Police are worried about a spate of vigilante acts across the country, in which tourists have forcibly separated kiwis from their worst vices.
Police are growing concerned about an increasingly large number of incidents in which tourists have been reported confiscating alcohol from New Zealanders, in an attempt to prevent dangerous situations.
Tourists are reportedly “fed up” with New Zealand drinking behaviours, and, no longer content to simply witness the horrifying rampant alcoholism, have apparently felt the need to begin taking matters into their own hands.
The latest and sixth such incident, according to police, happened on Tuesday at the Punakaiki Tavern on the west coast.
A Korean husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Keum, were shocked to find the tavern, a popular site for tourists, overrun with drunken locals, throwing objects at one another, and swearing about the rugby in front of their children.
Mr. Keum felt that the locals were creating a “dangerous situation” for themselves and other patrons, and forcibly took a total of 11 beers from 6 separate individuals.
Mr. Keum then called the police, and would not relinquish the beer until they arrived.
The incident follows one last week where a group of Victoria University students had a bottle of vodka taken from them by a German tourist, who could not understand why they were loudly yelling “FUUUUUUUUUUCK” at passing cars for “no reason.”
“I got a telling-off from the police, yeah,” said the German, 28-year-old Albert Muller, at the time. “In retrospect, it was a bit hot-headed of me. But it’s hard to come from where I come from, and see five young men, stumbling down the road, no pants on, yelling at vehicles, pouring cement into one another’s anuses, and just not do anything about it.”
While police say they sympathise with tourists who feel the need to take action, they should also “attempt to respect New Zealand culture,” and “not resort to vigilantism.”
“I think there’s sort of a cultural clash in all of this,” said Police Commissioner Mike Bush, in a blog on the New Zealand Police website. “Where a lot of people come from, getting absolutely sloshed off your cobbers on a Tuesday night, abusing random strangers, and nailing one another to the wall for shits and giggles isn’t really a thing.
“But in New Zealand it is a thing. It’s our culture, but I’m not surprised we’re finding that a lot of people don’t understand that.”
Bush said that if any tourist saw anything that concerned them, they shouldn’t personally intervene, but rather call 111, and wait for police to come and “collect the alcohol.”
“If you do happen to need to take alcohol off anybody, please, don’t tip it out or spoil it,” he said. “Give it to us, and we’ll dispose of it.”
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Originally Posted by Akzle
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