“PUSH” MENACE CAUSES CONCERN IN MELBOURNE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 11

“PUSH” MENACE CAUSES CONCERN IN MELBOURNE.

BOTTLES, STONES USED AS WEAPONS IN FIGHT WITH THE POLICE.

(Special to the “ Star.”) SYDXEY, April 23. The “push” menace is still real in Melbourne, as a fracas there on Saturday night demonstrates. Several policemen were injured in a sensational affray with members of the “King Hit” gang. Trouble started at 9.30 p.m., when Constable Palmer ordered a crowd of about thirty youths to move on. They refused, and began to abuse the constable, one boy using filthy language. Palmer went to arrest this offender, when the whole crowd turned and attacked him. Another constable arrived, and. with .baton drawn, tried to disperse the crowd. But the gang surged round both constables, and soon they were on the ground, where they were severely kicked. The arrival of two more policemen made the gang scatter temporarilv, leaving the arrested man with the policeman, who had held on to him from the first, despite the rough handling he had received. But when the police party were on their way to the watchhouse to charge their prisoner they were attacked again, this time with stones and bottles. When their ammunition ran out members of the gang replenished it by buying soft drinks from shops along the route using the bottles as weapons. One bottle struck Constable Hepworth on the nose, breaking that member in several places.

The police got their man to the watchhouse after a torrid half-hour. On Sunday night they arrested a youth alleged to he the leader of the gang.