FATAL QUARREL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16200, 25 November 1926, Page 7

FATAL QUARREL

AIANSLAUGHTER CHARGE (Received November 25, 11 a.m.) SYDNEY, November 25. David Allen Burgess was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of James Riddell, and was remanded for sentence. Riddell, a youth 17 years of age, was fatally shot on September 16 in a street quarrel between two rival gangs at Annandale. Burgess was a member of one of the opposing gangs.

BOTTLE AND BOOT POLICE AND PUSHES MELBOURNE, November JB. In the ten months ended in October there were 123 assaults on police in the metropolitan area, in connection with which 129 arrests were made. Of the persons charged 12 were sentenced to imprisonment, 12 cases were dismissed, one was withdrawn, ten are awaiting trial, and the remainder were fined. A most unenviable record has been established by Filzvoy, where 17 persons were arrested in connection with 14 assaults. Next in order come Collingwood with 10 cases and 10 arrests; Carlton and l’rahran each had eight assauhs and eight arrests; and Richmond seven assaults and seven arrests.

In almost every instance these assaults were perpetrated by pushes of young men, their favorite weapons being the bottle and the boot, and occasionally a picket torn from a fence. The great majority of offences were committed on Saturday afternoons and evenings, between 5 o’clock and 8 o’clock.

Special precautions are now being taken to protect constables during that period in the worst districts.