‘Clean up streets’ call

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 4

‘Clean up streets’ call

PA Auckland The parents of two teenagers critically hurt in Friday’s stabbings in Darby Street, Auckland, yesterday called on the police to “clean up the streets.” Auckland’s Mayor, Mrs Cath Tizard, said she was deeply concerned by the racial conflict involved in the brawl. She was seeking a meeting with city police chiefs. “What worries me even more than the violence is the racial aspect. I can’t help getting the feeling there’s a time bomb ticking out there,” she said.

Mrs tizard said she would ask the police what the Auckland City Council could do to help them maintain law and order. Detached social workers, whose funding had been cut by the Government, would have been ideal to help in such situations but there

was considerable resistance to providing social workers from rates, she said.

The Auckland central police commander, Chief Superintendent Brian Wilkinson, promised increased police patrols in the inner city to ensure the violence was not repeated.

Mr Malcolm Kellie of New Lynn, whose son Jamie, aged 19, was in a fair condition in Auckland Hospital’s critical care unit yesterday, said politicians should put more police on the streets. He said comments from nearby shopkeepers that the motor-cyclists got what they deserved were absolutely ludicrous. “They were bitching about the street kids, now they are condoning stabbings. “I’ve got a kid with two punctured lungs and a punctured stomach. “Who wouldn’t blame the

police if they were scared of them (the attackers). It’s time the politicians authorised an increase in staffing levels.” Mrs Robyn Lewis’s son, Dennis, aged 19, was yesterday in a fair condition in Auckland Hospital’s critical care unit. He told her he had just got off his bike when “I got a knife in the back before I knew what had happened. “I thought I’d play dead. I dropped to the ground but they just kept putting the boot in,” he told her. The police should clean up the street kids, she said. Mr Roy Blake of Avondale said his son Dean, aged 16, was in town for the first time with his own transport, a 50 cu cm “shopping basket.” He stopped to have a look at the motor-cycles parked in Darby Street.Dean Blake was yesterday renorted to be makine

steady progress in Green Lane Hospital, after surgery to multiple stab wounds and a punctured lung. William Seiffert, aged 17, of Pakuranga, was discharged from Auckland Hospital on Saturday after treatment for chest stab wounds. His father, Mr John Seiffert of Orakei said his son was an innocent by-stander who did not even own a motor-cycle but had stopped to look at the machines. The police have made no arrests in relation to the stabbings but are seeking several youths aged 16 to 19. Two youths were arrested on assault charges early Saturday morning. A Bikers Rights Organisation member, Mr Paul Manson, took a video film of a confrontation on Saturday evening. He said the motorcyclists believed the attackers had weapons hidden in a building site nearby.