Frothing rage over drink-fuelled violence against police

After a winter night of shame in which Dundee police officers were almost killed, the leader writers of this newspaper went on the attack. They savaged Saturday night dipsomania which drove so many of the “baser” classes close to insanity. Friction between this group and police had been increasing since officers began raiding shebeens, or “styes of human bestiality” as this newspaper called them.

The bootleggers, in 1863, first tried to bribe police to protect their drinking dens and when that did not work, they threatened violence.

Tensions exploded on January 24 when a drunken mob of 300 turned on officers.

The catalyst had been a punch-up in High Street between two drunken sailors. As one police officer went to break it up, a shrieking drunk threw the officer to the ground and booted him senseless. As a mob closed in on the stricken policeman, his colleagues rushed to his aid.

Drunks then stoned the officers, who narrowly escaped with their lives. By this time the mob had an appetite for violence and destruction and smashed up gas lamps and the Post Office.

The scene of devastation in Dundee city centre left the law-abiding in despair.

They were already frustrated by a lack of public cash to even sweep the streets so the ongoing costs of picking up the tab for lawless behaviour prompted harsh words by our leader writers.

“The money paid every Saturday night for bad headaches, foul breaths and bleared eyes is something shocking,” our issue of Tuesday January 27 blasted.

“It is painful to know by arithmetical demonstration that sums which would suffice to carpet our streets, sprinkle them with rose water or to provide for the education of every poor man’s child in the town is instead devoted to the purpose of manufacturing paupers and imbeciles.”

The paper said that while people were free to do as they please, when their antics create a public burden then action is needed.

It described the brutal ferocity and unscrupulous cowardice with which drunks fought each other and said only police intervention prevented murders.

By this time the mob had an appetite for violence and destruction