Police tell restaurant staff blackboard menu encourages 'antisocial behaviour'
A Sydney restaurateur has added to cries that Sydney is now a "nanny state" after he was told signs advertising "wine by the glass" promotes "unsavoury antisocial behaviour".
Police visited the 10 William Street restaurant in Paddington on Saturday night to inform the proprietor his blackboard menu signs hung inside the shop could encourage heavy drinking.
He also said police complained the signs were too close to the shopfront.
"So according to. NSW POLICE FORCE our blackboard with what we are pouring by the glass is promoting unsavoury antisocial behaviour," restaurateur Giovanni Paradiso wrote on Instagram.
"SYDNEY WHAT THE F**** IS HAPPENING," he added.
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Mr Paradiso was also told a sign on the boutique eatery's balcony advertising organic wine as 'real wine free wine' would have to be removed because it could be interpreted as promoting free wine.
People on social media responded to Mr Paradiso posts, describing the demands as 'ridiculous,' 'utter insanity' and 'beyond belief'.
"This is so stupid you couldn't make it up," one commenter said.
"Utter insanity. Literally the fun police! Something serious needs to happen to stop Sydney being run by a totalitarian government," said another.
The 'fun police' rebuke comes as a photo of police with sniffer dogs patrolling an eastern suburbs pool has circulated online.
Taken at Woolloomooloo's Andrew Boy Chalrton Pool, the photo showed four police decked out in all their gear, circulating the pool as women in bikinis sunned themselves on the deck.
An English springer spaniel, a breed used by NSW Police for drug and firearms detection, was leading the pack.
"Welcome to Sydney The Nanny State Police & sniffer dogs now patrolling our pools during the day, What’s next??" the caption read.
The original photo has been deleted but the image was kept alive and shared across social networks along with cries for Sydney to be handed back to the people.
Commenters speculated whether the police were intimidating bathers while others said police dogs were a common sight in Redfern and Newtown so eastern suburbs attractions should be no different.
Last week an essay by tech entrepreneur and Sydneysider Matt Barrie described the city as having lost its soul since the introduction of lockout laws in 2013, which many say have placed unnecessarily crippling restrictions on people and businesses.
