Australia and New Zealand joined forces in the weekend for “Operation Unite” – a blitz on drunken violence.
The blitz began at 6pm on Friday (11th Dec 09) and ended 6pm Sunday.
Police across Australia and New Zealand deployed 9554 officers, made 2991 arrests, recorded 472 assaults and recorded 1681 licensing breaches over the weekend.
The operation was an attempt to show Australia and New Zealand drinking citizen’s that police’s tolerance for public weekend drunkenness is wearing thin.
“Success, for police, would be having a weekend free from public drunkenness, from young people being arrested for breaching liquor bans, from public place violence fuelled by alcohol and from family violence incidents where alcohol is a factor,” said Assistant Commissioner Viv Rickard in a NZ Police press release today.
“Sadly that wasn’t the case this weekend. There were too many arrests and too many violent incidents where people were affected by alcohol.”
The UK Telegraph wrote an article before the blitz.
