Britomart Chaos Unacceptable
By now you would have seen the reports doing the rounds of a brawl breaking out at Britomart Station on Saturday night after the Christmas in the Park, and Raggamuffin events were concluded.
You can see the Herald report here:
Marauding youths shut down Britomart station
By Sam Boyer, Mathew Dearnaley 6:10 PM Sunday Dec 14, 2014
Dozens of marauding youths brought Auckland trains to a halt last night as hundreds of people converged on Britomart to get home after Christmas in the Park.
Police and security guards closed access to the Super City’s main railway station soon after 11pm after 30 to 40 youths climbed on top of turnstiles and began pushing and shoving each other on the platforms.
A video on Facebook captured some of their behaviour, showing them taunting and making aggressive gestures to the guards.
A heavy sign was thrown across the turnstiles at the guards before police arrived to restore order.
…..
Source and full article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11374116
The gates at Britomart themselves were the device as well as the guards and Maori Wardens that kept that brawl from spreading out of control.
But questions of the police need to be asked especially after a video emerged on Facebook showing the brawl going for five long minutes and still no police on the platform level. So to the Commander of Waitemata Police:
- Why were their no police on the main platform level after the events has concluded to act as a visible deterrence
- Why were their no police heavily patrolling outside the Britomart McDonalds where the rolling brawl started to both stop the brawl there and prevent it going down to the main platform levels
- Why after the brawl spread to the Britomart Platform level there was absolutely no police on that platform to break it up. A video clip shows the brawl going for five minutes and no police
- Why was there no squad ready with paddy wagon and dogs ready for instant deployment in such an event
- Why did the intelligence unit not pick up on the volatility of this before it happened or are they to busy pinging journalists critical of the Government?
- Why no arrests
The video is here: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=857078164313656&pnref=story
This not the first time the police have failed to respond to such incidents at a pubic transport stop or station.
Our public transport is meant to be safe so people especially families will use it but if the police can not do its job in deterrence and busting of such disturbances it does not give confidence to the rest of the City and tourists when we do hold large events. Furthermore the main platform level is a dangerous place if bad behaviour occurs on that level. Falling onto the tracks sober will hurt as is, falling onto the tracks drunk and no control is not going to be a pretty sight especially if head hits the iron. Also train movements is enough to put things at higher risks of an accident before control manages to bring all such movements to a halt.
I have noted this is not also the first time Christmas in the Park has resulted in drunken behaviour either. That situation faces a very easily solution: either we tell our peers to get themselves back in order or face Council dropping the ban hammer on the event. A pity a few spoil it for the rest so we might be wanting to better self police our peers before an authority does it for us with a blunt instrument…
As a comparison the NRL 9’s earlier this year was a very busy event but no reports of major issues as we saw on Saturday night. So Auckland can get its collective self together…
And so then who will be held to account for this ball dropping?
Talking Southern Auckland 
“As a comparison the NRL 9’s earlier this year was a very busy event but no reports of major issues as we saw on Saturday night”?
I’m not sure if by “major issues” you mean drunken brawls, or simply the failure of Auckland’s public transport. If it’s the latter, then you’re wrong.
My sister, who broke her back a few years ago so finds it painful to walk very far, was made to suffer because she lives out West, therefore her train didn’t go to the Kingsland station as it normally would. Only trains to and from Britomart went to Kingsland. If you were coming or going from out West, you faced a long walk up a steep hill as you were made to use the next-closest station.
Not only that, but she reported being left sat on a stifling hot train – which was full – for over 20 minutes before it departed. The air conditioning didn’t seem to be working and no explanation as to the delay was given.
I’d say making disabled people walk for miles and then sit on a boiling hot train for 20 minutes qualifies as “a major issue”.
You sound like Jon Reeves from PTUA with a beef to pick against AT in itself.
Standard game plan for the Western Line for major Eden Park events is the following and has been since 2010 if not earlier:
Britomart to Kingsland train shuttles
Swanson to Morningside shuttles with a disability taxi/shuttle meant to be on hand to assist between Morningside and Kingsland for Mt Eden
Fail that there are West Auckland buses with Super Low Floor facilities that leave various West Auckland stops and go pretty close to Eden Park, some direct to Britomart or Newmarket.
That has been the standard plan for the Western Line for at least four years now so plenty of time to adapt around it.
One question though? Did you ever contact AT in advance to find out the options for passengers who might have needed assistance prior to setting off?
As usual, some people want to blame the cops rather than the animals who are actually brawling. Nevermind the fact that the cops had at least 3 major events to supervise (Ragamuffin, Christmas in the Park, Wellington Phoenix playing at Eden Park) plus all the usual nonsense they have to deal with at this time of year (drunk drivers, domestics, etc). Some people just seem to think that the police have unlimited resources and can be in a dozen places at once.
This ‘blame the cops rather than the criminals’ attitude is disgraceful.
That said, this is YET ANOTHER reason why public transport in Auckland will never be like it is in Singapore. There’s too many people here that don’t know how to act in a decent or civilised manner. I’ve felt safer walking in public in New York, London and Bangkok than I do in Auckland. There’s too many animals, too many wannabe thugs and gangstas, and too much alcohol.
And that’s ONE reason why I won’t ever use public transport if I can help it. And I certainly wouldn’t expect my wife and child to.
The people who caused the fight get maximum blame. But the police are there to both prevent and solve situations.
They did not prevent they did not solve until much later down the track as their job mandates by law.
Your reason for not using P/T is the reason actually why we got ourselves into the mess in the first place. A total defeatist attitude.
When the brawl broke out Xmas in the Park and Raggamuffin were long over so the police had time to redeploy back to protecting THE major transport hub for the trips homes