GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE

ANTI-violence campaigns are not working.

The death in hospital yesterday of a man who is alleged to have been hit in an altercation outside a pub at the weekend and is believed to have struck his head on the ground as he fell is one more indication that in the heat of the moment, anything can happen.

The tragedy is too close to home for the Gold Coast, even though it occurred in Cairns. Brett Thomson was a Gold Coaster who had moved north for work. Yesterday, before he died, the Bulletin had reported how his aunt described the situation as “incredibly unfair’’ – as it always is. “It is so sad seeing my sister’s heart breaking,’’ Kim Thomson said of the alleged victim’s mother who, along with family and friends who filed into the hospital to lend support, had to endure seeing her son lying in an ICU bed, no longer smiling and laughing. Their sadness quickly plunged into the abyss of grief.

Probing the details of the case is a matter for police and the courts, and the accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

But while not referring to the Thomson case specifically, what is clear is that such deaths are pointless and should never happen, yet they do – and no matter how many appeals are made for people to ignore taunts, to control their temper and to walk away from trouble, violence remains a blight on the community. It was ever so. Australians still recall the tragic death of cricketing hero David Hookes.

As reported many times, even recently, sometimes it comes out of the blue with a single blow taking a victim by surprise, with devastating consequences.

Advertising campaigns aimed at reining in young males in particular, urging them to control their tempers, appear to be having little effect. Grog and bravado can — in some cases but not all — remain a volatile and very dangerous mix.