Suseonline,

I was trying to communicate the need safe, supervised places to meet, greet and dance, hopefully without booze and drugs being in plentiful supply. I am trying my very best to understand what others sense and see, and to relate my imperfect view and assessments.

Most people read to make sense of what another has written. You constantly seek the cheap shot. Your choice and your loss.

There's also something called the "Knockout Game", it's not exactly as new a phenomenon as it's being portrayed, I had a couple of guys try to king hit me when I was younger, but it's something to be aware of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nCOJ1KmpXM
I used to hang around some rough joints and I lived on Fitzroy St in St Kilda in the bad old days of the late 1980's and was given similar advice to that in the video above, always keep your head up and on a swivel, practice looking at your reflection in shop windows to see who's around you.
The best advice though is just don't get drunk in public, if you want to get smashed do it at home, my friends and I were prodigious drug takers and drinkers back in the day but we'd normally leave the pub or the disco sober enough to drive then carry on at someone's house where we could total ourselves in comfort and safety.

o sung wo I find it surprising some do not understand what you have written about.
`Even today,s press has another story and if we collated the headline ones, including deaths from 2013 we all would be stunned.
You served in NSW so maybe be aware of some dreadful pubs, say the Robin Hood in Blacktown and stockade at Lalor park if we stay out of the city center.
Glassing, first cousin of a king hit was unheard of.
Men fought face to face not praising them, but it was unheard of to take a cheap shot well some put the boot in.
In the end battled scared as I was then true Gutlessness linked to wanting a reputation drives most king hit merchants.
Gee OUG you say you are an ex Biker surely you have seen the innocent deaths in just the last twelve months?
My list of Sydney pubs no sane man should walk in to today would be ten posts long.
But how do we blame an innocent killed on the streets just walking his girl home?
Aim up blokes the subject is king hits nothing else.
And gutless fools deserve no support or place to hide our streets are ours too. Robin hood Hotel, long gone and we are better fo9r it, but it saw some true street fights worth remembering.
Many saw the boot go in no one dare king hit there a long time ago but two men wanting to fight is far different than a cheap hit. Aussies once could bank on most not being so cowardly.

Hi all...

I wish I could direct the Premier and his Cabinet, to much of what you've all written herein ? As there's complete veracity in what ever one of you has said thus far. Firstly identifying the problem, the origin, and even the formula for excising, both the crime, and the offender, out of the public sphere ?

It's true the old King Hit, or 'sucker punch' has been around for yonks, even when I was young. Though I'll concede, not quite as much in the public arena as it is today, nevertheless it was around.

Then what really does mystify me personally... I can only assume, by reading much of what you've all written herein, if you and I and the bloke next door, all of us know how to deal with this insidious crime, in principle. Why then don't our elected representatives know ? If they do know, why then haven't they taken the necessary measures to ensure this crime is absolutely PURGED from out statutes !

Suseonline,
Well, I'd rather trust a decent citizen with a gun than some half-baked pseudo academic with their logic, i.e. no answers to any problems.

o sung wu,

There is already action in several States to address the king hit. There is also whining opposition from some 'human rights' lawyers. They must mean criminal rights.

It (king hit) is part of a broader problem, however it does need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

Somewhere along the way some years ago the rights of offenders became the paramount concern. For example, in Queensland bikie thugs surrounded a police station, threatened police and demanded release of a prisoner. They had also created mayhem in a public place. The human rights 'experts' the media consulted were upset that the premier had taken necessary action to protect the public!

It is that culture that has inhibited and sometimes prevented change.