Drunken sporting pilgrims put on notice

By Mick Roberts

Sporting hooligans making their way to and from Moore Park events have been put on notice, as a new police operational strategy to combat continued vandalism and anti-social behaviour in Surry Hills comes into effect.
Policing major events at Moore Park, Centennial Park and the Sydney Football Stadium will be shared amongst inner city commands, relieving some pressure from over-burdened Surry Hills police.
The extra police is hoped to curb sporting louts who regularly trash property as they make their drunken march past homes in Fitzroy and near-by Bourke Streets.
Residents report front gates and windows broken, firecrackers exploding, spitting on windows and doors, rubbish thrown into courtyards and garbage bins over-turned before and after major sporting events.
Nichols Street Community Group spokesman Brian Noad said residents have been contending with urinating, egg throwing vandals because they happen to live on the route of a sporting pilgrimage from Central Station to either the Sydney Football Stadium or Cricket Ground.
Residents’ cars have been vandalised, with wheelie bins and rocks thrown at them. One resident even found a mattress on the roof of his car.
Mr Noad said after the game, the hooligans play football with shoes – a favourite pastime to the early hours of the morning, and run up and down along the boots, roofs and bonnets of cars parked in Bourke Street.
‘Managers of the licensed premises at the stadiums, and the stadium managers – ultimately they are responsible for ensuring that intoxicated people are not served alcohol,’ Mr Noad said.
Residents sought the help of Sydney MP and Lord Mayor Clover Moore who made representations to NSW Police Minister, David Campbell.
Ms Moore said as a result a new operational strategy has been developed which would benefit residents in the area. Major events at Moore Park, Centennial Park and the Sydney Football Stadium will be shared amongst inner city commands.
Surry Hills Area Command Licensing Sergeant Peter Mort told The City News that police were well aware of the problems with sporting hooligans travelling between Central Station and Moore Park.
‘We consign extra police to those areas during major events,’ Sgt Mort said. ‘In that corridor, we reinforce to licensees their responsibilities,’ he said.
Fitzroy Street resident Don Watson said the noise from drunken sporting hooligans was the biggest issue for him.
‘A lot of the problems happen on their way back [from sporting fixtures] when they stop and get fuelled up at the local hotels,” Mr Watson said. “After those pubs shut at 12 is when the noise starts.
‘It’s not a problem when they are in the pubs; it’s the crowd control after they leave.’
While residents said they appreciate an increased presence of mounted police officers patrolling Albion, Bourke, Nichols and Fitzroy Streets, greater pressure should be placed on local publicans and their staff not to sell alcohol to intoxicated patrons.