Police have issued a statement giving punters a thorough tongue-lashing for their “disappointing” and “concerning” behaviour at this year’s Rainbow Serpent Festival.
Officers conducted a high visibility operation at the five-day dance party in the western Victorian suburb of Lexton, responding to two incidents of sexual assault, arresting five people for drug possession, two for being “drunk” (and disorderly, we’re assuming?), another person for drink driving, and charging another 44 others with drug-driving offences.
Five people were evicted from the festival grounds for unknown reasons, while one person was arrested for drug trafficking (it’s unclear if police are referring to a separate crime here or the incident that saw a Rainbow Serpent worker arrested with a f*ckload of drugs en route to the festival before their operation had officially started).
Either way, the cops aren’t happy.
“Every year police deal with serious crimes such as sexual assaults and drug trafficking at this event,” Acting Superintendent Graham Banks said in a statement.
“We also saw far too many people making dangerous and illegal choices by getting behind the wheel when they were either drug or alcohol affected.
“This kind of behaviour puts the whole community at risk and is completely unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for these individuals.”
Despite the chagrin of police, it still seems like a better result than last year’s Rainbow Serpent festival, which saw a 22-year-old man lose his life after reportedly drinking amyl nitrite and a 21-year-old woman allegedly get bitten and sexually assaulted multiple times.
