Did you guys in OZ feel safe going out over Christmas and New years?
Im a policeman in a very nice southern city in Kent,UK.
This Christmas and new year has been the most violent I have witnessed in my police career!
There have been glassings/bottlings, drunken louts fighting anybody who looks at them funny :blink: . There was even idiots in the cells on Christmas day! (yes some of us had to work) this is almost unheard of for the city I work as everyone is given as many "go away" tablets as necessary to go away without being arrested! (yes even coppers get into the season of goodwill ;) )
New years eve was great until some guy murdered his ex-wife starting a murder investigation, stretching resources. Then at midnight it all went bent and there was no cells free, oh apart from one reserved for the murderer.
There were 38 stabbings in 3 hours in the London Metropolitan area.
All of this violence fuelled by Alcohol and "recreational" drugs. Yes I know I see the worst side of it but I am baseing this on past experiences as a copper over the past 7 years and this year was dreadful and I feel it will only get worse with less police (DONT let BLAIR fool you) and more drinking hours!
I actually thought that the extended hours would be a good thing, lots of people leaving pubs and clubs spread over a period of time giving the 4 uniform lads and lasses (sometimes thats all thats out there) enough space to deal with them seperately intstead of 5 to 10 thousand people hitting the streets at once, but sadly I think I was wrong. :(
What are your experiences over this feastive period in Adelaide?
Jase
PS. If anybody was thinking of coming back to UK hope this has made you think of what you are coming back to.!!

heard absolutely nothing, festive spirit allround.

:o

We are thinking about returning home because of our own personal feelings with our familys & how we miss them but on reading your description of christmas & new years i have to think how it will be in 8 years time when my children will want to go out & celebrate, if its like this now in england what will it be like then.... Thanks Jase its takes someone to remind us from time to time some of the reasons we left in the first place....

Jenny

Spent both celebrations at home, but nothing bothered us. We were down at Glenelg last New Year and even in the crowds there felt quite at ease. Yes the odd lout being a bit loud but nothing worse than that.

Your account sounds horrifying!

There was a blow up in Hindley Street but sounded in the paper as if it was the sort of thing you get every Saturday night in the UK...was reasonably safe in my back yard anyway, despite falling asleep on the couch in the front room after midnight and not waking up till 6.30am! Not sure who let all the guests go, sure I'll find someone nicked something...

GT ;)

After tossing a coin, we ended up Victoria Square for the fireworks at midnight. Very good atmoshphere, not a snifter of trouble, just the occassional popping of a bubbly cork in complete violation of an alcohol free event. Saw a total of 2 police walking, 2 on horseback & 1 paddy wagon as we were leaving (perhaps they were all centred at Glenelg)

I guess there is crime everwhere, but coming from London I feel a lot more relaxed here although I dont think I'll ever be able to drop the guard totally.
As for drinkers - I've witnessed countless times that an impending bundle has been diffused with a simple recognition of misunderstanding and mateship again, only for them to get into their cars to drive home. Reckon that's a huge problem here - but neither me or Steve saw one RBT between xmas & New Year :( .

It's a lot better in some ways, but needs work in others.

Desiree
:D :D

We went to Glenelg for the 2nd time on New Years Eve. It's a wonderful Family event which is also a big attraction for the teens too. There was some drunkeness, but of what I saw it was all light hearted. A wonderful experience and SO different from my U.K memories of going out at this time of year. People still have respect here...it's so refreshing :D

There was an article in the 'Tizer' saying that if you were having a party at home you could register and Police would drive by regularly to check that all was well :sign61: Another good idea that makes me think 'Why didn't they do that in England?'

I too find your post disturbing and sad.....but thanks for sharing it with us.

Happy New Year.

Jan

Actually I find your post a reminder of our reasons for leaving in the first place... :(

Desiree
:D :D

I didnt think the all day/night drinking would work.The clubs/pubs in Brighton(uk)have been staggered for the past few years ,some being open to 5am.There is always trouble.I went to Brighton for the first time in about 15 years last year(I only live 9 miles away)for my brothers 40th.We played golf and went "down town "about 7 to get something to eat.I could not believe how many p*ssed people ther were around, but when you see the price their selling beer and spirits for its"lets throw it down our necks here before we go elsewhere".People walking around with pints of vodka and orange at 8 o clock!!!!!!!!.
I for one like a drink,always have done,probably always will,but I always knew what I was doing and would stop when Id had enough.Yes id get merry and have a laugh but wouldnt abuse other people, However I feel the youngsters aim nowadays(not all)is to get lashed to the extent that they dont know what they are doing,and the complete and total lack of respect for anything or anybody comes to the forefront.
Yes ,it can be an intimidating atmosphere and you only have to knock somebody accidently and you could be in a confrontation,but I think it is a reflection of todays society where there is complete lack of respect for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
young peoples idea of going out now is not to get merry but completely paraletic

During the "festive" season in my West midlands town, there were no problems at all.

Please, do not make mountains out of molehills.

As I'm aware, there were the "teddy boys" in the fifties, "rockers" in the sixty's, "punks" in the seventies, all having a thugish image.

During in the glorious empire days, there was Jack the Ripper, Sweeny Todd to name but two glorified murderers.

In by birth place of Sheffield, I'm was made aware of the Attercliffe Gang that roamed and terrorised the streets in the roaring twenties.

Therefore is today really less safe? or is today a re-inactment of the past with modern glasses on?????

By the way, we're hoping to become an Adelaide Brit, for a challange, a new start now that the kids are grown up. To see and experience new things. It could easily have been Bournmouth. We are not escaping the mad house.

I like my Place of Birth, it is a great country, irrespective of the political party in power. Stop rubbishing it.


Kevin



Kevin

Totally agree.

We had no trouble where I live up here in Derbyshire.

If anyone likes I could post lots of news cuttings from Australia about the murders, drunkenness and general bad behaviour that happened there over Christmas....of course no one would like it would they?

Why do people have to constantly rubbish their own country? Adelaide has plenty of problems as well..that's life!

G

Well Im glad that someone is happy in the UK! Why do you want to leave!?
If Jack the ripper and sweeny todd are the best you can do you obviously live in a very nice area.
I am not dramatising anything, these are my personal experiences. This is also the society we live in in the UK.
I am sure that in Jack the Rippers time there was not groups of baseball cap wearing youths threatening old ladies to buy them fags and booze from the local Mrs Miggins Pie and Ale shop. Knocking old ladies doors and pretending to be from Charities just to Burgle them when they are looking for there purses to give!
It must be very nice where you live, why dont you start a relocation business for people that want to move back from OZ. I am sure I do not want any one to live in KENT with its high crime rate.
I am not making mountains out of moles hills, 38 people stabbed in 3 hours, FACT, murder in a nice suburb of Canterbury on new years eve ( I can tell you its Canterbury now, its been on the news) FACT. The cells fuller than they have ever been FACT. The lack of police on the street compared to even 7 years ago FACT.
So what qualifications,Kev, have you got to tell me that things are good in the UK?
This site is a forum for our experiences and they should not belittled, I say mine as FACT not fiction, my experinces not any one elses!
Im sure it must be nice to live in some places in the UK and these areas do not suffer the crime of the majority, but they are in the minority.
The country we live was shaped by "Do Gooders" 20 years ago who never saw what was actually going on but had an opinion about everything. So much so that they formed groups to lobby weak governments to change laws. I will admit that the reason we have the 1984 Police and criminal evidence act is because the minority of police officers stepped over the boundary but for the vast majority of police and tax paying citizens want a more robust system.
I have just read a "post" in my local rag in reply to the local Superintendant who said that the local station was ill equiped to deal with youths and that the parents should take responsibility. The postee had said that the police are armed with ASBO's ABAs, parenting orders etc. This person is obviously very mis informed, do you know how many "hoops" have to be jumped through to get any one of these. The little darlings in question has to blight peoples lives for a long time bfore one of these actions can be applied. Also if one of these ASBO's ABA's etc is broken the courts give them loads of chances before they take action.
Its very sad to say but if I punch you in the face and break your nose I will get less punishment than if I decide to not have any car insurance! Thats how sad it has got here!
I am not blinkered to crime in SA either, I applied to join SA police last year but having got through all the bits and pieces they only gave 7 weeks before start date, when I said I couldnt make that date I was never contacted again. A friend of mine did and started March 2005. In October 2005 we had a barbie on the beach in Adelaide (it was cold) with a load of other UK coppers who had tranfered they said that crime was nothing on a par with the UK. There were a few place not to live or venture but compared to tthe UK its nothing. The Ozzies are less tolerant of this sort of anti social behaviour.
Kev, pop to you local police station and ask if you can accompany their patrol officers on a Friday or Saturday night, I am 100% sure that you will be extremely surprised about what goes on in your neighbourhood or surroundings that you had no idea about, it wont be good.
Thanks for the reply though :D
Jase

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17719026-1246,00.html

How many do you want?

G

Guys

Ok you all have good points and I fully support what you are saying - there are many defferent areas with varying crime stats and we really don't know what goes on in our back yard!

I (Sam) work with the Police and I can totally vouch for what goes on as pointed out and it gets worse by the day. The Police in this country have a thankless task with no support from our Government and I hate to see them slagged off.

However, as it has been said we know this goes on in Oz as well. An Ozzie mate of ours works in the murder squad for the SA Police and he has told us some stories that would make you hair curl, most of which the public are unaware of.

We have all posted stuff on here that someone else might get upset about, but let's not fall out over it.

Happy New Year everyone and hopefully we will be celebrating the new year in Adelaide with you guys next year. :sign03: :sign03:

That one G was believed drug related, I didnt even touch on drug related crime in my small area. That was the whole of Adelaide!!
Your on a loser as I have police info and the stuff you get in the paper is not even half the stuff that goes on. We have a drug rlated death most months 1 or 2 or even more but because these poor souls (yes I do feel for them) are not of news interest they dont get reprted in the news.
Ill tell you my experince of SA and the problem I encountered and how it diffred from the UK. My wife and I went ther in OCT. On our first day we were walking around in the city at about 9PM. Mt wife was accosted by a drunk aboriginal man who was obviously a down and out, for a cigerette. I stepped in and went to deal with it as we deal with beggers in Canterbury who are very often aggressive and intimidating. After a short verbal altercation I discovered that he wished to actually purchase a cigerette from wife (I dont smoke) for 50 cents. My wife then gave him one not taking the money and I spent the next 100 yards telling him he could keep his money. Thats the diffrence I have experienced.
:D Jase

And I spent most of November in Adelaide with a serving Adelaide police officer who also told me a few stories that most don't get to hear :o

You are entitled to your opinion. However it galls me that threads slagging off the UK are allowed to run but a few weeks ago when I made a comment about a particular suburb (based on what the police officer told me) the thread magically disappeared. Abracadabra! just like that.

Suffice to say it was about a suburb popular with expats (and many on here).

If we are going to have balance let's make sure it is 'balanced'.

G

I agree with Dunc&sam I dont post anything on here to upset anyone, purley my experiences. Take or leave them :P
There will always be murders and high profile crime as most of these are domestic related. But I believe from what I am told by SA police officers that low level crime is a lot less than here than the UK and that is due to respect for others, something that a lot of people in the UK have lost. :sigh:
Jase
PS Love you all and will see you on the beach some time this year! :chuckle:

Oh G I have noticed that Ozzy suburbs reputaions are fiercly guarded. I choose not to go there for fear of major upset. Although I will say Flagstaff hill is great place to look for a house as long as you dont mind a 20 min journey to the city! :D
I have a few other opinions on places to live formed from seeing them and my police friends but I will keep them to myself :ph43r:
Jase

That's what we aim for Grayling....

I don't recall this particular one but can't imagine a thread would have been removed unless something pretty bad was said in it - and of course this may not have been by the originator of the thread. Normally we would only edit or remove the offending comment anyway. Threads tend to be moved if they are not in a suitable forum but we do our best to always leave a link to the new position.

We are always keen to have opinions on the various suburbs, which once the thread is no longer live, we move into the FAQ suburbs area for reference. In fact maybe this is where your thread ended up? Should still have left a link though.

I believe that personal opinions and accounts of experiences both good and bad are welcomed and valuable and what this site is all about. To my mind 'problems' tend to arise when people spout back what they have heard, but not experienced themselves, as if it is undisputed fact. It would also make it easier if people made it clear when their comments are from experience, or can show where they got their facts from - sorts out some of the backlash before it ever arises :rolleyes:

eg if I say "Suburb X is awful, no-one in their right minds would want to live there" then I'm bound to be in deep water straight away. However if I say "I visited Suburb X and had a good look around, and felt it wasn't for me because there seemed to be a lot of untidy gardens, rusted cars on the lawns and black tyre marks all over the roads" then that is fantastic information for everyone, your opinion is personal, but you've also given reasons that other people can decide whether these things matter to them.

So please re-post whatever it was you said before and I'll watch it with interest....

I know there are very popular suburbs with many on here, that for one reason or another are not my cup of tea. I don't like Sheidow Park as it looks too bare to me and I love being among trees!

Don't want to get involved in the whole UK is worse than SA debate.

In reply to the OP's question we were in Melbourne for New Year and I can honestly say I felt completely safe and the police organisation was fantastic. They set up different sites around the city along the river with different themes, there was a teenager area with films, a kiddie area with entertainment, jazz, cuban, dj's etc which meant it split the crowds up. They have 2 sets of fireworks a family set at 9.15 and another set at midnight, which again split things up. After the fireworks the police were standing on walls with megaphones telling people the best ways to go and 'could you please wait 5 minutes as the bridge is a bit crowded' there were huge amounts of people but no pushing or aggression, the station had exits for entering and separate for exit, same with some of the streets, they were split down the middle and people did follow the instructions, all public transport was free. There were a lot of teenagers around and they had been drinking but everyone was just having a good time and I didn't feel at all threatened even with my 7 year old with me. Just to add it hit 43 degrees around 5pm too!

As I said I don't want to get involved in a 'where is better' debate, but I have been to the Birmingham City Centre for New Year twice, before we had children, and it wasn't a very nice experience I did feel uneasy and the crowds were at times quite scary and I would never have taken the children and probably not let them go themselves when older either. Travelling back from Birmingham on a Friday or Saturday night was always awful, on the last train towards Coventry we always had police on the train and especially when I was alone (I worked for Virgin at New Street) it was very scary.

I'm sure that there were incidents in Melbourne I don't know about but that was my experience! But judging by what I saw I would far rather be a policeman in Melbourne than Birmingham!!

Sorry for the long post. :D

Nikki
xx

Going back to the original question, yes we felt totally safe over the xmas/new year period too. We had xmas day at home and the roads were completely quite and there was almost no noise even from those people who seemed to have guests over. (obviously not an AB party then!!! :lol: ) We also went down to Glenelg on New Years eve, for the first time, and didn't feel at all on edge. In fact it was one of the best new years we've had in a long time. As Jan said there was the odd drunk about but it was mainly light hearted and I didn't see any violence at all.

It is a dangerous game saying that the Uk is better than.... or Adelaide is better than..... it is totally up to the person to decide what is right for one is a nightmare for another. Grayling I have to back Elaine up as a moderator we do try to keep things balanced on here, personally I try to keep a balanced view on the whole moving to Oz thing as it is wonderful but so was Wales.....especially as they beat the Aussies a few weeks ago :D

As Nikki has said back to the original question - we were on the beach in Queensland for New Years Eve and apart from the odd "hoon" (love that word!) driving past in a merry state (hopefully the driver was sober though) shouting the odd comment which I have to say was a pleasant comment not an attacking one, it was a very very peaceful affair.

I do think if you look to Sydney there was a huge spread in the papers regarding going to Bondi beach for New Year as the police had been warning people there due to previous racist attacks happening. In Cairns there was also a spread regarding people going to the usual Palm Cove but as a parent and not being a young teenager single girlie wanting to party too hard those sort of places don't interest me anymore so maybe it is up to you. If I was in the UK I would of gone to Cardiff without thinking about it but I know I would of been faced with trouble at some point I think I would feel the same about going to the larger New Year Eve spots in Australia as well. Although I do feel the people here aren't just out to cause trouble..if that makes sense???

One thing I would say is driving about on Boxing Day or New Year Day the amount of police out in force was amazing. This is to catch the drinkers the night before as there is zero tolerance for drink driving over here (well something like 0.3 - I haven't done my test yet! but it's as good as zero!) It is something they take seriously.

Over all though I do feel a lot safer in Oz with my kids but there is still part of me that misses the green green grass of home - warts and all ;)

Sasha :)

For New Years Eve, I went to a friends house and at about 11pm we walked for about 10 minutes to get to Heney Square/Beach.

We were a small group with quite a few children in tow.

Whenever we passed someone, they would wish us happy new year.

The kids played on the beach for well over an hour and at no time did I feel worried for their safety.

At midnight everyone was very happy again no sign of trouble.

On the walk back we were chatting amongst ourselves saying how pleasant it was and how we would not have even considered taking them to somewhere like Brighton or Leicester Square for New Years. (In the past we have gone to both places for New Years Eve).

Henley Beach is a dry zone and the police were making sure that it stayed that way, they would ask any one with an alcholic drink to dispose of it, which they did with a sorry and a smile.

Kay

Well, ok, here we go again,people know Im out spoken , so here goes, 15yrs ago when we left the UK I was really scared with what was going on, I know since then things have got worse, I have to say I have NEVER been afraid in Australia, we were at Glenelg New Years Eve until 2:30 am, I didn`t even think about being scared, there were a few kids had a bit too much to drink, but no more than I did at their age.

I AM 62yrs old Fred is 58yrs old, guys to get me back to the UK,I would be kicking and screaming

We have a good life here why spoil it

Sheila

It's interesting to read the different views on this thread, I must say I think that those people who think the UK has gone downhill have my vote.

I haven't experienced crime as such but I loathe the way there is just no respect for people and their property anymore. The streets are dirty with litter blowing all over, few people hold doors open, say please and thank you or any other of those little things which make life more pleasant.

The other day I was walking home and a young guy sitting in a car threw a piece of paper out of the window. I stopped and told him (giving him the benefit of the doubt) and his reply was "well I live here so I can throw down anything I want" "If you don't like it f**king pick it up" I did pick it up- opened his rear door and put it on his backseat. I won't tell you what he then said I'm sure you can imagine.

I know I was born in the 50s when life was different but my children weren't and they have been brought up to be polite, not damage property, drop litter etc. So where is this country going wrong? I blame the do gooders as cited in an earlier post. Amongst other things the ridiculous Human Rights legislation and allowing lawyers to advertise to exploit the compensation culture has done us no favours.

Rant over!!

Chris

I don't want to make a big deal of it Elaine.

there was a thread running a while ago to which I added a comment on my return from Adelaide.

I then could not find it again and assumed it had been deleted especially as others on here had mentioned certain threads on suburbs being 'censored'. If I am wrong I apologise.
I won't post the comments again unless there is another thread where it is appropriate.

G

THere was one about suburbs that got moved into debate as it was getting a little heated... perhaps that was it :rolleyes:

Apologies if we failed to leave a link, we do try ;)

I think it all depends on where you live in ANY country....my brother lives just outside of Bath in the UK & he said there weren't any real problems, was relatively quiet.

I guess it is all relative.................

Tony

Good on ya Chris

Sheila