My usual car in the train into the city this morning was unusually more fully occupied so I went to the next car up, which was relatively empty. I soon found out why that was.
A couple of young ladies, probably not more than 17 or 18, were talking loudly and showing all signs of being under the influence, probably drugs.
At the next stop a young tradie got on and the apparent ladettes screamed wildly, acknowledging the obviously embarrassed young man as someone who had previously provided them with cigarettes. They kept at him notwithstanding his obvious shyness, or just wanting for the racket to go away. Most probably to shut them up, he gave them some cigarettes. These pests then loudly got up and walked to the section between cars and lit up.
While smoking, the train pulled up into another station and someone walked in and sat where the girls were sitting. They gesticulated and screamed that that was their seat but they were ignored, probably missed altogether. As with many, this person probably wanted to just find a seat and snooze, so she probably missed the girls’ commotion which somehow didn’t get through the doors separating the car from the in-between section.
When they got back into the car they began tearing up some newspapers. They used parts of the newspaper to make hats and threw the rest of it all over around them. All this while, they were cussing and talking on top of their voices. Quite apart from the volume at that hour (it was a 5.30am from Blackburn), it was also what they were continuously talking about.
They were incessantly talking about parties they’ve been in, drugs they used in these parties and in homes of their friends and parents of these friends, as well as about fights and glassing and stabbing they were involved in. It was incredulous. Their continuous profanity talks and violent content of such discussions was just shocking.
At one point one of them tore up some newspapers, balled it up and tossed it at me. I was half snoozing. I opened my eyes, sat up and stared at them, half wondering what I should do – probably tell them to pipe down and behave themselves.
Ordinarily I didn’t think either of these girls would dare do anything other than maybe mouth even more obscenities and hiss and other such feral conduct short of actual physical violence. The mounting evidence of being under the influence however, tells me “ordinarily” does not apply. They may well be physically feral if I reacted to their stupidity.
I couldn’t continuing snoozing after that and had to keep my eyes opened and kept up my gaze at them, I suppose telling them if they tried anything stupid again I’d be on them like a ton of bricks.
The drug menace has really changed Melbourne very badly. I believe the increased violence we’ve been reading about in the local media is due largely to drugs. I have seen young kids sitting in alley ways in the city with their eyes glazed, probably not knowing where they are or what they were doing. Often this zombie like state leads to wanton violence. They would have no sense of right or wrong or reasonableness of actions or reactions.
Further, if the vulgar conversations they carried out are any indication of reality and not mere attempts at boasting, it would appear that the menace is actually a generational issue. The lost world of their parents has degenerated into a violent and destructive one.
If this debasement is not arrested, Melbourne would continue to face spiralling violence and other very dark issues.
Ante 