Salient

The Battle of Manner’s Mall

By Conrad Reyners | 7 Apr, 2008

At the end of January inner city Wellington experienced one of its biggest youth turf wars ever. And you thought it was only South Auckland that had problems…

I had an opportunity to sit down with a prominent Manners Mall staffer (who does not wish to be named) who filled me in on the vicious and gory details. The conflict involved two gangs of youths. In the Manners Mall corner were the drunken emo rogues. These little vagabonds would hang outside TimeZone next to Hoyts cinemas, get awfully drunk and try to sell poor quality weed. The second group of hoodlums was the Dark-Siders. A well known youth division of Black Power, they held the territory further East of Manners Mall, rallying around TimeOut, also selling weed and being generally nasty.

Things were going swimmingly for a year or so, until in late 2006 when TimeOut closed (allegedly because the Dark-Siders were driving away customers). Enraged, the Dark-Siders began to expand; they decided to push West, into the lands of the emo — seeking to control the last remaining arcade North of Courtenay.

Tensions instantly began bubbling; the emos didn’t want to move from their treasured drinking spot. Things came to a flashpoint when, in a fit of rage, a prominent emo hit an invading Dark-Sider in the head with a steel pipe. Over the next few days the Dark-Siders and emos parleyed — deciding the time and place for their scrap. They then amassed their troops. According to my source, over 100 emos and 100 Dark- Siders turned up. That’s impressive. And Scary.

On the appointed night, the emos had rallied around McDonald’s, while the Dark-Siders set up camp between Burger King and that naff shoe store. My source described the extent of their weaponry: both the emos and Dark-Siders had armed themselves with bats, golf clubs, chains, knives and bits of wood. The Dark-Siders even brought a slingshot to the battle. Fucking intense, but ingenious. The emos preferred to hide their weapons in the shrubs; the Dark-Siders, being rough bastards, carried theirs openly. Reserves included two van loads of emos parked down the side lane next to Star Mart, and at least two vans of Dark-Siders circling the Manner’s Mall area. At 10pm the battle began.

In an obvious act of legislative nuance, the Dark-Siders sent two drunken Dark-Sider chicks down to the emo lines, hoping for them pick a fight, so that a pretext for violence was established. It didn’t work. So groups of Dark-Siders and emos numbering four or more began skirmishing in the center of the mall. My source recalls that a “dodgy looking Iraqi guy” was standing in the center of the mall ‘officiating’ the skirmishes — rumors have it that he was a father of one of the emos. What a family.

The conflict kept going for much of the night. Towards the early hours of the morning Black Power members unexpectedly arrived. The emos, perceiving the Black Power members as enemy reinforcements, began to waver. The Black Power members began advancing towards the emos and took pictures, allegedly for blackmailing purposes. My source has the phone in their hand, debating whether to call 111 - until the Black Power members clip their kids around the ears and tell them to ‘piss off home’. What a family.

The Dark-Siders had achieved a decisive victory. The emos were never to return; only a smattering of second generation emos can be seen drinking Corban’s wine on the outskirts of the Mall.

The things you learn huh?