Altona traders are hitting back at a media report that claimed there is an organised fight club operating in the area.
Video footage emerged of a brawl between several youths in front of up to 100 bystanders at RJ Logan Reserve, sparking rumours of the illegal fight club.
The footage, purportedly filmed on January 25, appeared in a story on a television current affairs show last week.
Altona Village Traders Association president Kim Walsh called the report “a total beat-up”.
“People are up in arms about what a beat-up it was of Altona,” he said. “The fight was a number of weeks ago, not recently.
“We’re able to pinpoint when it was because the street decorations from Christmas were still hanging.
“We’re not very happy that our town is being painted as an unsafe place. We’re very disappointed that they’ve taken a one-off incident and said that it’s a regular fight club.
“That’s not the Altona that we live in and that’s not the Altona we know.”
Mr Walsh urged anyone who thinks a fight club exists in Altona to prove it.
“We have a very proactive summer policing unit, which is all part of a concerted effort to keep our town safe for families,” he said.
Police denials
Sergeant Dean Howard concurred that there was no fight club in Altona.
“We’ve had no intelligence to say that there is an organised fight club in Altona; it was an isolated incident,” Sergeant Howard said.
“We have identified some of the people in the video and criminal charges will be laid.
“We have a small policing unit that conducts regular patrols of the area … and things are generally fine.”
Restaurateur John Mattsson said he could only recall two major fights at the beach in the nine years he’d owned Numero Uno Pizza on Pier Street.
“I’d say in the past two years there’s been no real trouble,” he said
“It’s not the locals either; it’s the people from out of town who come down here to the beach and get into fights.
“One of the fights I remember in the past was between about 10 teenagers … and there was another from years ago when there were about 60 people fighting, but it hasn’t happened in a long time. We’ve had a pretty good summer down here,” Mr Mattsson said.
