Steve Price: I never thought I would be afraid in my own home

It’s something I never thought I’d see — Melburnians afraid to sleep in their own homes. And now I’m one of them.

A court case in Melbourne this week involving a 19-year-old brandishing two machetes during a brawl that saw a teenage boy stabbed to death says a lot about our city in 2024.

None of it is good.

The Burnside Heights man – remember he’s 19 – Ngor Dao was involved in a brawl outside the Sunshine railway station in May last year.

Two groups started a fight that ended in tragedy with 16-year-old Pasawm Lyhym stabbed to death-in the back with a knife-by a 17-year-old from an opposing gang. That teenage offender — who we can’t name because of his age — was dealt with in the Children’s Court after pleading guilty to murder. He was part of Dao’s gang.

So, what happened to Dao in court this week you ask?

He was sentenced to a 15-month community corrections order.

He had pleaded guilty to affray and intentionally causing injury and the court was told he had not one but two machetes, swinging one at a person from the other gang, cutting the other teenager’s finger.

You could argue he was lucky not to have killed someone else that day. The Judge, Peter Lauritsen, said Dao was given the corrections order and not sentenced to jail because of his age (19) prospects of rehabilitation, good family support, full time work and genuine remorse.

Really.

It’s just one case, but it’s an example of what has become a youth crime crisis that has overwhelmed police who struggle with numbers to cope.

An explosion in knife crime and machete possession is considered normal, and home invasions, car thefts and nightly torching of tobacco shops is commonplace.

Home invasions have become an all-to-common occurrence across Melbourne.

Many Victorians are afraid to sleep at night in their own homes and that’s something I thought I would ever experience.

Sadly, after two nearby break-ins in the past fortnight at empty properties in my area I’m now in that category. I’m terrified a noise in the middle of the night might mean I am next to experience a home invasion.

A neighbour recently woke to the sound of a pair of home invaders trying to jemmy open his back door. He got out of bed armed himself with a golf club and stood in the dark too terrified to turn his lights on fearing he would be attacked. Thankfully they failed to prise the door open and left. God only knows what would have happened to him if they had got in.

Next suburb over an absent resident returned home to a break-in, with the offenders selectively stealing from his wine cellar – ignoring cheaper bottles – pilfering art from the walls and stealing Sonos sound systems and a small amount of cash.

Targets are car keys and vehicles for joyrides or as ordered up by other older criminals to use in smash and grab raids.

Post-Covid, this has now been going on for almost three years. Crime statistics don’t lie, and we now live in communities unprotected by an under-resourced police force trying to deal with soft magistrates playing the revolving door bail game.

Sadly, we are all the losers. Worried I might be next, a back-to-base alarm system has been ordered and the outside is having camera systems installed. The local security firm is installing five or six similar systems a week every week.

Mark Knight’s take on the home invasion surge in Melbourne.

The company has a great relationship with local police, but the police are under-resourced and incapable of dealing with call-outs around suspicious activity. The firm itself has six units working 24-hours a day all week while a police taskforce has been established to try and get ahead of the problem.

Home invasions – many violent and some deadly – gang knife and machete fights, shopping centre brawls, car thefts and deadly chases involving offenders barely into their teenage years is not the Melbourne we grew up in and not the Melbourne many of us recognise.

State Labor seems not to recognise how frightening this crime wave has become.

It’s now in my area, spreading across the metropolitan suburbs as one location after another is burgled out.

I went back through the Herald Sun from June this year and the angry meeting of Bayside residents – around 300 of them – where police advised putting Apple AirTags in their vehicles to make it easier to track stolen cars.

They were then told if you hear someone in your house in the middle of the night lock yourself in your bedroom and call the police. Seriously!

We now need locks on bedroom doors. And what was the State Government response at the time?

“Victoria has one of the lowest rates of youth offending in Australia” a spokesman said.

Then this: “We will introduce a trial of electronic monitoring to ensure bail conditions are adhered to.”

How do we reckon that’s going … if at all?

This is Victoria in 2024: suburban homes plastered with security cameras and alarm systems, young teenagers pinching cars and terrorising residents, gangs armed with deadly machetes and knives murdering each other on suburban streets and courts issuing community orders instead of prison terms because offenders showed “remorse”.

Our state’s system is soft on crime, and that’s the price we pay.

Love

— The Greens getting smashed at the Queensland State election and at the local government polls here.

— President Joe Biden stumbling into Kamala Harris’ campaign with his garbage comment.

— Spring Carnival arrives at Flemington with huge crowds expected.

Loathe

— New State Government tenancy laws favouring renters – who’d want to be a landlord?

— Pill testing now legal in Victoria despite strong community objections.

— Taxpayer owned Australia Post loses $88.5 million this year and pays its CEO $2.68 in salary – figure that out.