Bogans run amok

Junior was telling us over dinner this week how some of his school mates narrowly avoided being bashed at the Mardi Gras. These are kids in the 13-16 age bracket, who had gone into town for a look.

J and I scoffed at that, based on our combined experience of seeing perhaps 10 Mardi Gras, and never seeing so much as a harsh word spoken. We thought it was teenage bravado and story telling.

Uh oh. Got that wrong.

CLANS of young men hijacked this year's gay and lesbian Mardi Gras in a night of drunken mayhem that forced part of the city to be locked down.

Police have spoken of a "running battle'' with aggressive youths from the suburbs who caught trains to the city and ran riot in the central business district.

So much for tolerance and harmony.

Many years ago, when I lived not far from the Mardi Gras route, I was staggering home from a party when some bogans from way out west drove past and threw some stubbies at me. I was pretty pissed, and it took a while to realise that the smashing bottles around my feet were coming from a Torana with four bogans in it that had stopped across the street. They started yelling stuff out the window, like "fag" and so on, and I turned this way and that to see which poof they were abusing.

I was the only person in the street. Because I had a suit on (it was that sort of party), they decided I was gay, and needed bashing.

I have no idea why, but they decided to not step out of the car, and headed off to give someone else grief. I like to think it's because I was doing an awfully large amount of work with weights at the time (perhaps too much), and when I turned to them and demonstrated that I would fight rather than flee, they shot through.

These people are cowards, hunting in packs and taking out individual victims. The sooner the police take the truncheon to them with unnecessary violence, the better off we'll be. I'll be happy when I hear a conversation like this:

Latte sipper one: "Jeffrey, what's that noise? Fireworks in the park?"

Latte sipper two: "No Pasquale, it's the riot police firing shotguns at bogans."

Latte sipper one: "How delicious. Should we pop down to watch the westies squeal like pigs?"

Latte sipper two: "They seem to be using an awful lot of ammunition. It sounds like New Year's Eve down there".

Latte sipper one: "There's no shortage of bogans, Jeffrey. No shortage at all. Oh look, is that one limping by on the other side of the street?"