We must act on gang strife

THE adequacy of the police response to Melbourne’s flourishing gang problem and its racial undercurrents needs urgent investigation.

Police were outnumbered by the lawless brats. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

MOOMBA is meant to be our city at its family-friendly best, a uniquely Melbourne festival of fun on the banks of the Yarra. Hundreds of thousands of us flock to the fireworks, the world-class water sports, and the wacky Birdman rally, and gawk at the annual parade.

But on Saturday night, about 150 marauding young thugs spectacularly ruined the party, brazenly sweeping through the CBD in a series of violent clashes with each other, police, and the innocent public.

The youths had given warning of a possible gang bloodbath, yet Victoria Police officers were still seemingly caught on the hop, being vastly outnumbered by these lawless brats.

At the very least, this inadequate initial police response warrants further investigation. Police said yesterday they had been behaving with a deliberate restraint, but it is hard to see the sense in allowing young punks to disrespect the law and the rest of the community on such a scale.

More broadly, the adequacy of the police response to Melbourne’s flourishing gang problem and its racial undercurrents needs urgent investigation.

For while Moomba is a festival intended to celebrate Melbourne’s diversity, the incidents at the weekend have instead showcased a more troubling side of our city’s multiculturalism.

The obvious racial element to the tensions that overtook our streets must not be ignored.

Police yesterday attempted to play down any ethnic or racial basis for the violence, characterising the troublemakers as a “loose affiliation” of young men.

But the shocking video and photos of defiant, fearless youths gathering in Federation Square clearly show organisation along racial lines. As a community, it does us no good to pretend otherwise. Whether we like it or not, Melbourne does have a racially based gang problem.

For months, the Herald Sun has been reporting on the rise of one of the gangs involved in the weekend skirmish, Apex. The gang is believed responsible for violent attacks, car thefts and armed robberies. This month, a 16-year-old member allegedly threatened to shoot a female police officer in Dandenong.

Although a number of arrests have been made in the past few months to try to bring Apex under control, police officers across Melbourne are struggling to contain gang members.

The gang’s increasingly brazen actions raise questions about the capacity of our police force to respond adequately.

Premier Daniel Andrews demonstrated a worrying lack of leadership yesterday, issuing a flimsy press statement but failing to front the media in the face of the lawlessness gripping the CBD.

Mr Andrews correctly described the weekend’s incident as “disgraceful” and “completely unacceptable”, but his response was woefully timid.

We must not allow cultural sensitivity to suppress public debate about what steps the police must now take to stamp out the growing problem of gang violence.

Our city stands as one of the world’s most successful examples of multiculturalism, and these gang members are an aberration.

We need to have a robust public discussion about the specific cultural issues at play, and how we can combat the apparent disrespect for the law among a segment of our society.

The first step in fixing any problem is to acknowledge it. Inner-urban elites might want to talk around it, but it will take strong leadership from the Premier and from Victoria Police chiefs to stamp out what will otherwise shape as a major problem in the coming years.

Lawless brats who want to fight must be stopped. Whether in our CBD or in suburban neighbourhoods, we must not allow our public spaces to become urban battlefields.

We urge Victoria Police to devote more officers to our streets and display less tolerance for lawbreakers.

DEED NOT BREED

DOGS should be judged by their behaviour and not by their breed. Unfortunately, in many cases dogs have been killed and their owners devastated because they look as if they might be dangerous.

It is almost impossible in many cases to determine if a dog is from one of the dangerous breeds named in the Domestic Animals Act.

Now, controversial laws ordering pitbulls and restricted breeds to be put down are to be overturned in Victoria.

The reasons for what has proved to be an over-reaction to some breeds followed the horrific death of four-year-old Ayen Chol five years ago when a neighbour’s pitbull-mastiff cross rushed into her home.

The terrified child was clinging to her mother’s leg when the dog attacked and legislation was rushed through a shocked parliament to prevent similar incidents involving some breeds.

But in many cases, the dogs impounded by council officers have shown no aggressive tendencies. They have been loved pets that looked dangerous. Better that dogs are judged on deed and not breed.