Senior Gold Coast police officer links severe assaults on police with popularity of MMA

A senior Gold Coast police officer has claimed that the popularity of mixed martial arts among young men has led to an increase in the severity of attacks on police.

Surfers Paradise Acting Sergeant Billy Aitken told News Corp that drunken violence was not uncommon in the city’s nightclub district, but said that offenders were increasingly equipped with fighting skills learned from MMA training.

“That is something we coming up against more and more with members of the public, especially young men, who have wrestling skills well in advance of the average member of the public,” Sgt Aitkin said.

He said an officer was attacked several weeks ago while trying to arrest someone, with the perpetrator using a chokehold popular in MMA during the confrontation.

Sgt Aitken said the effect of drugs and alcohol, when coupled with advanced fighting skills, proved to be a dangerous combination for officers working the city’s streets.

MMA was linked to common assault by the Victorian government earlier this year, with a ban on cage-fighting across the state due to its “stylised street violence”.

In the last year around 165 local police officers were assaulted on the Gold Coast, equating to around one incident every two days.

Surfers Paradise recorded the most violent attacks on police, with 62 cases in 2013/14.