~ Alcohol & the Coward Punch ~

K2_TeacherBoy - 28 January 2014 05:30 PM

air180 - 28 January 2014 05:24 PM

I reckon alcohol definitely wouldn’t help the situation if someone is already impulsive and prone to aggression.
I agree with Dylan as well though re: the gym junkie stuff. Steroids (after long term use) are known to cause aggression issues and steroid use has increased massively over the last 2 years. As has the whole “aesthetics crew”/body builder tough guy trend.

i feel like this is very much related to the popularity of music festivals and it being more bout the image than actual music

I’ve got a few friends who started going to the gym and bodybuilding, overall I would say it started as a way to build confidence. One of them got involved with the whole zyzz/aesthetics crew/festival crowd and I’d say its now 100% image. Never met such a vain, elitist, intolerant bunch and of course they’re all full of bravado!. So definitely reckon you’re on to something there

Definitely linked to roids I reckon!!!!!

so you really don’t see any connection to the movies out there, and the violence inherent with them,or the games available to the average Joe?
Must be getting old

Tambo - 28 January 2014 09:24 PM

so you really don’t see any connection to the movies out there, and the violence inherent with them,or the games available to the average Joe?
Must be getting old

I agree to an extent. I think a lot of video games these days normalise violence and desensitise kids to it. Some even glamourise it (gta5 for example). Whether or not they encourage it or add to it I don’t know. As long as parents buy age appropriate games! My boyfriends 8 year old brother plays call of duty and gta, honestly I do think that’s going to have a negative impact!

Ok, so i deal with this week in/week out in my job.

My main role at work has moved from serving food to serving alcohol to cleaning up spew and for the last few months all I do is watch the floor to single out abusive or intox people. I’ve been punched and threatened enough times by drunk and drug affected people to form a perspective. 
I’ve been singled out by undercover police after being observed over many hours as dealing with these people in the best manner.
I’ve even been in physical confrontations with off duty, drunk, emotional cops (that means a near punch up when I got between two of them).
It’s safe to say OLGA has told my boss to have me on duty after 12am, I deal directly with the police when incidents occur and directly with the people involved while events happen.

Yes, alcohol is a factor.
No, gaming has nothing to with it.
Mostly it’s caused by other substances. It’s the nights I find empty capsules and satchels on the floor that more violence occurs.
It often depends on what has arrived in the area/city/country that week. Alcohol alone isn’t the cause.
This surprises even me as I’ve long believed alcohol resulted in violence but the last few months has swayed my opinion.
One of the worst things for violence is RedBull (I say that because it’s caused me to be violent).

“Self defense” is a poor excuse for being involved in a fight.
I’ve learned the hard way to incite an alcohol or drug affect person is by taking a defensive (or offensive) stance.
Watch any trained security or police these days - they don’t take a defensive stance because all that does is give an offender an excuse to attack. By standing your ground offenders get confused.
It’s similar to the way a dog will chase anything that runs or most animals attack when cornered. Do nothing and the animal does nothing - even if you’re acting as a wall to prevent an attack occurring.

People are jerks and violence occurs - alcohol exaggerates that. Drugs make it worse (or less depending on drug). Mob mentality is the worst.

But none of that explains the coward punch - which I’ve received more of than any other punch - especially while playing rugby.
It’s circumstance that kills. A coward punch is akin to falling on the snow. Your head is the hardest part of your body. If you hit me in the head your more likely to break your hand than hurt me.

I dont think you can say definitively that video games/media has nothing to do with it.

Personally I think the whole coward punch/king hit falls in a different category to your usual assaults. I think it is a certain demographic engaging in this behaviour and not your usual offenders and the same drug/alcohol generalisations don’t so much apply.

I work, and have worked with, a hell of a lot of young offenders and almost all of them have violent offending, usually under the influence of drugs or alcohol and none of them have used a “coward punch”. This leads me to believe there is obviously something more to it than just drugs and alcohol..

I think the general attitude of society, i.e violence in games, movies, television etc etc is playing a part in the violence the media is happy to report to us.

Firstly I believe when younger children watch / play this sort thing carried out, the level of what a human body can stand is put into another level that is closer to the ‘edge’

Watch any snowboard, ski, skate, mountain bike footage, we all love it, amazing tricks are landed. For a kid watching, it is the norm. When I first skated, to do an ollie was amazing, now you need to be able to kick flip a four step before you are classed as beyond beginner.
Have a chat to the guys & girls doing this stuff about their injury list….....
The bar is always being raised and watched, then mimicked by kids.

I cannot see how this is not the same with watching movies, tv & gaming. Sure it does not happen to all, I can play what ever game and I don’t turn into a psycho killer, even once I have a few drinks.

Again this is about a small minority who’s actions bring in the need for new laws, greater punishments. These same people will still get drunk, stoned whatever and throw that one punch for the laugh, thrill, proving of manhood, without thinking for a second that they could kill or maim someone for the rest of their life.
There is absolutely nothing we can do to stop this sort of behaviour, maybe slow it down by getting a few to stop and think, thats all.
I think punishment that reflects the hardship of the victim(s) would be fitting.

Have a read of spaz’s shark thread, there are plenty more ways you could die than being punched.

I blame the capitalist system, everything always has to be bigger, better, faster, more and just for my good mate Dylan, LONGER

It’s human nature to be violent.
We were that way long before artificial entertainment was around. If anything there’s less violence now.

Back in the day tv didn’t show the repercussions of violent actions.
Then came the vietnam war and look what resulted from it’s tv coverage.

Or go back further to WW1 - after footage of that started to get out the geneva convention change the way we conduct war.

Azz and Tambo, you are both country folk - do you think being exposed to actual death of real animals (having to do that task yourself at times) make you more immune to violence?
I grew up hunting, gutting and skinning animals.
As an actor I’ve portrayed Australias most gruesome mass murderer and replicated the horrors he did, but these things sure as hell haven’t made me violent.
Killing pixels on a tv screen is no worse than playing cowboys and indians or poking a dead animal with a stick.

And isn’t that the problem?
Kids don’t get outside, use their imagination and find dead things to poke with sticks.

spaz - 29 January 2014 07:35 AM

Kids don’t get outside, use their imagination and find dead things to poke with sticks.

This ^^^^^ and some other stuff I will write later on

Azz - 29 January 2014 07:15 AM

There is absolutely nothing we can do to stop this sort of behaviour, maybe slow it down by getting a few to stop and think, thats all.
I think punishment that reflects the hardship of the victim(s) would be fitting.

This!

There is always the people who think they are super human and that they will never get caught/punished.

“it will never happen to me”

“I can out smart the system”

Make the punishment so high that its not worth the risk!

x 2

if you kill some one (drunk or on drugs or not..) why should you be free to just go on living your life? When you’ve taken some one else, and destroyed a family?

its hardly an accident and being on drugs or alcohol is hardly a reasonable excuse, its not like some one held you down and forced you to do/take them,

if you get in a car, run some one down because you are drunk, you get more of a punishment than if you are driving sober and accidentally hit some one! So why is this different??

if you have aggression issues, go to a gym and punch the crap out of a bag…  If I get pissed off i play video games to take my aggression out.. I dont go around hitting random strangers because I dont like the look of them or because I simply can…

they really need to harden up and take this seriously!

spaz - 29 January 2014 07:35 AM

Azz and Tambo, you are both country folk - do you think being exposed to actual death of real animals (having to do that task yourself at times) make you more immune to violence?

No, what happens here is not violence, its a quick clean death to either euthanise a sick animal or for the dinner pot.
I actually feel really bad when I have to dispatch an animal because it is ill. It is such a waste of life & food.
To kill for food does not bother me and I make sure every last bit is used.

I don’t watch any forms of contact sport, don’t enjoy them.

History paints the picture the past was really violent, it probably was. If it was more so than today, I am not sure, just flick on the news.

A mate of mine has a theory, if someone harms him or his family that effects them for the rest of their lives, he will get his .22 rifle and shoot the offender in one of his / her knee caps, that way he won’t get locked up for murder etc etc, will more than likely get suspended sentence with a good lawyer and the bastard that did in the first place, regardless of punishment will always walk with a limp, remembering the day he crossed my mate.

Crystal Meth has a metric shitload more to do with violence than booze.

yep

and alcohol a lot more than weed.