COWARDLY MOB

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 192, 7 April 1932, Page 3

COWARDLY MOB

POLICEMAN HOLDS 200 AT REVOLVER'S POINT ARREST RESISTED SYDNEY, Sunday. Twice knocked to the ground and brutally man-handled last night, Constable Duncan, still holding a handcuffed prisoner, managed to gain his feet, and drawing his revolver, held in check a hostile crowd numbering hundreds. During the melee seven shots were fired by police. In all eight arrests were made. Six men were charged with riotous behaviour and two with assault, resisting .arrest and indecent language. Constables Duncan and McKenzie arrested two men whom they saw drinking beer on the footpath in Caroline Street, Redfern. They had not gone far before one of the men floored Duncan with a violent blow to the mouth. McKenzie released his man and went to Duncan's assistance and after a fierce fight the aggressor was overpowered. In the meantime, about 500 people had gathered, and many armed with stones, beer bottles, sticks and palings, joined issue with the police. Duncan was swept off his feet, and his hat and baton were stolen to the accompaniment of hoots and cat calls, in which women's screams predominated. Desperately fighting his way out of the crowd, Duncan got on his feet again, and the sight of his revolver kept his cowardly attackers at bay. Even so, he and Constable McKenzie had to back their way into the* Redfern police station, where Constables Healey and Trowell shepherded them and their prisoners inside, with the mob still threatening.