Police make almost 400 arrests in a night

NSW police are urging people to be responsible during the festive season after
arresting almost 400 people in one night.
Officers throughout the state arrested a total 375 people on the first night of
Operation Unite on Friday.
This was almost 70 less arrests than during the September Unite blitz, but police
say many of the offences were more violent this time around.
In one assault case, a man at The Rocks in inner-city Sydney received serious head
injuries, while at Bondi, a man who had his ear torn off and his face badly cut was
too intoxicated to provide police with a description of his attacker.
Operation Unite commander Alan Clarke said while it was pleasing that the number of
arrests was down on the September figures, "it is still disappointing to see a level
of drunkenness and violence that remains unacceptable".
"Our focus has been to ensure that those people who are simply out to celebrate this
festive time are not being subjected to violent attacks from drunken idiots," he
said.
In total, police laid 651 charges on night one of Operation Unite in NSW.
On the roads, 144 people were booked for drink-driving offences while 1169 traffic
infringement notices wer issued.
Police traffic operations conducted 16,598 vehicle stops.
Operation Unite will continue on Saturday night.