THUG ATTACKS INVALID AND THE THUG COULD NOT BE ARRESTED?

Strange law-enforcement in the Left-ruled Australian State of Victoria

Former premier Jeff Kennett was bruised and shaken after being attacked in a bar while celebrating his son's birthday. On crutches after a hip replacement, Mr Kennett yesterday told how he was shoved from a bar stool in an unprovoked attack by a man asked to leave the premises. "He lashed out at me with both arms, very strongly into my chest and that pushed my head against the wall and on to the ground," Mr Kennett said. "It was a brutal force. He is a big boy, a solid fellow and it wasn't a touch, it was everything he had at me."

Mr Kennett, his wife Felicity, their three sons, their partners, and other family members were gathered at Bar 9T4 in Swan St, Richmond, to celebrate the 26th birthday of son Ross, who has been licensee of the bar since mid-2004. Ross Kennett asked the man to leave the bar about 8pm because he had been barred from the premises because of his behaviour on another occasion. Ross Kennett said the offender had recognised his father.

He and his two brothers held the man down until police arrived. "Jeffrey went home straight after that. It really dampened the night," he said. Mr Kennett said he was sitting on a bar stool "because I have to keep my leg lower than my hip" talking to his brother-in-law as the man walked past him on his way out. "I only saw him as a big guy in a red sort of top," he said. "It was so quick and so unexpected, there was no way I could even put my hands up. I didn't see anything coming. "Had he had a knife or any other sort of weapon you would just stand no chance."

Mr Kennett said while the assault was "quite scary" he felt fortunate the damage was not far worse. "I don't mind a bit of verbal but I'm a wuss when it comes to physical (confrontation)," he said. "My greatest worry was my hip would pop out again and I would have to go back again and start all over again. It's bruised and it's swollen but it hasn't popped out."

Fitzroy police told a 31-year-old Carnegie man he would be charged on summons by Fitzroy police before releasing him outside the bar. Mr Kennett thanked the police and paramedics who attended and said he understood they could not arrest everyone.

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