Top Cop as Blind as the Kids

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has lashed out at the alcohol abuse that turned a Year 11 formal into a drunken, bloody brawl involving 130 teenagers.

Drunken teens turned the National Maritime Museum into a bloody battlefield as students from Killarney Heights High School fought a running battle with gangs from Glebe and Waterloo.

Friday's celebration, organised by parents of students at the school, was supposedly "alcohol-free".

The venue probably was. However every single week I see schoolkids around my area drinking out of hipflasks or 'pre-mixed' Coke bottles containing a lot more than Coke. The venue may have been dry but the kids would have been tanked before they walked in. 'Skolling' 200ml of spirits will have that effect.

Commissioner Scipione said:

"It's the same old formula. Just add grog and they turn into monsters.

Wrong. They needed to be monsters to begin with. I'm pretty confident it wasn't the school debating club who got in the biffo.

As noted, this "running battle with gangs" was happening during schooltime. Were they drunk at recess on school days? Of course not. Why the hell are students from one school even aware of other schools? Social networking sites?

No. The grog certainly doesn't help, but it's naive to blame everything on the drink and not the person drinking it. And their parents. And their teachers. And a system which means these young punks are afraid of nobody, including cops, parents or other people.

This is a major social problem and the result of 20 years of failed social policy. Unlike London, we haven't had the riots yet.