Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Sacha,
There are various reasons people might not have confronted pissed, abusive twentysomething males -- including not being fully aware of what was taking place. The problem was Eden Park treating that as assent to what was going on.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Bevan Shortridge,
Eden Park doesn’t do similar?
There is an Eden Park text number, but the first I knew of it was this week.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Angus Robertson,
It is not an insult to tell people the truth (unless you are a politician). It is refreshing.
When they say it is not their job to shift the values of society, they are stating the there are arseholes in society, people who will be arseholes at their venue and that they cannot change this.
Fucksake. Here, because you didn’t seem to get it first time, is the relevant part of the Conditions of Entry to Eden Park:
Patrons will be requested to leave the Stadium during an event if they:
Are intoxicated, or appear to be becoming intoxicated
Are verbally or physically abusive…
Behave in a disorderly or offensive manner, or a manner contrary to public order
This is what the harassment of Hannah descended to, from the original news report:
But then they turned on her for the rest of the match, directing slurs in her ear, tapping her on the head and telling her not to go to the rugby again.
Her brother put his arm around her, but no one else in the crowd around her stood up for her.
By any sane reading, this is both physically and verbally abusive behaviour.
Had the park management simply said “this is beneath the standard of behaviour we require of patrons and it’s unfortunate we weren’t able to do something about it at the time,” that would be fine.
In fact, Tracy Morgan did say something of the kind when she said “harassment of a patron would not be condoned and the men could have been evicted for that.” But then she said – bizarrely – that it couldn’t be harassment unless “everybody else around” was offended by it. That’s absurd. And it is not what the park’s own Conditions of Entry say.
Then Morgan went on to declare that objecting to this kind of harassment was “PC” – as if it was on some level Hannah’s fault. No, it isn’t Eden Park’s job “to try to move the cultural morals of society” – but that’s not and never was the point, just a shitty little bit of undermining. The point is the verbal and physical harassment of a young woman.
You’ve had all this pointed out to you. If you’re going to continue to ignore it, you can fuck off.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Angus Robertson,
How the fuck Eden Park were supposed to know this was going on (much less prevent it) is a mystery.
Not for the first time, you're being weirdly disingenuous. You know bloody well that the topic of the post and the core of the current discussion is Eden Park's insulting response when approached for comment. I'm actually growing weary of your endlessly-shifting arguments.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to JacksonP,
Having left a match half way through due to the inability of security to deal with drunken and abusive behaviour, including the shoulder tapping and feet on the seat behind our heads, (during the infamous Four Nations league match a few years back) this culture is real and no fun to be sitting in front of.
That event was a debacle. Two matches on end, poor crowd management -- and a bunch of people who were unused to coming to Eden Park or to watch rugby league live.
I'm struggling to recall the last time I witnessed behaviour like that at a Super 15 match at Eden Park or at Mt Smart for the Warriors. It is not typical and it is not to be expected.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Sacha,
The freedom of bullies is the only important thing, sir. Has made our nation great, etc. Respect is for nancies and cat-lovers.
And the “fun police”. Don't forget them.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Megan Wegan,
I’d suggest that those terms were broken. Definitely the second one.
It very clearly was.
Whereas you’ve got to squint pretty hard to decide possession of a beach ball is “contrary to public order”.
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Sacha,
Your ability to manufacture equivalences is outstanding. Hats off.
Who says our manufacturing sector is dead?
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Oh come on. Let’s not re-write the thread and declare victory. The complication is actually the hypocrisy where we’ve got a lot of people explicitly demanding the fun police biff out ANYONE that crosses a very subjective and low set line,
"Fun police"? What the actual fuck? Are you really going to use the phrase "fun police" about this incident?
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Eden Park said that though they do not condone the comments, but they would not intervene into the situation unless there was a larger disturbance beyond people merely hurling insults during a rugby match.
I believe Eden Park has a pragmatic policy here.
No. That’s not what they said. They said it wasn’t their place to be “the PC police” or to “move the cultural morals of society”. They took the failure to intervene of those nearby as assent. They gave the impression it wasn't that big a deal.
And let’s be clear: as has been noted multiple times in this thread, this is a management that has been happy this year to crack down on such threats to public safety as beach balls, pushchairs and Mexican waves. Perhaps it wasn't possible to do anything about it at the time. But they – and you – cannot honestly claim that this actual harassment fell below their general threshold.
What happened was unpleasant. Eden Park’s official response was insulting and unacceptable. It’s not actually that complicated.