Let the (Mount) games begin!

Dozens arrested as drink ban starts

28.12.2001
By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE
The run-up to New Year's Eve has already resulted in dozens of arrests for liquor ban breaches in Mt Maunganui.

Since Christmas Eve, when the annual prohibition came into force, 56 people were caught, all but five for drinking in alcohol-free areas.

The others were charged with disorderly behaviour and disqualified driving.

"If we'd had twice the staff out there we would have made twice the number of arrests," said Senior Sergeant Duncan MacLeod, head of Mt Maunganui police.

Wet weather yesterday reduced the merrymaking in public, although a few holidaymakers were still caught breaking the liquor law.

Most offenders were in their late teens or early twenties, drinking on the beach.

Senior Sergeant MacLeod said many were local residents who claimed not to know about the alcohol bans, which had been imposed at the Mount under Local Government Act legislation for more than 15 years.

Widespread publicity and warning notices meant there was no excuse, he said.

"I don't believe that anyone could be ignorant [of the ban].

"These people were openly and deliberately flouting the law."

The first arrests were made within minutes of police hitting the streets at midday on Monday, when the alcohol ban came into effect.

Senior Sergeant MacLeod said the youths were "generally jovial" but many of them reckoned that Mt Maunganui was getting too tough on alcohol and behaviour, and they had decided to go somewhere else for New Year.

Offenders were charged and spent brief periods in a new holding facility, dubbed "Alcatraz", waiting to be processed and bailed.

Instead of taking those arrested to the Tauranga cells, where overcrowding has been a problem in the past, a large carport has been fenced in behind the Mt Maunganui police station to contain troublemakers.

The station's four cells will be used for adult revellers needing detoxification.

Senior Sergeant MacLeod said the heavily inebriated would be picked up swiftly for their own protection.

"We don't want them to become a victim or an offender, and they are in danger of both."

Under a Tauranga District Council initiative, a tent in a "safe zone" would be provided on New Year's Eve for drunken young people, whose parents would be called to collect them.

Those considered ill enough would be taken to hospital.



The Mount *sigh*

who cares aboot the mt, went there last yr

ya lets all be 14yrs old and try and get smart to police with roit gear... fucking good ones guys

i mean i dont like police either but ppl who think they are going to throw shit at them and get away with out getting smacked up are really not on the ball at all.

I thought the idea of throwing something is you don't have to get close enough to get hurt.


Not that I condone it, but jeezus, watching the poor bastards getting rained on was something to see! Phoar!

fuck them they asked for what i dont feel sorry for ppl that think they can whack police men.

i hate the bastards but they did a fucking mean job of clearing the beach. what was showing on tv was fuck all. there was so many crowd fights.

the cops might have done a good job but ppl really need to just walk away and fuck up when it turns to shit. I mean the guy next to me chucked a full Jim beam Bottle at some kid and knocked him " i asked him what for, i cause the fucking pigs gave me a speeding ticket on the way here ( the mount ) so cause he got a ticket he is allowed to throw a bottle at a kid right. some ppl need to lay off the weed and grow the fuck up.

why do u hate them hippie?

cause they pulled me over on the way in cause they said our sounds where to loud and they clocked me doing 56km in the 50 righ? so fair enuff i was speeding but the sounds? um hello they wernt even loud the car we were driving didnt even have a sub. they just suck dick

o.k. fair enough.
perhaps they just don't like hippies.
i don't bother them and they don't bother me.

yea same here but i fucking no what my rights are fucking um all

did u get a ticket or something?

Forest man, you make NO sense.

I watched the Mt riots with a few mates from a spot on the beach last year. The cops got everything they deserved, they were utter dick heads with no undertanding of how to handle drunks. If we send in the riot squad it'll calm them all down... Was funny shit though, basically the cops decided that fun is wrong, despite the fact that nothing was out of hand or threatening to get that way. From the blue out comes the riot squad and low and behold the riot begins. See the connection... Riot squad creates riots, hence it's name.

now that is far to sensible for a saturday afternoon jono.

and the morel of the story,
DONT go to the mount ;]

next

haha, 'next' 1 day later... you crack me up forest

I heard it's like 200 people arrested now!
My sis-n-law is up there and she got stopped by a cop and made to rip all her tints off her windows!
Funny thing about it is the car has been tinted out for ages and never failed a warrent! Dumb ass cops I think half the time they are just out to get people who are having fun.
They said on the news that the police are worried about the amount of illegal drug use which is gonna happen at the Mount tonite (!)
DUH...... ban alcohol and see what happens
dumb asses

I agree with Cartman - unless you\'re 14 dont go to the MT! and even then..

We went to Waihi once a few years back - never again so lame running around the streets all night - running away from riot police!