Australia’s boozy culture is the reason for most street crime, the NSW Police Commissioner said.
Police launched Operation Unite on Friday night as part of a nationwide crackdown on alcohol abuse and violence-only to encounter a horror weekend.
Despite thousands of extra officers being deployed in known trouble spot on Friday and Saturday nights, a 46 year-old man died after a confrontation outside a pub outside Wollongong.
Another 737 people were arrested across NSW over alcohol related incidents.
Police and paramedics attending alcohol related events were also injured.
“Another disgusting weekend, I’ve got to say, one of many, many low points,” Mr. Scipione told Macquarrie Radio
on Monday.
Alcohol played a part in more that 70% of street crime, he said.
“We’re absolutley sick of it,” Mr. Scipione said.
“We really just want people to start taking some personal responsibility for their actions.”
“We need to continue to work hard to enforce the laws and look at what else we have to do to change this culture.”
The trouble was not just confined to NSW.
In Melbourne 132 people were arrested for drunken-ness, in Perth there were 110 arrests, and in South Australia there were 41.
In Queensland 279 were arrested, and in the Northern Territory 300 people were taken into custody in Alice Springs alone.
Mr Scipione said underaged drinking was a particular concern, and urged people not to supply miners with alcohol.
“When we’ve got underaged children drinking, they are not drinking in hotels, somebody is supplying them with alcohol”.
Mr Scipione also called for a reduction in the amount of alcohol advertisements.
The Salvation Army says a survey commissioned for its new acohol awareness campaign has found 2.1 million people drink simply to get drunk.
