Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Mad Snake Cafe owner Sam Weston told Katie Woolf he’s fed up with crime and anti-social behaviour and won’t be in business much longer if things don’t improve

Transcript

Mad Snake Cafe owner Sam Weston told Katie Woolf he’s fed up with crime and anti-social behaviour and won’t be in business much longer if things don’t improve · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are hearing that a lot of Darwin City business
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: owners are fed up with the crime and anti social
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: behavior that's being experienced, to the point that they're angry
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and questioning why they're still sticking around and staying in business. Now,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: one of those people who's a very positive person, I've
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: got to say, and does lots of good stuff around
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  Speaker 1: the community is Sam Western from The Mad Snake, and
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  Speaker 1: he joins me in the studio right now. Good morning, Sam,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. Like what's been
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  Speaker 1: going on?
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  Speaker 2: Everything?
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  Speaker 3: The town just seems to be in full crazy mode.
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  Speaker 3: As I said in my post, after seeing so many
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  Speaker 3: bad incidents over the weekend, come Monday morning, I was like,
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  Speaker 3: maybe it's time to leave daring like.
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  Speaker 2: Darwin is going down the gurglar, But no one can
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  Speaker 2: deny that.
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  Speaker 3: Like unfortunately due to this and as you said, it's
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  Speaker 3: not anti social behavior, it's just disgusting behavior.
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  Speaker 2: I'm seeing it day in day.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't help that I obviously work in the city
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  Speaker 3: and I spend a lot of time in Austin Lane,
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  Speaker 3: but then when I go home to perap it's no different,
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  Speaker 3: and it's just where it's wearing me thin. I spoke
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: to a lot of business owners and you know, some
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  Speaker 3: of them didn't want to come on today. They feel
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  Speaker 3: the same, Why are we investing and putting our time
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  Speaker 3: and love into this great, once great city when it's
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: just falling apart? And that scares me because you've got Alice. Now,
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  Speaker 3: so many businesses are closing down. Sorry Alice people. That's
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  Speaker 3: going to be hard to recover from. Just when this
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  Speaker 3: city started getting good again after impacts. It feels like
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  Speaker 3: this is the kick and that this is just a
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  Speaker 3: kick in the guts. And it worries me because if
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  Speaker 3: I'm thinking, nah, you know, not now, but two years,
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  Speaker 3: maybe it's time to go elsewhere because unfortunately doing isn't
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  Speaker 3: what it used to be.
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  Speaker 1: And the thing is, people are fed up. I think, Look,
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  Speaker 1: that's the whole point is that you know, you've sort
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  Speaker 1: of look, I know, for me, it's you know, I
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  Speaker 1: obviously dabble in politics all the time. I'm always talking
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  Speaker 1: about politics. But the thing that people are fed up
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  Speaker 1: with is that there seems to be in action and
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  Speaker 1: a blame game sort of going on with a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the different issues that we're experiencing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the blame game isn't helping.
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  Speaker 3: It's no one and it's and you know, I don't
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  Speaker 3: think we can blame one particular personal or group anyway,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: but one party blames that party, They blame the local council,
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  Speaker 3: they blame this, and it's sort of nothing's happening, like
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  Speaker 3: it's just this vicious game where we're getting more. I
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  Speaker 3: remember I spoke to you about two years ago, and
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  Speaker 3: we've had enough. Like we had enough back then, it's
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  Speaker 3: now got to a point where I think, you know, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: it's going to affect the future of the city.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sadly, well, I think that it's past a threshold.
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  Speaker 1: I think that people have had enough because they no
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  Speaker 1: longer sort of feel that real personal safety, like you
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  Speaker 1: feel as though you're not quite sure what's going to
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  Speaker 1: go on if you go into the city. I know
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  Speaker 1: I've certainly had that thought when going in with my kids.
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  Speaker 2: And again it's from my kids' perspective.
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  Speaker 3: My son doesn't catch the bus anymore because he's been
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  Speaker 3: people have tried to fight him so many times. Now
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  Speaker 3: he's scared to go to Casuina shopping center. Like this
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  Speaker 3: is affecting my kids, you know, this is the vulnerable
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  Speaker 3: the business people We've got to a stage now where
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  Speaker 3: you know, I've had a few of the polies come
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  Speaker 3: in over a few days I were doing this, and
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  Speaker 3: I've said to him, it's not whatever you're doing is
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  Speaker 3: not working.
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  Speaker 2: Stop.
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  Speaker 3: Let's get everyone that's blaming each other in one big
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  Speaker 3: group and do something and start making some harsh decisions.
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  Speaker 1: And what was their response to that?
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  Speaker 2: No one wants.
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  Speaker 3: No one wants to take responsibility, do they. You know,
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  Speaker 3: no one wants to. There's this in place, and there's
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  Speaker 3: that in place, but they don't uphold it. And it's
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  Speaker 3: almost like they're not on the same sort of song sheet,
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  Speaker 3: you know. And yeah, what my opinion. If there's people
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  Speaker 3: terrorizing us in the city, kick him out.
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  Speaker 2: Sam.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you've experienced things like people, you know, damaging
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  Speaker 1: your pop plants, people abusing you, but you've also experienced
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  Speaker 1: some pretty terrible stuff like you know, someone assaulting his
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  Speaker 1: missus or assaulting a female.
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  Speaker 2: I've had enough of that that one sickens me.
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  Speaker 3: To see a woman get bashed by a guy just
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  Speaker 3: sicking like that is not what I'm about. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: the other day, he was a big dude and he
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  Speaker 3: was punching on with his missus, and I think I
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  Speaker 3: was just that angry from what had happened to me
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  Speaker 3: that I thought I was super Sam and I thought
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  Speaker 3: Cavigart me, buddy, and he was like no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 3: And sadly, as I drove off, I looked in the
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  Speaker 3: rear ear and he's just like he's punching his foot
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  Speaker 3: in the head in broad daylight, in parrap like.
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  Speaker 2: And we I don't say we accept that.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're all mortified by it.
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  Speaker 1: But the thing is it's becoming normalized because it's happening
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  Speaker 1: so often, and that's the really frightening and sad part.
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  Speaker 3: But our kids are seeing that, like the other day
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  Speaker 3: that you know, me and my son laugh at some
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  Speaker 3: of the stuff we see. There was someone doing a
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  Speaker 3: pooh in the gutter outside Willis the other day and
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  Speaker 3: it's jovial at the time of the young fella, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but it's disgusting, like there's.
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  Speaker 2: A toilet right next to her.
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  Speaker 3: The stuff that these kids see up here is sort
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  Speaker 3: of like, man, you know, yeah, it's got to change.
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  Speaker 3: I had to change last week, like this isn't We
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  Speaker 3: can't be talking about this in six months.
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  Speaker 2: I won't be here in a year if we're still talking.
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  Speaker 1: About that's exactly right. And that's I think that that's
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  Speaker 1: the issue that we've got at the moment, is that
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  Speaker 1: people want to see some really serious change. They want
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  Speaker 1: to see some serious action. It's not okay, you know
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  Speaker 1: what we're what we're dealing with right now, and we're
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  Speaker 1: sick of people blaming each other.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And i'd also, like I've said before, the person
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  Speaker 3: that's smashing my plants, the responsibility has to be on them.
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  Speaker 3: You can't blame the government or what happened in the past.
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  Speaker 3: This person is just a pure nasty person that enjoyed
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  Speaker 3: He knew that it would upset me by smashing my plants,
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  Speaker 3: probably because I didn't give him free coffee. Like what
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  Speaker 3: type of attitude have we allowed these people to have?
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  Speaker 1: Well? And I do want to point out as well,
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  Speaker 1: because look, I know some people listening might be thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 1: listen to these two. They're just having a complain, they're
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  Speaker 1: just having a bitch to one another. But the point is,
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  Speaker 1: like at Christmas time, over Christmas, you actually feed the
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  Speaker 1: homeless on Christmas Day, Like you you're a bloke who
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  Speaker 1: does do a lot in the community, you help you
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  Speaker 1: know you help people in terms of mental health when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to ex servicemen and women. You do a
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  Speaker 1: lot to try to to try to help the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory community. Now, if we've got good people like you
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  Speaker 1: that are fed up, that's a real worry in itself,
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  Speaker 1: you know.
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  Speaker 2: Like I love Darwen, you know this.
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  Speaker 3: Look at the time and effort I put you gos
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  Speaker 3: Lane and see all my plants I put out there,
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  Speaker 3: like I want people to love doing.
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  Speaker 2: I want the tourists to go, it's great. I want
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  Speaker 2: locals to go. It's great.
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  Speaker 3: But when I see people just going against that and
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  Speaker 3: destroying it, for me, yeah, the little fairyem he dies unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: and it's quite hard. Why would I invest again in
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  Speaker 3: the city when there's you know, someone's going to trash
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  Speaker 3: whatever I've got. I mean, the break ins is just shocking,
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  Speaker 3: Like how some of these how Jason Hannah does it
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  Speaker 3: for creditor here.
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  Speaker 1: JAB understanding is that he got hit again last night.
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  Speaker 1: I could be wrong, but that was what.
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  Speaker 2: I think I did.
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  Speaker 3: A rock got thrown in. I think I think Gosushi had.
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  Speaker 2: Some drama in their one.
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  Speaker 3: And these I talked to these business owners, We're all
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  Speaker 3: thinking the same thing here, like why would we invest anymore?
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  Speaker 1: And do you know what, there's some of the best
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  Speaker 1: businesses we've got around the place. So look, I know
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  Speaker 1: everybody's frustrated. I hear it more than most, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I hear a lot sitting in here in this studio,
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  Speaker 1: and I've got to say that us good Territorians can't
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  Speaker 1: give up. We've got to keep on trying to track
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  Speaker 1: along and we've got to try and and really make
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  Speaker 1: some change because our kids deserve it.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, to all the Polly's, the leaders, the counts,
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  Speaker 3: like everyone needs to we need to sit down in
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  Speaker 3: one big room and say, right, what's moving for this
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  Speaker 3: blame game? It's become a blame game. It's their fault,
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  Speaker 3: is this fault? But that's not helping move forward at all?
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  Speaker 1: So what do you reckon? We do need to have
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  Speaker 1: I know it's something that we've spoken about previously that
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  Speaker 1: maybe there needs to be a bit of a summit
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  Speaker 1: where everybody does sit down and that you do hear
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  Speaker 1: the voices of people like yourself, business owners that are
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  Speaker 1: struggling through and you know, and try to reach some
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  Speaker 1: kind of solutions.
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  Speaker 3: Something has to happen, like we were at the tipping
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  Speaker 3: point six months ago. We're out the point where locals
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  Speaker 3: are leaving Darwin, people are leaving Alice Springs, people are
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  Speaker 3: leaving the Northern Territory. If the city becomes a bit
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  Speaker 3: of a I'm trying to think of a not rude word,
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  Speaker 3: it's not a good place to be and we're not
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  Speaker 3: going to invest in the city. Other people aren't going
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  Speaker 3: to invest in the city. The city is going to die.
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  Speaker 3: It's just got to it's quite scary to think that
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  Speaker 3: this could cause so much damage to the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: And we are such a great we are such a
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  Speaker 3: cool place. Like I do love the territory, but these
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  Speaker 3: things just yeah, I don't know. There's no easy way out,
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  Speaker 3: but I do think they.
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  Speaker 2: All need to get together and talk about it collectively.
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  Speaker 3: We need to not blame anyone to an extent, and
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  Speaker 3: what we can do, like my opinion, the guy that
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  Speaker 3: keeps terrorizing me and John John's and go Sushi, kick
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  Speaker 3: him out of the city.
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  Speaker 2: Like, we've got to be harsh with these people.
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  Speaker 3: You know, if you're if you're terrorizing someone on a bus,
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  Speaker 3: you're banned from the bus.
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  Speaker 2: I don't care how you get around.
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  Speaker 3: I don't care like tough that they're Like I said
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  Speaker 3: in my post, they're terrorizing the good people of this
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  Speaker 3: community and it has to stop.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Well, Sam Western, I always appreciate your time. I know
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: that you are a very positive person and clearly, if.
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  Speaker 2: Not today I am you are mate, you are.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming in the studio and having your
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  Speaker 1: chat with us. I will say as well, those other
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  Speaker 1: business people, well go Sushi and the others. They were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: going to come on, but they didn't trust themselves what
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: they'd say on air.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: You did well. Thank you very much. Thank you