Page 1311 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 August 1989
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soothsayers to do anything, as represented to us by ACTCOSS, is absolute rubbish. All they need is some common sense and good training and I suggest to you all that the police force in the ACT have both these attributes.
The centre of this debate concerns those louts in the community who are prepared to flaunt their misbehaviour in the face of police, now that it is common knowledge in the community that the move-on powers are no longer with them. I attended the Labor Club - I am not picking on the opposition or the people coming from different areas, it just happened to be the Labor Club that I was at at 2.30 in the morning - - -
Mr Kaine: Did you get moved on?
MR PROWSE: I did not get moved on, but what I was amazed to see was the friendly behaviour of the hundreds of young people who had been drinking. They were in a friendly frame of mind. They came over and they knew the young police constables by first name. They were all on good terms because the lout patrol is a permanent, established group and they go out every night and survey the scene. They are well known to these young people. As these friendly young people were jostling around and having good fun, out from the hall came two fellows who were aggressive drunks. What was the result?
The Chief Minister has suggested that the fact that these six-foot-six policemen were there, with friendly smiles, deterred these drunken, aggressive people - who were the same size, I might add. They were not little children. We are not talking about 12-year-olds here, we are talking about fellows who just get that way when they drink; and we know that happens in our community. They came out of the hall, and the young, friendly people appealed to the police to get these guys out of the way because they did not want to be jostled, they did not want torn dresses, and they did not want torn shirts, they wanted these fellows moved on.
The police moved towards them and asked them to move on. They got the "thumbs up" and were told that they could not be moved on, because the drunks knew that the police have no power to do so. I put it to the Chief Minister that in fact the presence of the police had no effect, because the people could not be arrested until they did something wrong. So they were asked to move on - "Just go home, fellows, go and have a cup of coffee, or whatever". They eventually did so because of the hue and cry from the general public there who asked them to move on. They moved on 100 yards down the road, the police turned round, and the next thing was that there was a battle going on with these fellows. They were then put in the back of a paddy-wagon. But the point is, they knew that they could not be forced to move on. So I put it to you that the police do need these powers.
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