Alcohol induced violence and crime costs New Zealanders over 1 billion dollars per year...according to this article.
Why is this blitz only being done in Christchurch?
I hate drunks. There is a corner in my neighbourhood...on the main street where the shops are, where drunk kids hang out from basically Wednesday - Sunday night. I feel sorry for the lovely cafe that is right there, as well as all the other businesses. I avoid that area most of the time. Apparently there is a petition going around to stop the street kid looking things from congregating there. I wonder how much good that will do.
I drank a beer today. I was so hot after getting back from our walk and i opened my fridge to get a cold drink. There have been two beers sitting in the door of my fridge, since Steve stayed here...the weekend of my birthday back in September. I opened one and drank half of it. It did taste nice and refreshing. By the time i got half way through it...it was warm. So i swapped it for an ice cold Fanta.
It's funny how apparently once you are an alcoholic or a drug addict, they say you will always be one. I don't feel that way. I have no desire to ever abuse my body like that ever again. I know i never will. I don't believe that ...once an addict, always an addict ...stuff. Maybe for some people it is like that...hard to resist temptation for the rest of their life.
I don't feel any temptation at all.
Anyway...i said i was going to bed like an hour ago. Then i got reading stuff...now i am REALLY going to sleep....for reals.
Night x
PS...it is one month today since I got Nixon back. He is asleep here next to me...all clean and curly. I love him.
Alcohol-induced violence and drug-related crime will be targeted in Christchurch as thousands of Kiwi police officers act in unison with Australian forces next month.
Police forces across Australasia have chosen a single weekend for a blitz on what they say is a trans-Tasman problem – booze-fuelled street crime.
Canterbury planned to extend the two-day trans-Tasman Operation Unite crackdown by boosting police numbers and increasing breath-testing patrols in the leadup to Christmas.
"We have picked up on that [Operation Unite] initiative around those [December] dates, but in addition, during that week, each day, we will focus on different crime types such as disorder, violence, drink-driving, breaching the liquor ban and underage drinking," Inspector Bryan Buck, of the Christchurch police, said yesterday.
Pre-Christmas revellers in Christchurch would see an increased police presence on the streets and in hotels and bars.
Police had already boosted their central-city presence, rostering more officers on the night beat.
The united stand against drunken violence, which costs New Zealand more than $1 billion a year, was announced in Perth yesterday at a meeting of New Zealand and Australian police commissioners.
New Zealand Commissioner Howard Broad said the ground-breaking operation would demonstrate the "united resolve of commissioners to change Australia and New Zealand's culture of binge-drinking in public places".
Police across New Zealand and Australia would be carrying out the main operation from December 11 to 12, he said.
Broad said police had "had enough" of dealing with New Zealand's dangerous culture of binge-drinking in public places.
The stance would challenge the public to take greater responsibility for their behaviour.
Alcohol was a major driver of the problems police faced, he said.
"Alcohol, particularly in combination with drugs, impacts on many aspects of policing, including violent offending, homicides, drink-driving, family-violence incidents, accommodating intoxicated people in police cells and incidents or offending involving young people," Broad said.
"While legislation and enforcement are key, changing the drinking culture is crucial.
"The `drink-to-get-drunk' culture cannot continue, or become the norm, and that is why we are taking decisive action."
He believed the operation would make people safer and more secure, and send a message that "enough is enough".
"We are not out to curb the enjoyment, but instead tackle this problem with a heightened sense of commitment and urgency."
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland agreed that there was a need for cultural change, along with better licensing regulations. "We all share the belief that more can, and must, be done to tackle the dangerous binge-drinking culture which has developed among our younger generations."
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