On Sunday morning, police arrested a 26-year-old woman after she reportedly sprayed another patron with her legally-obtained canister outside Mayberry nightclub in the Darwin CBD.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The previous Sunday at the same venue, police allege a 16-year-old attacked two bouncers with unlawfully obtained pepper spray after being denied entry to the venue.<\/p>\n
It’s prompted a call from the union representing security guards to scrap the trial altogether, with United Workers Union NT secretary Erina Early describing the trial as “dangerous” and branding the incidents as “a bit of a wake-up call”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Erina Early says giving the public access to personal OC spray canisters is dangerous. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n
Security guards not consulted<\/p>\n
Ms Early said the lives of security officers, paramedics, police, nurses and hospitality staff “could actually be in serious jeopardy” from the trial, and urged the NT’s Country Liberal Party (CLP) government to sit down with the union to discuss “how they can risk mitigate these weapons”.<\/p>\n
“This is not about anti-protection, it is about pro-responsibility,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s very irresponsible of this government to put out these weapons without actually considering what’s going to happen to frontline workers, or any of the people-facing workers here, and this is a real concern for the unions here in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about empowering people at all, it’s absolutely not \u2014 you’re giving people weapons to hurt someone else.”<\/p>\n
OC spray can legally be purchased by people in the NT over 18 years old, provided they don’t have any relevant criminal history or court orders. (ABC News: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n
Ms Early said frontline union members were not consulted ahead of the OC spray trial rolling out and their firsthand insights “would have made a big difference”.<\/p>\n
“Unrestricted access to OC spray without mandatory training is a recipe for disaster,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We call on the government to act now, introduce regulation, enforce accountability, and ensure every worker and member of the public is protected.”<\/p>\n
OC spray misuse ‘flagged as a risk’<\/p>\n
Greg Ireland, the former head of the NT Chamber of Commerce, is part of the independent committee tasked with reviewing the OC spray trial.<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
Speaking to the ABC last week, he said the potential for OC spray to be misused in the NT had “certainly been flagged as a risk”, and protocols such as strict sale conditions had been put in place around the trial in a bid to manage that.<\/p>\n
“But we’ll remain concerned that any spray that does get into the wrong hands could be misused, and that’s very much something that we’re watching for,” he said.<\/p>\n
Customers who secure personal pepper spray legally are registered to that specific canister, and Mr Ireland said retailers made them aware of the trial’s restrictions during the purchase process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Ireland said the review group would consult with a range of groups to seek feedback throughout the trial, but added that “we have to be pragmatic” in understanding the “real risk” associated with OC spray.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 12-month trial was announced by the NT government earlier this year, as part of the CLP’s tough-on-crime agenda. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
Government prioritising ‘right of victims’<\/p>\n
In a written statement, NT Acting Chief Minister Gerard Maley said the CLP government would “always put the rights of victims above the rights of offenders”.<\/p>\n
“If more needs to be done, we will do it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hospitality NT commended the police officers and security guards who intervened in the altercation over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“This sends a clear and unequivocal message that the misuse of any item as a weapon in a licensed venue will not be tolerated, and will be met with the full force of the law,” the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The fact that the item was legally purchased does not absolve an individual of the responsibility to use it lawfully, and this incident demonstrates a clear breach of that responsibility.”<\/p>\n
Hospitality NT also said it was urging the NT government and Darwin council to restore patrols of Territory Protective Services (TPS) officers throughout the CBD.<\/p>\n
“The number of night-time incidents \u2014 assaults, break-ins and anti-social behaviour \u2014 has exploded since the funding for TPS patrols after 8pm ceased,” the group said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Only certain retailers are authorised to sell pepper spray in the NT, but not every recent incident involving the canisters was the result of a legal purchase. (ABC News: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Security guards at a Darwin nightclub have been confronted with pepper spray two weekends in a row as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35264,5249,43,114726,114729,114730,114727,114725,44,114728,8867,1098,17188,114721,114723,114722,44034,114724,4206,19250,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-177258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-clp-government","tag-darwin","tag-headlines","tag-mayberry","tag-mayberry-assult","tag-mayberry-fight","tag-mayberry-nightclub","tag-mayberrys","tag-news","tag-nightclub-assault","tag-northern-territory","tag-nt","tag-nt-government","tag-oc-spray","tag-oc-spray-trial","tag-oleoresin-capsicum-spray","tag-pepper-spray","tag-pepper-spray-trial","tag-security","tag-security-guard","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}