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Drink-fuelled violence crackdown

by Paul Conneally | February 20, 2010 at 03:36 am

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In an unprecedented attack on alcohol fuelled violence Greater Manchester Police initiated a 24-hour lock-down of Manchester city centre.

Weekend clubbers found it almost impossible to walk through the self-styled 24-hour party people city without being stopped and searched by the police.
The exercise called Operation Portcullis saw 395 people arrested for offences including carrying knives, anti-social behaviour, rape and under-age drinking.

The operation also led to the discovery of two 'cannabis farms' and a shotgun.

Some have questioned the operation feeling that it smacked of 'the police state' with queues of young people being forced through metal detector arches at checkpoints across the city.

In a statement to the press Terry Sweeney, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, said: "The message is clear that if you go out and have too many drinks and get involved with violent crime then you will be brought to justice." As concern across the UK around alcohol fueled violence and anti-social behaviour grows other cities may follow Manchester's lead and run their own similar operations.

Operation Portcullis started early on Friday with a series of raids aimed at tracking down those suspected of drink-fuelled crime

Safety arches were used in the busy city centre throughout the night to put a stop to people carrying weapons and officers had dogs trained to sniff out drugs.

" They make no claim of any terrorist threat or of any specific concerns at all, this is just a normal day in the city. Who would have believed that just thirteen years of Labour Government would have delivered a police state in one of our biggest cities? The police checkpoints have arrived even before the compulsory ID cards! "

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mudricky

at 05:04 on February 20th, 2010

Might seem a bit much but the fact they made all those arrests shows there is a problem and something is required.

invigilator (not verified)

at 05:18 on February 20th, 2010

It's a 'get the message' operation - they couldn't do this every weekend and they shouldn't - it would cause a real backlash against the police - people will tolerate it as a one off especially if there are results - thousands were stopped and searched... must have cost a lot!