WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch has said a Halloween party where officers were punched and kicked by teenagers had reminded him of pre-COVID days when out of control gatherings were more prevalent.
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Blanch told 6PR gatecrashers had shown up to a party in Byford on Friday night, bringing numbers up to around 400, and police had turned out “in force” to shut it down.
“I recall in 2018, 2019, pre-COVID days, our what we call out of control gatherings were quite a regular occurrence,” he said.
“Pleasingly, they are now few and far between but sadly, on Halloween night, we did see a Halloween party in Byford that did get out of control … many of them, if not most of them were intoxicated.”
Several people were charged, and a 17-year-old boy was handed a move on order.
One of the young people – a 16-year-old girl from Glen Iris, near Bunbury, – was charged with assaulting a public officer.
“(It was) just unnecessary behaviour, and my police aren’t out there to be punched and kicked,” Blanch said.
“Unfortunately, with social media these days, if a party is advertised online people can see the advertisement and just turn up, and then it just gets out of hand and that’s exactly what happened here.
“We sent quite a large contingent of police and shut it down.”
