The petition I instigated asking our council to get behind a push for nightclubs/pubs to install Soft Fall in (suggested) ten metre square areas at the front of their premises to protect innocent victims from the ramifications of coward punches drew a mixed review in the media.
Link to newspaper story.
It was a mix of 98% of people thinking it’s an idiotic idea and 2% thinking it’s a brilliant idea.
Very disappointing really.
Before you read more comments just click on this link! Believe me, it's very interesting...
Wall Street Journal Article
It was a mix of 98% of people thinking it’s an idiotic idea and 2% thinking it’s a brilliant idea.
Very disappointing really.
Before you read more comments just click on this link! Believe me, it's very interesting...
Wall Street Journal Article
But I read the comments on the local radio station’s Facebook page and it struck me that not one person offered a new or possibly helpful solution.
There was plenty of “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, bro” and “Why do people punch?” and “Bring in harsher laws to scare people from delivering coward punches,” (not exactly a new concept) but not one person said anything new or helpful.
They were quite ready to ridicule anyone else’s idea but lacking in any truly intellectually creative resources themselves.
Normally I’m a bit testy when people argue with me. I can go from relaxing aromatic, herbal candle, to flaming, unpredictable, cranky Catherine Wheel in about two seconds.
Normally I’m a bit testy when people argue with me. I can go from relaxing aromatic, herbal candle, to flaming, unpredictable, cranky Catherine Wheel in about two seconds.
But after reading these negative, sarky comments I just felt disappointed; deflated that nobody had suggested anything beneficial to add to the discussion.
It’s all very well to stand on your precious iPhone and scream, “Bring in harsher penalties, you dickheads!” But ‘they’ have been trying to do that for bloody ages and seriously, is it feasible to think some iced up, drunken bogan is going to lose his temper and suddenly stop mid punch and think, “Duh… hang on, it used to be a minimal sentence and now there’s a mandatory sentence of … like ten years, so maybe I shouldn’t hit this fella.”?
Besides, a minimum sentence won’t bring back the dead. It will be too late.
Then, some people suggested that it was turning the nightclub zone into a playground. Yeah… and… what else have you got? If people are staggering around like two year olds wanting to smash a toy truck in someone’s face then maybe that’s what’s needed. What’s the problem?
“Who’s payin for it?” was another common theme. Well… I reckon if I can erect a $1500 pool fence to protect non-existent toddlers from falling into my swimming pool, then a nightclub whose livelihood depends on getting peeps off their fudging faces at $9 bucks a rum and coke, can afford $1500 worth of Soft Fall in front of their premises to protect their patrons. Maybe they could all chip in to have it installed in the taxi rank closest to them as well.
There was a lot of carry on mocking the idea because it seems like bubble-wrapping society. You know… “What are you going to do? Put cotton wool, unicorns and rainbows all over the world? Oooh, let’s make everyone wear bike helmets when they go out!”
Well let me tell you… seventy percent of these atrocious attacks on innocent people occur in or JUST OUTSIDE the establishment. One Punch Can Kill link.
I was never advocating putting down Soft Fall on every surface in the WORLD… just the immediate hotspots where 70% of incidents generally go down. Like… outside of nightclubs where people are drunk and milling in angry throngs.
OF COURSE it won’t protect everyone. But even if ONE life is not cut short… isn’t that enough?
There have been THREE coward punch assaults in the last TWO weeks in Queensland. One was fatal.
All I can say is that if someone has a better short term solution then bring it on. Tell us please.
Just don’t write shit like… ‘Well that’s stupid’, if you don’t have anything better to bring to the table.
It makes you look… unhelpful.
Come and help us save a life. Sign the petition so we can take it to council and try at least to do something constructive.
It’s all very well to stand on your precious iPhone and scream, “Bring in harsher penalties, you dickheads!” But ‘they’ have been trying to do that for bloody ages and seriously, is it feasible to think some iced up, drunken bogan is going to lose his temper and suddenly stop mid punch and think, “Duh… hang on, it used to be a minimal sentence and now there’s a mandatory sentence of … like ten years, so maybe I shouldn’t hit this fella.”?
Besides, a minimum sentence won’t bring back the dead. It will be too late.
Then, some people suggested that it was turning the nightclub zone into a playground. Yeah… and… what else have you got? If people are staggering around like two year olds wanting to smash a toy truck in someone’s face then maybe that’s what’s needed. What’s the problem?
“Who’s payin for it?” was another common theme. Well… I reckon if I can erect a $1500 pool fence to protect non-existent toddlers from falling into my swimming pool, then a nightclub whose livelihood depends on getting peeps off their fudging faces at $9 bucks a rum and coke, can afford $1500 worth of Soft Fall in front of their premises to protect their patrons. Maybe they could all chip in to have it installed in the taxi rank closest to them as well.
There was a lot of carry on mocking the idea because it seems like bubble-wrapping society. You know… “What are you going to do? Put cotton wool, unicorns and rainbows all over the world? Oooh, let’s make everyone wear bike helmets when they go out!”
Well let me tell you… seventy percent of these atrocious attacks on innocent people occur in or JUST OUTSIDE the establishment. One Punch Can Kill link.
I was never advocating putting down Soft Fall on every surface in the WORLD… just the immediate hotspots where 70% of incidents generally go down. Like… outside of nightclubs where people are drunk and milling in angry throngs.
OF COURSE it won’t protect everyone. But even if ONE life is not cut short… isn’t that enough?
There have been THREE coward punch assaults in the last TWO weeks in Queensland. One was fatal.
All I can say is that if someone has a better short term solution then bring it on. Tell us please.
Just don’t write shit like… ‘Well that’s stupid’, if you don’t have anything better to bring to the table.
It makes you look… unhelpful.
Come and help us save a life. Sign the petition so we can take it to council and try at least to do something constructive.
