Unruly conduct just not on say police

A POLICE chief has described scenes over the weekend of antisocial behaviour in Cardiff as “unacceptable” but said the city is still one of the safest in the UK, writes Cathy Owen.

South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael was speaking out after two police officers were injured during outbreaks of violence in Cardiff Bay on Friday night.

The scenes prompted police to introduce additional powers to ban people from the area for a period of up to 48 hours.

But hundreds still gathered in the area on Saturday night and residents say they are fed up with antisocial behaviour, noise, and litter.

The area was left in a disgusting state, with litter strewn across the basin and surrounding areas for the second day in a row after similar scenes on Saturday morning.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Mr Michael said: “It is disappointing behaviour, but let’s get it into proportion, the vast majority of people have been behaving themselves, enjoying themselves on a night out and observing social distancing.

“The big danger is that we have got a minority of people who are misbehaving, and that can spoil things for the vast majority if we are not careful.

“We have got a very unusual year. The big difference this year is that, because of Covid-19, instead of people being inside bars – where in general there is good control, there is a degree of professionalism, things are contained – people can’t go inside, so they are outside on the street and that is a less controlled environment. We have to appeal to everybody, please use your common sense.”

Mr Michael said it was “unacceptable” that police officers had been injured doing their job but they had been able to carry on with their shift after treatment.

He added: “It is unacceptable, but we still have in Cardiff a very, very safe city. In terms of violence, it is probably the safest city in the UK in terms of its size and compared with many much bigger cities in England.

“That hasn’t happened by accident. It has happened because there has been such good work between the police and the local authority over many, many years. That antisocial behaviour is not new in the night-time economy.”

He said that discussions would carry on this week to work out how to stop a repeat.

He added: “The thing you can do is to ask everybody to behave and act sensibly. If a stupid minority behave badly then more draconian steps will have to be taken and that spoils things for the vast majority.”