IN YOUR FACE-BOOK

Within hours of his appointment as the new Chief Commissioner of Police I had Simon Overland on this program and told him what I thought was the major fear for Melbourne in Melbourne. The fear of being robbed or bashed in the streets. The fear of not being able to safely walk in the CBD at night. The fear of not being able to walk home safely from a suburban railway station. The fear of being attacked by drunken louts. And late night gangs.

The new Police chief admitted that alcohol and public violence were two of the major issues he faced. And while pledging to do something about it he also asked for a community effort.

If he ever needed proof that this state is being terrorized by drunken violent boneheads he should read Facebook –or at least a report in the Diamond Valley Leader.

There was a drunken riot a couple of weekends ago in Torquay. Police had to use capsicum spray to stop a club brawl between about twenty men from three football clubs. One of those was the Greensborough Football Club from Diamond Valley.

And why I mentioned Facebook Commissioner is because this bloody mayhem and lawlessness was predicted by club members on that Internet site before they even went on a training trip to Torquay on February 21.
These knuckleheads have a Facebook site called ‘effing up joints when I’m blind is fun’. Two players, Drew Wilson and Leigh Millsom put their names to it.

They say their Facebook group is dedicated to ‘setting fire to hotels, taking number plates, breaking windows, getting nude, pissing on blokes ... breaking pipes and flooding joints, smashing lights, pissing on the floor’.

I wonder if their guys have families. Or jobs? Or kids?

Three days before the fight Wilson wrote on his site ‘Torquay will b lucky to b standing after the weekend.’

The day after the brawl over which six men were charged Wilson was back in the Net to boast ‘Torquay is no longer standing’ and ‘XXXX got capsican (sic) sprayed last night.’

The manager of the Torquay Hotel, Andrew Routley, said the brawl was  ‘horrific’.

Members of the University Blues Football Club were also at the hotel when the fracas erupted, but the club insists that its players were not involved. The identity of the third club is not known. But obviously the Diamond Valley Neanderthals weren’t just fighting amongst themselves.

Not surprisingly nobody at Greensborough is talking. Not the players nor the Club president, Shane Gration, or the senior coach Neale Carroll.

Former coach Russell Dickson says he’s surprised by the incident because  ‘the club has a strong family focus’. Yeah, right.

Commissioner, in 2009, this sort of planned drunken hooliganism is what you and the thin blue line are up against. And these aren’t rebellious teenagers. Good luck. You’ll need it.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009