Lord Mayor Sally Capp tries to stop four men in drunken brawl in CBD
Lord Mayor Sally Capp had the best of intentions when she tried to break up a fight between four men in a notorious street in the city. But her intervention ended with police needing to rescue her.
VIC News
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Lord Mayor Sally Capp was pushed while trying to break up a drunken fight involving a self-proclaimed “maniac” in the CBD.
Ms Capp was on her way back from the Queen concert with her husband on Thursday night when she saw four men fighting on Elizabeth St.
She jumped in the middle of the men in an attempt to de-escalate the violence.
But it did not work and an off-duty police officer came to the rescue.
“I found myself walking into a fisticuff between four gentlemen and I am sad to say the main proponent was a man in a Collingwood jumper who had way too much to drink,” she told 3AW.
“His friend kept saying to us ‘he’s an angry drunk, he’s an angry drunk’ and I don’t know if that was him warning us to scatter quickly but unfortunately the guys took the fight to each other.”
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Ms Capp said she now realises stepping in was “not the right thing to do”.
“I thought if I stepped into the middle it might de-escalate the situation somewhat … and if I use my mother’s voice I might get them to stop for a moment to think about what they were doing but it didn’t work,” she said.
“We were so lucky because I was starting to get concerned. Some guys were on the ground tussling and I had been pushed to one side and I was getting worried for my husband.
“We were rescued by a policeman who was off duty, he had plain clothes on.
“He stood in calmly, started talking to this drunk guy who kept saying ‘I’m a maniac, I am a maniac, get out of my way’.
“He really did manage to calm him down and move them on.”
Elizabeth St is seen as a trouble hotspot in Melbourne due to assaults and unruly behaviour in recent months.
Ms Capp said: “It is one of those areas we do monitor. We are aware the activity there.”