crazy parties on that night as it was the start of College holidays.