Police and ambulance officers responded to reports of at least one person unconscious after a brawl in Haymarket. Picture: Gordon McComiskie Source: The Daily Telegraph
A YOUNG woman watches helplessly as her boyfriend is beaten into a coma by drunken thugs in an unprovoked attack at the northern end of George St early yesterday.
Just moments earlier, outside McDonald's on the corner of Bridge St, the same group attacked and put another man in hospital.
At the same time, about 2km away at the other end of Sydney's premier street that cuts through the heart of the CBD, a young man is left bleeding in the road after a two-man brawl.
They were just a few of the violent incidents that erupted at the weekend on George St - dubbed Sydney's Angry Mile after the number of call-outs police receive on a Friday and Saturday night.
The calls kept on coming at as police raced from the scene of one fight to another.
Near Goulburn St, a man was left unconscious after being robbed of $40 and his credit card outside a kebab shop. At 4.55am police chased a man at Wynyard station after reports he had a gun. When they dragged him from the toilets he was found to have a replica pistol.
"All night our guys were running up and down George and Pitt St," NSW Police Association president Scott Weber said.
"It was like a running bloody battle all weekend. Some guys call it the Angry Mile and even at 5.30am we had four crews out breaking up fights."
Mr Weber said George St, like Kings Cross, is littered with licensed premises.
"The violence won't stop until the trading hours are changed. It has been proven in Newcastle that locking out patrons at 1am and 3am closing works," he said.
The McDonald's on the corner of Bridge St - near to where Simon Cramp, 26, of Cremorne Point was king-hit as he walked with his girlfriend - is referred to by police as "fight corner".
"Go there Friday or Saturday night after 1am, every 20 minutes or so there is a fight. We get called there all the time," Mr Weber said.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said he was appalled by the attack on Mr Cramp and was "over" the constant violence in the area.
"This type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and outrageous. We can't completely eliminate it but we will continue to target people out there involved in this type of crime," he said.
"I'm over it as I'm sure everyone in Sydney is.
"We have resources out there in numbers every weekend but drunken fools will always be a problem."
The number of alcohol-related assaults is falling but the drunken stupidity of individuals who have lost control remains a huge and ongoing issue for police."
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics back Mr Scipione's assertion that alcohol-related crime is falling.
The government believes the implementation of "drunk tanks" - police cells near Central station designed to hold drunks until they sober up - will help tackle alcohol-related crime.
"Sober centres are cells where alcohol-affected people will be taken to reduce the risk of harm to themselves or others and released the next day without charge," a spokesman for Police Minister Michael Gallacher said.
"Also, the amalgamation of some police stations will free up more police to be out on the streets."
The Opposition leader John Robertson blames the lack of resources for the problem.
"The violence on Sydney's streets over the weekend shows that we have a critical problem with alcohol and violence," he said.
"This government cannot begin to fix our problems with alcohol if we don't give our police the resources they need.
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