A Horde Of Scooter-Riding Tweens Took Over Brisbane And Got Into A Punch-Up With The Cops
"We don't organise the chaos, but the chaos just comes on its own on the day."
There’s no easy way to say this, so we’re just going to lay it out. Yesterday afternoon, a veritable horde of scooter-riding tweens descended on Brisbane’s CBD, hooning about on the wrong side of the road and getting into an actual punch-on with the cops.
Arrests were made, parents were called, and thanks to 9News and smartphone-wielding youths, you can see most of it on camera. And it all happened thanks to the humble razor scooter, vehicle of choice for wannabe-skateboarders and people who want perpetually bruised ankles.
The “rolling invasion”, as 9News put it, began when Insta-famous scooter rider Jack Dauth (yeah, that’s a thing) organised a Brisbane Street Jam for scooter fans in the area. Video footage shows a giant mob blocking Brissy roads with cops in hot pursuit, apparently because the kids were riding their scooters on the wrong side of the road. The footage shows the cops then responded by actually punching teenagers, which is pretty messed up.
Dauth was one of several people arrested in the scuffle, prompting the assembled masses to circle the paddy wagon chanting “free Jack!” until he was released. An unlikely hero, with his trusty aluminium steed.
Dauth didn’t respond to our requests for comment, but he seems to be enjoying the wave of publicity his arrest sparked. He’s been uploading video of the event to Instagram with captions like “I got arrested AF”, and his Insta story reveals he told a 9News journo that he wouldn’t be answering their questions as he was saving the “exclusive angles” for YouTube.
“I’m just going to save this for the vlog,” he told the assembled mainstream media. Kid knows how to monetise.
And to be fair, the mainstream media really, really did not know how to handle the phenomenon of hundreds of scooters rolling in unison. Channel 7 kept calling it “organised chaos”, while 9News triumphantly declared that “a rolling riot was born” while playing calm footage of prepubescent kids scootering along with their backpacks on.
Like, sure, there was some chaos, but as organiser Julian Woods put it in this iconic statement, “we don’t organise the chaos, but the chaos just comes on its own on the day.”
Anyway, I never thought I’d be publicly taking the side of a scooter rider, but at the point at which cops are punching kids you gotta side with the underdog. You can see the 9News vid of the proceedings below, or catch the much-hyped ~exclusive angles~ direct from Jack Dauth’s YouTube channel around 5.30 today.