Sniffer dog blitz nabs 19 in Melbourne's CBD

[kiwi_farmer]

Mark Buttler

 

September 15, 2008 12:00am

© Herald and Weekly Times

DRUGS and weapons were seized when police used sniffer dogs to intercept troublemakers as they arrived in the city at the weekend.

 

Nineteen people were charged after a major operation aimed at stopping violence and anti-social behaviour in the CBD.

 

Those arrested were identified by the sniffer dogs after stepping off trains at Flinders St station to find officers from the dog squad and transit safety division.

 

Charges of using cannabis, possessing cannabis and possessing weapons were laid as the night out ended prematurely for some.

 

A knife, lumps of wood and metal bars were confiscated.

 

Police have promised there will be blitzes as they respond to community concern about street violence.

 

They also clamped down on drug and drink-drivers in the King St nightclub strip.

 

Twenty nine of more than 3000 people tested over the weekend were found to be over the alcohol limit.

 

Insp Shayne Pannell of the transit safety division said police wanted to weed out problem individuals before they got into the city.

 

"Transit officers in conjunction with the passive alert dogs have previously conducted these operations, and they will continue to do so in a bid to identify any anti-social behaviour," Insp Pannell said.

 

The strong police presence followed Matthew McEvoy's death the previous weekend after an alleged assault at QBH nightclub and the glassing of a man at Loft nightclub.

[Apocalypse_now6]

yeah...

 

too many drunk idiots starting fights in the city at night.

[mull]

Interesting to see this.

 

In light of the other problems in the cbd, perhaps the drug sniffin varments will stake out gyms soon for steroid using nightclub bouncers.

 

The lads should stay at home and grow flowers. Use the wood for staking plants and the metal bars to lock the grow door or gate.

[freddie]

Police have promised there will be blitzes as they respond to community concern about street violence

 

So why bust cannabis users who are likely to be the least violent?

[Stoney]

there are many stupid points raised by this article and this is not the first time this has been done this year about 2 months ago they did the exact same thing and surprize surprize again more arrests for cannabis possesion

 

first off if they really after anti social people possibly carrying weapons then why are they using dogs?? i didnt know dogs can sniff out pieces of wood let alone knifes and pieces of metal pole hmmmmm maybe they have xray vision these dogs now days.

 

second of all why the fuck arrest people for mari j possesion and make such a song and dance about it what about all the people hepped up on speed and H and ice i dont see any of that mentioned in the artical yet they painting us as pot smoking anti social thugs when majority of us are the exact opposite. I cant remember ever smoking a bowl and then going out wanting to punch on in fact the complete opposite the amount of times i have been smoking befor going out and then someone with a superman complex hepped up on goof balls trys to start a fight and i have just been to stoned to even bother with it.

 

and come on lets face it 19 people out of ummmmmm lets say 10000 that use public transport on the weekend hmmmmm they really making an impact its just a bullshit attempt at making us look like we are the trouble makers and not really addressing the issue correctly

 

I do admit that the melb cbd at night on a weekend can be a scarey place at times but fuck me arresting a few stoners and throwing some dogs around a few train stations is not gonna fix the issue

 

my idea and it maybe abit way out of the square but what about some sort of a nightclub card, not only is it a form of identification but also could work on a 3 strikes pollicy if ya fuck up ya get 3 chances and then ya banned for say a month first off then 3 months and so on.

 

anyhoo just an idea

 

cheerz