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(Guardian)   Queensland, Australia moves to decriminalize public intoxication, increase the number of Fark parties   (theguardian.com) divider line
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    More: Spiffy, Indigenous Australians, Queensland, essential first step, First Nations, public intoxication, Crime, Torres Strait Islanders, wrongs of our past  
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1051 clicks; posted to Main » on 31 Oct 2022 at 12:50 PM (20 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



41 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
Concrete Donkey
2022-10-31 12:51:51 PM  
An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal
 
Floki [TotalFark]
2022-10-31 12:59:27 PM  
Purely being intoxicated should be recognized as a medical condition and not a law enforcement issue.
 
Lifeless
2022-10-31 12:59:59 PM  

Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal


An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence
 
Solty Dog
2022-10-31 1:01:01 PM  
The article also goes on to say begging and pissing in public would be legal too. They are trying to turn the whole place into Bourbon Street.
 
MBooda [TotalFark]
2022-10-31 1:01:51 PM  
Uncle Rad will probably "fall" into the pool more often.
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
Super Chronic
2022-10-31 1:02:37 PM  

Floki: Purely being intoxicated should be recognized as a medical condition and not a law enforcement issue.


No idea what the enforcement statistics are, but I assume these laws are just used to slap a charge on the loud and belligerent assholes. You're pretty safe if you just walk down the street, minding your own business, no matter how drunk you are.
 
Lifeless
2022-10-31 1:06:15 PM  

Super Chronic: Floki: Purely being intoxicated should be recognized as a medical condition and not a law enforcement issue.

No idea what the enforcement statistics are, but I assume these laws are just used to slap a charge on the loud and belligerent assholes. You're pretty safe if you just walk down the street, minding your own business, no matter how drunk you are.


They're used to single out minorities, just like here
 
austerity101
2022-10-31 1:08:26 PM  

Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence


Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?
 
steklo [TotalFark]
2022-10-31 1:17:15 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
hej
2022-10-31 1:17:34 PM  
Have to actually have Fark parties first.
 
foo monkey
2022-10-31 1:18:33 PM  
She's dead and buried.  Can we farking move on already?
 
maxandgrinch [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2022-10-31 1:26:27 PM  
Correlation does not imply causation or something?
 
Uncontrolled_Jibe
2022-10-31 1:27:24 PM  

Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal


prohibition of alcohol in the U.S.   1920-1933
national prohibition of marijuana 1937

Where was the "intelligent society"  at work then?
 
DuneClimber
2022-10-31 1:28:15 PM  
What's their stance on carousing?
 
Sin'sHero [TotalFark]
2022-10-31 1:57:07 PM  

Uncontrolled_Jibe: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

prohibition of alcohol in the U.S.   1920-1933
national prohibition of marijuana 1937

Where was the "intelligent society"  at work then?


Getting high on their own supply.
 
Fano
2022-10-31 1:57:12 PM  

Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence


That doesn't sound like justice at all
 
Fano
2022-10-31 1:58:42 PM  

austerity101: Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence

Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?


I'm 99.9% certain that it will just result in more people getting lengthy previously avoidable prison sentences.
 
austerity101
2022-10-31 2:00:34 PM  

Fano: austerity101: Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence

Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?

I'm 99.9% certain that it will just result in more people getting lengthy previously avoidable prison sentences.


And I'm not saying we shouldn't punish these crimes, but if the punishment isn't the least severe possible that still increases deterrence and decreases recidivism, then the punishment is pointless and excessive, from a justice standpoint.
 
farkitallletitend
2022-10-31 2:00:35 PM  

Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal


And after a time kiss intelligence goodbye. What were we talking about?
 
Fano
2022-10-31 2:08:40 PM  

austerity101: Fano: austerity101: Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence

Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?

I'm 99.9% certain that it will just result in more people getting lengthy previously avoidable prison sentences.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't punish these crimes, but if the punishment isn't the least severe possible that still increases deterrence and decreases recidivism, then the punishment is pointless and excessive, from a justice standpoint.


I agree with you here. I just wanted to say that increasing the ease of breaking a law and then substantially upping the penalties, particularlypeople whose judgement is being broken down by the substance they are taking, will not be able to avoid trouble, in essence, the law is prohibition without outlawing the substances and a pitcher plant doom for everyone else.
 
RedfordRenegade
2022-10-31 2:18:00 PM  
I agree that this form of behavior should not be illegal.  I think the U.S. should look at the outcome of relaxing these laws and consider doing the same in many of our lovely municipalities.
Just imagine, sitting on a park bench, on a lovely summer eve, sipping off a crisp, refreshing can of Four Loko, watermelon flavored beverage. After a few the possibilities seem endless.
Maybe play a little chess or do the running-man, in place for several hours.
There is no harm in that you teetotalers!
 
austerity101
2022-10-31 2:36:20 PM  

Fano: austerity101: Fano: austerity101: Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence

Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?

I'm 99.9% certain that it will just result in more people getting lengthy previously avoidable prison sentences.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't punish these crimes, but if the punishment isn't the least severe possible that still increases deterrence and decreases recidivism, then the punishment is pointless and excessive, from a justice standpoint.

I agree with you here. I just wanted to say that increasing the ease of breaking a law and then substantially upping the penalties, particularlypeople whose judgement is being broken down by the substance they are taking, will not be able to avoid trouble, in essence, the law is prohibition without outlawing the substances and a pitcher plant doom for everyone else.


Sorry, yes, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just expanding and clarifying.

I know people love the idea of "severe punishment = less crime," but that isn't how it works, at all. Fascists in particular love having draconian punishments available in the law to use against political enemies. If the penalty for jaywalking is death, suddenly a lot of enemies of the state start getting arrested for jaywalking. (An almost-impossibly extreme example, but still.) It might get fewer people to jaywalk, but mostly it'll just lead to more dead people.
 
StoPPeRmobile
2022-10-31 2:37:15 PM  

Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal


No.
 
StoPPeRmobile
2022-10-31 2:39:36 PM  

Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence


No  get back to work you agreed to when permitted to survive abortion.
 
StoPPeRmobile
2022-10-31 2:42:54 PM  

Super Chronic: Floki: Purely being intoxicated should be recognized as a medical condition and not a law enforcement issue.

No idea what the enforcement statistics are, but I assume these laws are just used to slap a charge on the loud and belligerent assholes. You're pretty safe if you just walk down the street, minding your own business, no matter how drunk you are.


This might shatter your world view but sometimes people and birthing people seek strange. It is as has always been. At best it may be your turn.


/All hail Aphrodite
 
StoPPeRmobile
2022-10-31 2:47:37 PM  

austerity101: Lifeless: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

An intelligent society would make both legal and scale the penalty up for offenses committed under the influence

Does scaling the penalty have an appreciable effect on deterrence and/or recidivism?


We live in a Christian society in full compliance of Jesus. That's why we have people and birthing people wearing black robes judging and sometimes condemning subhumans to execution so that we are permitted to continue purchasing widgets made on the other side of the planet by children.
 
tedthebellhopp
2022-10-31 2:55:58 PM  
Increased incidents of bogans yelling show me your flange! is likely.
 
Aussie_As
2022-10-31 3:06:14 PM  
It's a pretty good idea, it's Queensland after all. The locals are so pissed they can't spell "beer", their beer cans have "XXXX" written on them instead, and their cops are fascists who call the decades when Sir Joh Bjielke-Petersen ran the state "the good old days".
 
Bondith
2022-10-31 3:23:32 PM  
Queensland makes being a Queenslander legal.

/Queenslander
//hasn't lived there in over 30 years
 
Teddy Brosevelt
2022-10-31 3:39:14 PM  
If my buddy from NSW is to be believed, public intoxication is not only legal, but highly encouraged in Queensland.
 
MurphyMurphy
2022-10-31 3:51:52 PM  
Can we have Fark parties again?

It's not compulsory if you're still trying to avoid the greater biome.
 
thisispete
2022-10-31 4:01:39 PM  

Teddy Brosevelt: If my buddy from NSW is to be believed, public intoxication is not only legal, but highly encouraged in Queensland.


It will certainly make for an interesting Brisbane Olympics in 2032. The 100 meters stagger. Olympic sculling. The snatch and jerk will have to be 18+
 
The Irresponsible Captain [TotalFark]
2022-10-31 4:43:33 PM  

Lifeless: Super Chronic: Floki: Purely being intoxicated should be recognized as a medical condition and not a law enforcement issue.

No idea what the enforcement statistics are, but I assume these laws are just used to slap a charge on the loud and belligerent assholes. You're pretty safe if you just walk down the street, minding your own business, no matter how drunk you are.

They're used to single out minorities, just like here


I remember when it was a way to harass college students as well. That and open container laws. There are a lot of little laws on the books meant to allow the harassment of someone seen as "other"
 
chawco
2022-10-31 5:12:44 PM  
Dude won the American justice lottery. Poor, a bit of drugs, and did something stupid (though actually the girl did....), so gets to live in jail for a while.bexause his bond is probably about equal to his annual income, or more.

Nice justice system. Girl threatens him, but he has a baggie of wacky tabbacy so he can cool off in jail for few months until his case gets to court, or just take a please deal deal spend a couple years behind bars. Total justice.
 
Mouser
2022-10-31 5:50:24 PM  

MBooda: Uncle Rad will probably "fall" into the pool more often.
[Fark user image 302x500]


Among others.

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
ansius
2022-10-31 6:44:20 PM  
You have to realise that this is an enquiry looking into why aboriginal people are disproportionally incarcerated in Australia, and why so many of them die in custody.

Aboriginal people are about 3% of the population and about 27% of the prison population (aboriginal women are 34% of women in prison).

One big reason is because they are done for public intoxication.

I've been to remote and rural QLD - the whiteys up there are quite happy to get blasted and act like porkchops in public too. But they're way less likely to end up in the back of a paddy wagon.

And way way less likely to be 'found dead' in a prison cell.

https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/executive-summary-15/disproportionate-incarceration-rate/

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/22/indigenous-prison-population-continues-to-increase-while-non-indigenous-incarceration-rate-falls
 
SafetyThird
2022-10-31 7:30:55 PM  
I was pleased to find out my town has no drinking in public laws. You can walk down the street drinking a naked beer. Bars and restaurants will give you to go cups for your drinks. Our nearest watering hole is exactly 1 beer away via walking.
 
Alo
2022-10-31 7:34:43 PM  
The only rational punishment for public intoxication (assuming you're causing enough of a disturbance or look to be in enough possible self-danger to have the cops called on you) is to be thrown in the drunk tank until you sober up and then given an amount of community service equal to a generally agreed upon scale based on your disturbance (recorded and available from body cams).

It really mostly shouldn't be different than if you were farking around and accidentally broke someone's window.  You gotta pay for it, and they should be compensated some extra, so your community service should be part of making that up.
 
Greymalkin
2022-10-31 9:52:32 PM  
This is a typical lazy "too hard basket" solution to the problem.

Oh no!  Our stats on how many Aboriginals are in jail look bad, lets just stop arresting them!

Not actually invest in bias training for police or engagement of more Aboriginal support workers to better identify and manage the problem.

Not providing support and education to the Aboriginal community so that being a public urinating, drunken beggar isn't such a common feature.

Not having effective post incarceration rehabilitation programs so that the following stops being true:
"Meanwhile, nearly half of prisoners reoffended, with 46% of people released from prison between June 2017 and July 2018 back behind bars within two years. The figure has remained steady in recent years, having been at 44.5% for those released from prisons between June 2012 and July 2013."

Yeah those all would take some time and effort, much easier to just not arrest someone for public intoxication and wait until it escalates to a more serious crime like assault which of course will incur a more serious penalty and even less chance of rehabilitation after that penalty.  But there would be overall less arrests so the stats would look better.
 
ansius
2022-10-31 11:21:52 PM  

Greymalkin: This is a typical lazy "too hard basket" solution to the problem.

Oh no!  Our stats on how many Aboriginals are in jail look bad, lets just stop arresting them!

Not actually invest in bias training for police or engagement of more Aboriginal support workers to better identify and manage the problem.

Not providing support and education to the Aboriginal community so that being a public urinating, drunken beggar isn't such a common feature.

Not having effective post incarceration rehabilitation programs so that the following stops being true:
"Meanwhile, nearly half of prisoners reoffended, with 46% of people released from prison between June 2017 and July 2018 back behind bars within two years. The figure has remained steady in recent years, having been at 44.5% for those released from prisons between June 2012 and July 2013."

Yeah those all would take some time and effort, much easier to just not arrest someone for public intoxication and wait until it escalates to a more serious crime like assault which of course will incur a more serious penalty and even less chance of rehabilitation after that penalty.  But there would be overall less arrests so the stats would look better.


Precisely.

And public intoxication (in this context) is the outward symptom of a problem that's already been left rotting for too long and so is now going to require massive expenditures and probably generations to fix.

A band-aid like this is merely pushing an even bigger bill onto future generations.
 
Concrete Donkey
2022-11-01 4:33:31 AM  

Uncontrolled_Jibe: Concrete Donkey: An intelligent society would outlaw alcohol and make weed completely legal

prohibition of alcohol in the U.S.   1920-1933
national prohibition of marijuana 1937

Where was the "intelligent society"  at work then?


If you ever bothered to do a deep dive into the whys of the laws against non alcohol drugs, you would find that every single one of them was specifically crafted to enable race based attacks on society. In the 30s they were to go after the mexican immigrants, in the 60s they were to go after the black community.
 
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