Presumably these youths had an unblemished record before the start of the evening. A number of them now have criminal records, have spent a night in the lock-up and irreparably affected their future. And all for what? Were they protesting against their situation in life, or someone else’s situation? Were they indignant about the treatment of boat people, or other political pawns in the system? Perhaps as students they had a bugbear with the government about its policy in Afghanistan.

In actuality, none of these. This generation of pampered, spoiled and over-indulged brats were merely bringing the chickens home to roost for a generation of parents who wouldn’t, or couldn’t, say no. Now the police and the judiciary have the onerous task of being the ones to instill what should have been parental discipline.