29 July 2009

OK for early teen girls to be drunk in clubs at 2am as long as they're with an older man!

| johnboy
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[First filed: July 28, 2009 @ 11:37]


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The Canberra Times brings the amazing news that the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal has dramatically expanded the possible scope of operations for Canberra’s night clubs.

Late in May we all thrilled to the outrage of a 13 year old girl found drunk and unconscious in Bar 32 at 2am by the police.

But the ACAT has found that because a 21 year old bloke offered to take her home she was in the care of a responsible adult and thus there was no breach.

    After an application by barrister Shane Gill for the venue, Tribunal President Linda Crebbin conceded licensing authorities had failed to prove the girl was not in the care of a responsible adult.

    ”We will, very reluctantly, given the extraordinary circumstances where a 13-year-old girl was on these premises at that time of the night, accept Mr Gill’s submission and the application is dismissed,” Ms Crebbin said.

Civic’s going to get even more exciting once the repercussions of this one shake out.

And sucks to be a teenage boy!

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@ #33 – vg

“The law requires the station visit, not simple custody. :\”

Actually no it doesn’t, but what would I know?

Without sounding personal vg, I have known far too many police officers who will swear that theyre blue in the face that some law or fact is true, even when its not. The simple ‘but what would i know’ comment, seems to insinuate that because youre an officer, you know 100% without fail, what the law is. Anyone who believes that, is fooling themselves, and is the sort of officer who the public are generally afraid of and who give the rest of the force a bad wrap.

I can only imagine if the police were responsible, they’d take the intoxicated girl to hospital, whether she was 13 or 33. I thought the laws for licenced premises clearly stated that a person under the age of 18 is NOT allowed in a certain area, whether escorted or not. How is the club not penalised for this, whether she was drinking or not she was still on licenced premises, one strict condition of that licence is the exclusion of underaged people from it.

j from the block11:24 am 29 Jul 09

layne said :

I’ve been to Bar 32 on a few occasions and the door has always been managed by a security guard from SilverFern security – who checks all the id’s etc. plus another member of security inside. Considering that their front of house/security is outscourced isn’t SilverFern to blame for letting this girl in??

If I hired and paid an outside company to check IDs on the door and they did this – i’d be pretty pissed.

The other problem, especially with clubs in the sydney building, is the back door factor.
It’s why the clubs rely not only on the door staff, but also on the floor staff and bartenders to keep an eye on things. If you are under 18 stop reading now, ok, hypothetically speaking, all clubs have an emergency fire exit, which is normally used to empty bins / load unload stock etc, this is normally not alarmed, and used by bar staff through out the night. If said door is not closed properly, or a punter from inside opens it for those out the back, underagers can get in.

Sadly, and many have tried, you can’t actually outsource responsibilities.

But you can hire a smart lawyer to run rings around the ACT Government.

I’ve been to Bar 32 on a few occasions and the door has always been managed by a security guard from SilverFern security – who checks all the id’s etc. plus another member of security inside. Considering that their front of house/security is outscourced isn’t SilverFern to blame for letting this girl in??

If I hired and paid an outside company to check IDs on the door and they did this – i’d be pretty pissed.

j from the block9:48 am 29 Jul 09

The two weekends after this the liquor licencing guys came around to every club on the thursday friday and saturday nights. And for that couple of weeks most clubs (not all, some still got busted) took the rules very seriously (I did knock back a few people who were almost certainly overage, but had no ID, but who goes out without ID?).
Where I work we try our best to keep an eye on all punters, and check ID’s on the door with anyone we suspect being under age, and also bar staff check ID of anyone we think may be underage that may have got by the door unchecked.

I’m sure it’s not the first bar to let in an under age person, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

I guess the police could target them all for “weaks on end”…..but I’m not sure who that would benefit. Except the crims who are knocking off houses in the subrubs when the police are chasing a few kiddies around Civic..

The bar should be targetted by the police for weaks on end. It will scare the underage punters away. May even close the place down.

The system ‘failed’ at the Tribunal, not anything the Police or the Inspectors did

But I should also add – these things have a habit of slipping. Hopefully this is a warning to the owners and they keep up the checking of IDs.

This does explain things somwhat. I’ve been to Bar32 a few (read many) times. In the recent past – probably just after this incident, they started checking everyone for ID – and I mean everyone. My friends and I got carded there a while back and one of them, who you could not possibly mistake for underage was not allowed entry as he had no ID on him.

At the time I wasn’t impressed – but my half skinful may have had something to do with that. In the light of day, probably fair enough..

“The law requires the station visit, not simple custody. :\”

Actually no it doesn’t, but what would I know? I mean would an ambulance take her to hospital or to a police station? Can you be in custody in places other than a police station?

Sobering up shelters, there’s a hint for you for non-station matters of custody involving intoxication.

Suffice to say the major issue in the above isn’t what the Police did or didn’t do, its what the tribunal ruled…..but lets make it all about the Police again shall we?

j from the block3:31 pm 28 Jul 09

Did anyone else see that report on TV recently (ABC? SBS?) where entry to a club somewhere was all done with implanted micro-chipping? No need for ID or cash: punters’ age verification and payment for drinks was all done through the swipe of an arm, referencing the implanted microchip

That is truly scary.

Somehow I think I would find someone with a clubs stamp tattooed on them a little more scary.

The law requires the station visit, not simple custody. :\

As to a “Do I really think?”, police responses are variable enough to have some good exceptionally good police attendances, some run-of-the-mill ones, and some amazingly bad ones.
Too many years of Stanhope have meant that when it comes to basic services, I go in without preconcieved notions of “It can’t be worse than X” when it comes to how low my opinion of ACT services will get, so assume the worst until proven otherwise.

Read the report, an ambulance was called.

The report also is covering the end part of the prosecution, ergo the prosecution was brought, at some point, by some enforcement body. If that body thought the person was responsible at the time of the incident there would have been no prosecution brought.

You can be taken into custody in ways other than being conveyed to a station. If the said girl had not been taken into some sort of custody at some point there would not have been a prosecution.

What do you think happened, they asked the 21yo a couple of questions, let the situation slide, then at some point had 2nd thoughts and decide to prosecute someone?

Please vg, tell me what you can confirm, but hopefully you’re willing to provide references or reliable sources, as all you’re providing now is unfounded anonymous gossip. 😛

ACT law enforcement appear substantially incompetent and judicary bodies at least impotent (or both) as things appear, but I am simply one of those pesky mortals (‘the public’) whose apparent interest the two bodies are meant to be acting in, making comment while only being able to consume media reports.
Never in any of them have they mentioned she was taken back to the sttaion, just that apparently she was in the care of a responsible adult and everything has since been smoothed over as a result.

If ACTCAT release the transcipt of proceedings which inicates she was taken into police custody at the station and that police knew what they were doing, I’ll withdraw and only have issues with ACTCAT.

Ant, and I say this thinking my kids don’t read this, but the normal thing for me when younger (under 18) was the usual “I’m having a sleep over at X’s house” or if going to be home by 12, “I’m going with X to the movies”. Insert out in public underage silliness here. Yeah you can drop them off, pick them up, call ahead, sometimes, kids are tricky. Other times, parents are neglectful.
My personal view is at some point, be it at 13 (God I hope not), 16, or 18, they will be put in certain situations that I have tried to prepare them for, there will be alcohol, and certain people with out there best interests at heart. I do my best to provide them with what they need to deal in these situations and hope for the best.

+1

I came back from many a ‘video night at a friend’s place’ (read: night at one of Canberra’s establishments which in the early 1980s turned a blind eye to obvious underagers) very much the worse for wear. My very conscientious and caring mother even rang in to work for me some Saturday mornings when I’d, ahem, eaten something that hadn’t agreed with me the night before at one of these ‘video nights’.

What sort of person thinks that a 21 year old man who says he says he knows the 13 year old drunk girl is a “responsible adult”. I would not consider allowing her to get so drunk that she passes out responsible.

Also, how did the officers know that the 21 year old was telling the truth? Does someone have more details about this. He could have just seen an opportunity for rape. Just because he know her name doesn’t mean he had altruistic intentions.

The ‘officers’ didn’t believe him. That’s why it ended up at a tribunal

My daughter turns 14 in a couple of weeks.

I might bring her to town and we can go clubbing.

Inappropriate12:52 pm 28 Jul 09

So the advice for teens is: make sure somebody knows your name is can make up a credible story.

j from the block12:52 pm 28 Jul 09

There is large number of clearly underage kids who roam around on Friday and Saturday nights in Civic. Some try to get into clubs before security gets on the door and stay inside, getting others to buy their drinks, some get all dressed up, and can definitely pass for 18, and walk around looking for a door man or woman who will assume rather than check ID.

What was a 13 year old girl doing out at that time of night? Does she have parents? The 21 year old male might well have been doing the right thing, but who is raising these kids?

j from the block12:46 pm 28 Jul 09

Mr Evil said :

Well, lucky she had a responsible adult with her, as it could have been worse – she could have woken up sandwiched between two sweaty, grunting older males in a toilet cubicle!

my two kids approaching 18 are one of the reasons I got back into bars, to hopefully avoid them landing in those situations.

j from the block12:41 pm 28 Jul 09

Drawing a pretty long bow if you ask me.
Kids running around in a family friendly pub on an afternoon eg before 6 whilst there parents are still in a decent amount of sobriety, ok, in my opinion.
Only way I think this could be argued rationally (admitting its already done) was that the 21 year old was a family friend / well known in a plutonic way to the girl trying to remove her from the club.
“Oh no, there’s my best mates younger sister, I better take her home so she is safe”.
Under 18’s should not be out in clubs in civic.
As a bartender, its just far too hard to police, and far to risky for the venue, although, seems not in this case.

Well, lucky she had a responsible adult with her, as it could have been worse – she could have woken up sandwiched between two sweaty, grunting older males in a toilet cubicle!

I do being to wonder if the ACT Government doesn’t need to start paying for better lawyers.

We never seem to win when it’s contested.

Clown Killer12:18 pm 28 Jul 09

So the Office of Regulatory Services failed to prove the venue had committed a breach of its licence and the complaint was dismissed after the commissioner’s office failed to prove its case despite being given a second chance to cross-examine witnesses – and that makes Ms Crebbin a retard? Yeah right.

This raises some interesting points. what counts as a ‘responsible adult.’ Some of these laws are odd and can be open for interpretation. I remember being at the supermarket and purchasing some items with a younger neighbour. I bought a bottle of vodka (along with many other food items) and the man asked for my ID. I showed him my ID. All pretty standard. He then asked for my neighbours ID. I queried “His school ID? He’s not 18” and the man said he needed us both to be able to provide ID for him to be able to sell me the liquer. I found this quite odd, as, if I was with a 10 year old, then this request is not made. My neighbour had also been with his father many a time when he had purchased a case of beer from this same supermarket. So becuase I appeared to be still “youngish” somehow I am automatically suspicious or not classed as a ‘responsible adult’ although clearly the state, in allowing me to purchase the grog in the first place, regards me as one.
I ended up leaving with the alchohol – but only because I debated with the clerk, and then the manager, and was in no mood to be stuffed around (I believe I was running late).
Another time I drove my sister in law to the store to buy a case of beer, and after a short while I realised she might have difficulty carrying the case (she is very petite) I left the car and went to the store to carry it for her. The clerk then asked me for ID as I went to pick up the case for her. My ID was in the car, she had already paid for the beer, so I ignored his request but it seems as though these licencing laws can be interpreted many ways.
In ways that restrict, and ways that allow.

So no actual law was broken with a 13 year old being passed out inside a licenced premises (adult or no adult being present)….I reckon we might need to amend our laws.

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