Nightlife bashing victim's father launches campaign on weekend another Darwin youth attacked
Updated
Flanked by friends wearing anti-violence slogans, David Hardy and his daughter Rebecca hit Darwin's clubbing strip to honour the "senseless" loss of their son and brother two years ago to a late night assault.
Their walk on Saturday came just hours after an alleged one-punch attack on a 23-year-old in the city's party district.
"We were gobsmacked. It took us right back. We had tears," Mr Hardy said.
"Our hearts go out not only to that young fella and his family and friends, but also to the offender and his family and friends."
It was a diplomatic sentiment reflected in previous comments by Mr Hardy, who in the days after the 2014 bashing of his son Joshua also expressed sympathy for the loved ones of his son's now-convicted murderer.
Joshua was a third year arts student and was on his way home from a valedictory dinner in Melbourne when the attack happened.
"Your conduct was utterly senseless," the sentencing judge told perpetrator Kyle Zandipour in July.
Mr Hardy described the legal road to conviction as "horrific".
"I suppose my thoughts were along those lines about those poor people on both sides that will have to go through this," he said.
"It's not just our lives and Sonny Boy's life that was taken. He's shattered his own life and consequently his own family and friends are irreversibly changed."
Calls for more education of youth to avoid violence
With the legal process now finished, Mr Hardy said he wanted to focus on changing cultural attitudes and behaviours so fewer families on both sides of the equation did not have to go through his ongoing grief.
Launched on Saturday night in tandem with the Melbourne-based not-for-profit Step Back and Think, Mr Hardy, Rebecca and a league of friends and supporters launched a Darwin-specific nightlife campaign aimed at awareness raising and attitude change.
The group approached strangers for conversations about violence prevention at four Darwin nightclubs and bars, including at an Irish-themed pub that last year witnessed the brutal bashing of a bouncer by a patron.
Mr Hardy said they had received "fantastic" feedback from patrons, despite the serious manner of the conversations during a pre-Christmas party atmosphere.
He acknowledged that changing cultural attitudes and preventing "brain snap" violent moments — all amid the heightening effects of alcohol and drugs — was something that could not be fixed with a one-off awareness campaign.
As a patron of Step Back and Think, Mr Hardy said he planned to launch community education programs at sports clubs, schools and businesses, with a focus on high school students who are starting to hit the nightlife.
"Part of the education message is that we shouldn't be normalising [violence]. We should never be making excuses for it and definitely not glorifying it," he said.
"It is through conversations that we say, no, it isn't normal, whacking somebody isn't normal."
A 20-year-old man on Sunday was charged with the serious assault of the 23-year-old over the weekend, which police described to media as a one-punch "cowardly" attack with potentially fatal consequences.
The 23-year-old has since awoken from an induced coma.
Topics: assault, alcohol-education, alcohol, youth, parenting, darwin-0800
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