Victoria Police call on community to help save teen misfits

VICTORIA is in the grip of a crime phenomenon and one that the police cannot deal with alone

Victoria Police is dealing with an increasingly violent young offenders. Picture: Valeriu Campan

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VICTORIA is in the grip of a crime phenomenon and one that the police cannot deal with alone.

It will take the input of professional and community leaders working together to resolve a growing culture of serious crime carried out by teenagers in danger of becoming a generation of hardened criminals.

The Herald Sun has joined with Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in a multifaceted approach to turn teenagers, most of them aged around 15, from what will become ruined lives as they offend and reoffend.

The revolving door of youth crime has come as a shock to many parents, who have had no idea what their children are doing outside their homes. HeraldSun investigations show girls are responsible for one in five youth crime incidents.

The most startling finding is that serious crime by young offenders is increasing beyond the powers of police to make serious inroads on cases that fill the Children’s Courts. Serious and violent crime is repeated by the same offenders.

They are often recruited by gangs, such as the notorious Apex gang, who rely on them being dealt with leniently by the courts because of their age. They are quickly released only to carry out further offences.

A remarkable aspect of serious and violent youth crimes is that some offenders are strangers when they meet. Impromptu crime sprees follow social media hook-ups. This was a feature of the Moomba riot.

These crimes highlight serious social problems caused by lack of opportunity, lack of employment, frustration, anger and what they feel is community rejection. It is a generation of disadvantaged youth aspiring to get what they don’t have through crime. The Youth Summit to be hosted by Mr Ashton on Thursday will try to make sense of this reality.

A frightening aspect of serious youth crime is the “swarm’’ that can suddenly form from social media. It has been dubbed “pop-up” crime.

It saw innocent bystanders at the Moomba weekend celebrations in March caught up in violence involving up to 200 youths in Federation Square.

For some of these offenders, a jail sentence becomes a badge of honour. The robberies themselves are unprecedented. A gang in a car will bump a target car and assault the driver when he gets out to look for damage. His car is then driven away to be used in an aggravated burglary.

No one gang is responsible for a spate of carjackings and home invasions across Melbourne. A “gang’’ can form spontaneously.

The challenge for the Victorian Government, social experts, police and the community is to confront the issues driving young offenders.

The Herald Sun sent reporter Wes Hosking out with police on a Saturday night shift in the southeastern suburbs.

Crimes covered included armed robbery, a teenage birthday party that became a street brawl where police were pelted with bottles, a street assault nearby on a man whose car keys were taken and a man in Pakenham who woke up to find three men in his house.

An officer says police have been confronted with an incident every 13 minutes over an eight-hour shift.

This represents a culture of serious and violent crime by youths who share their complete disregard for others.

If the community works together we can stop a spreading criminal culture that is ruining young lives just as they are starting.

TURNBULL’S TIME TO MEND

MALCOLM Turnbull yesterday faced his party room for the first time since the July 2 federal election.

The Coalition leadership emerged battered and, you would hope, humbled from an election contest that Team Turnbull almost lost.

Yesterday the Prime Minister announced a slightly revamped ministry. And now that the new squad is in place, the government must quickly start the process of delivering on its election campaign promises.

Mr Turnbull promised “jobs and growth”. So jobs and growth is what we want to see delivered.

At the same time he has a lot of mending to do. Mr Turnbull must use this time ahead to rethink his superannuation policies that alienated a portion of the Coalition’s support base. Those voters deserted the Coalition and gave their support instead to rival conservative forces.

Mr Turnbull’s May Budget contained superannuation changes, with a proposed unpopular $500,000 cap on non-concessional super contributions, backdated to 2007. He must revisit this and find another way to balance the nation’s books.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott was not given a place in Mr Turnbull’s ministry yesterday. This is despite pressure from some conservative MPs to promote Mr Abbott to the frontbench.

In this era of unprecedented leadership changes it is reasonable for Mr Turnbull to ensure the government remains steady. With a hostile Senate that may anyway threaten Mr Turnbull’s capacity to deliver, creating stability in government is vital to fulfilling the Coalition’s promises.