No, you are not Sancho.
I was coming home on the 1:06AM tram, from the party where I had to RSVP with a swear word, and there was a kurfuffle.
We stopped and a “youth” got on board from the middle entry and sat down between middle and front (and so across the aisle from me) with a bottle in hand. The driver said something along the lines of “no booze” and the youth said “nah, it’s just cordial, it’s all good.”
The driver didn’t believe the youth (and obviously, who would) and reiterated no alcohol was allowed on board. (Well no open/drinking of booze is allowed) The dude was determined that it wasn’t booze and it was all good.
The driver started suggesting that the youth thought he was blind, that no booze was allowed, and that he should get off the tram right now. The guy at this point spotted his friends approaching the now closed front doors of the tram. And requested that the driver open the doors and this was despite the fact that the driver was demanding he exit the tram, and that his friends were obviously holding beer bottles in their hands.
The driver went on about how the youth must think him blind, there was no booze on the tram, that he should get off the tram, and that he wasn’t letting the new youths on to the tram as they too had the dread spirits. Youth #1 reckoned that they just wanted to get home. tram driver opens little door thing between drivers seat and the tram, only to find youth blocking the way (having moved to the front entry to wave on his friends) there is some pushing backwards and forwards, then the driver grabs the youths arm and gets him to release the pole that was blocking the door.
So, here they are mano a mano and the youth (who is smaller than the driver) starts yelling, the driver asks if he wants to go (well it was something like that, but in Australian parlance that I can’t recall), and the youth goes on about how yeah do you want that, do you want that on your camera (repeatedly).
And I’m like wtf (mate).
The driver had closed the doors, but now opens them and the guy goes to encourage his friends to get on board. While he is in the stairwell the driver kicks him out of the tram. Youth sprays beer on him, and then the bottle is smashed on something, though I’m not sure what. (ie glass was broken, but not sure where it went, didn’t fly around tram / hit driver, so may have been in foot of stairwell, or possibly doors were closing at this point)
At some point a biggish guy had come from the back of the tram and said something along the lines of, don’t beat up the driver. But this was just as the guy was being kicked off tram.
And off we go.
During the altercation (as we’ve been taught this kind of incident is called), I had continued to sit in my seat and look on, wondering what to do. I took some photos on my phone of the youth on the outside of the tram once the incident was resolved, primarily due to the bottle throwing smashing. But they were in the dark, and I was in a lit tram, so they were rubbish.
An interesting situation.
So, presumably this is (some kind of) assault. I really need someone to pay me to do a law degree, but the driver laid hands on the passenger first, which is to my understanding is (some kind of) assault. The passenger was at the time forcible prohibiting the driver from getting out of his booth, but I’m not sure what that means. I know there is some rule regarding trespass, with my hazy recollection supplying me with some concept of telling the person three times that they are trespassing, and heave to leave… But I doubt that permits physical action? Or does it. You can also lay hands on people with citizens arrests, but that (in NZ at least) requires the crime you’re arresting the miscreant to be one punishable by no less than two years in jail. Oh, unless it is during the hours of darkness, then I think it is anything covered by the Crimes Act.
But who knows the AU rules, they are after all a bunch of crims anyway. Where was I. Oh right, so that’s assault right there that is. Or perhaps not. I’m sure assault is defined somewhere, and this was presumably “reasonable use of force” and he didn’t strike him or cause bodily harm I assume, so maybe it is just something else, like cuddling. In NZ you’re allowed to use reasonable force to stop people nicking your stuff, but I don’t know about man handling them off the property…
Oh, and PS, legislation.govt.nz is now up and running. It took a long time, seems to have cost some amount of money, and is a bit crap. But still, better than nothing.
So, as events unfolded I was wondering what to do. Obviously if they’d actually started going at it, I couldn’t have let said youth go at said driver, but then again maybe the driver would have kicked his arse, and not needed my assistance – such that I would have any idea how to assist.
And lets not forget – Humans, we’re squishy. Despite what TV tells us, a knock to the head and we’re dead, or worse. So, being careful in these situations is always the plan. I could of course have busted out Mr Cellphone for a quick 000 call the the coppers. But the problem here is that you’re dealing with a presumably boozed, and irrational actor.
Being clever and calling the cops, and things of that ilk generally works best when you’ve got a rational, or at least allegedly rational actor who gets what this implies. Drunk people are notoriously not in this boat.
They also have less fear and concern for their physical well being. And are in fact generally dumb. And just as Waz and I know that annoyingly we’re too smart and realise the risk of robbing banks is that i we get caught it’s all bad, and are thus scared of the idea by the awareness of the bad that could happen, drunken fighters are not. So.
So what else, ah nothing really. I just thought I’d relay the joys of public transportation. Public transportation rocks, but yeah that wasn’t the coolest thing. I asked the driver about it later and he wasn’t even aware that there was a camera on board, which I found surprising. There certainly is, but I have no idea if it works, could well be control through the possibility of surveillance, who knows. Definitely signs abound indicating They are Watching Us.
Still, I have my feet up on the seat, and I haven’t been disappeared yet.
Silly boys who just wanted to get home? Learn to put your one beer bottle (omg) in the curb like everyone else and go home. For the 1:06 was the last tram. And now you’re out of luck. (Suck it)
Man, reading that is really boring isn’t it? This then this then this other thing then this. Too bad.
In conclusion, I am (or at least hope that I am) of the type of person to “get involved” in this type of situation, at some point, but luckily nothing has happened in my vicinity to warrant such intervention as of yet. And that’s good. Although I’m still pissed I missed meeting the skaters with Dan in Cashel Street. Fuckers.
Of course I could be all talk. It’s been known to happen.
I bought next month’s Met card yesterday, $104 for the month and put it in my short pocket with my eftpos card and went home. Threw shorts in washing machine, left to soak. Ahh! Thirty minutes later and extracted shorts and card and $104 bit of cardboard. Looks like enough is left printed on the card that I’ll be able to get a replacement. But damn I would have been pissed off if I’d just burnt $100. But I didn’t, so I’m not.