Labor MPs warn voters will punish the Andrews Government if it does not tackle gang crime
POLICE have labelled Melbourne’s out-of-control African teen thugs “street gangs” but leaders from the African community have hit back at criticism from the Prime Minister that Victoria is facing a “gang violence” issue.
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AS police label Melbourne’s out-of-control African teen thugs “street gangs” and vow to lock up dangerous and violent offenders, leaders from the African community have hit back at criticism by Malcolm Turnbull that Victoria is facing a “gang violence” issue.
African leaders say the Prime Minister should “man up” and support the community rather than passing the blame.
South Sudanese community spokesman Richard Deng said the African community should not be used as a political tool to win elections.
“The Prime Minister needs to man up and support the African community,” he said.
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Mr Deng denied Melbourne was tackling an African gang issue, instead saying that a “tiny little number” of youths were breaking the law.
“Targeting a small community just because of that 1 per cent who are committing crime is not the right thing to do,” he said.
“It upsets them and does more harm,” he said.
Mr Deng praised the work of Victoria Police in supporting the community and disputed claims they were not doing enough to tackle the scourge of youth crime.
The community leader said he met with local police members at Ecoville Park in Tarneit yesterday to discuss how best to stop groups of young men congregating in the area and terrorising locals.
He said the meeting had not been planned prior to Mr Turnbull making his comments.
Mr Deng also took aim at comments made by Nelly Yoa, a prominent young south Sudanese man who said he was “in disbelief when police said gangs don’t exist”.
Mr Yoa also called on the community to stop being “politically correct” and told 3AW this morning “covering up the issue won’t benefit anyone”.
But Mr Deng distanced himself from Mr Yoa and said the 27-year-old “didn’t know what he was taking about”.
“It’s not a good thing for a member of the community to go and air things out without consulting with the current community,” he said.
“That guy is not in touch with the community,” Mr Deng said.
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Meanwhile, Victoria Police Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said arrests will be a “significant component” of what happens moving forward.
“We are in the arrest business. I don’t shy away from that and our police don’t shy away from that,” he said.
“We will target them, we will continue to lock them up and do what the community wants us to do.”
Mr Patton said the “young thugs” and young criminals were not an organised crime group.
“They’re not like a middle eastern crime group or an outlaw motorcycle gang but they’re behaving like street gangs,” he said.
“So let’s call them that because that’s what they are, they’re street gangs,
“We acknowledge that and we acknowledge there is an issue.”
Police say the rise in African youth offenders was brought to a head following three incidents in December.
Those included a wild Airbnb house party in Werribee where teen thugs pelted rocks at authorities and a Tarneit community living in fear at the Ecoville community park.
Last week the Herald Sun reported how gangs have turned a family park into a no-go zone with nightly vandalism sprees and trashing homes.
Mr Patton said the over the past 12 months, the Ecoville housing estate as been “deteriorating” where families now live in fear.
“So what are we doing? We’ve already had an operation established from November addressing those issues,” he said.
“We have deployed local resources and importantly the local police have been working with those communities.”
Mr Patton today announced a gang squad will now be able to be deployed to assist local investigators in dealing with African youth crime.
“In additional to that 24 extra police have been deployed to Wyndham another 17 to come up in the fear future.”
Police minister Lisa Neville said it was “unacceptable” to see Victorian communities terrorised and living in fear.
“This is a core group and it won’t be tolerated.”
“Victoria police will put a stop to this and they will hold these people accountable.”
Ms Neville confirmed Premier Daniel Andrews was currently on leave.
The police pledge to get tough comes as the explosion of gang crime unnerves Labor MPs who fear voters will “smash” the state government if it cannot halt the violence before November’s election.
Anxious government MPs are on edge after a string of terrifying incidents involving African youths. One MP said Premier Daniel Andrews’ office had “freaked out” and was “running around like headless chooks”.
“If we go to the next election and this African gang violence issue is still running ... we’re stuffed,” the MP told the Herald Sun on Monday.
“The voters are scared, and we have to act to get on top of this or they will smash us in November.”
Opposition Attorney-General John Pesutto said Victoria needed to restore “credibility and authority” of the justice system.
He called for the government to scrap its new youth control orders.
The orders, introduced as part of a package to reform the youth justice system, can impose curfews, restrict social media use and enforce school attendance.
“We are living through, at the moment, one of the worst periods of gang violence our state has perhaps ever seen,” Mr Pesutto said.
“I find it astounding that in the space of a week (Police) Minister (Lisa) Neville has gone from denying there are gangs to admitting that there are gangs.
“What this shows is that the Andrews Government is not in control of this situation.”
He said that the emergence of a gang culture “must be tackled urgently”.
“These gangs don’t fear police … and they certainly don’t fear consequences.”
Evidence emerged before Christmas of a new street gang, the Menace to Society, which has been linked to rampages in Tarneit and Werribee.
And police officers have been warned by superiors about African teens trying to lure them into ambushes.
Recent internal Labor research has identified violent youth crime as a critical election issue, particularly in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Female voters are seen to be especially concerned about the problem.
Another Labor source said the research had hit the Premier’s office “like a brick” over Christmas.
The Herald Sun understands concern is emerging within Labor’s caucus that the seats of Tarneit, Melton, Cranbourne, Narre Warren North and Narre Warren South are at risk.
New candidates are running in four of those Legislative Assembly seats, held by Labor on margins from just 2.34 per cent in Cranbourne to 14.58 per cent in Tarneit.
At the height of the Apex gang crisis in 2016, a Galaxy poll for the Herald Sunfound two-thirds of voters believed the government was not doing enough on youth crime.
The government believed it had clawed back some ground on crime, funding more than 3000 extra police in the wake of youth prison riots and a spate of carjackings and home invasions.
But the renewed youth crime wave has reignited simmering concerns in government ranks about Mr Andrews’ emphasis on his social agenda ahead of bread-and-butter issues.
“We’ve got African gangs running wild and he’s going on about equality and social policy,” one Labor MP said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was very concerned by the “growing gang violence and lawlessness”, which he said was a “failure of the Andrews Labor government”.
Sidestepping Liberal MP Jason Wood’s call for 80 new Australian Federal Police officers to smash the gangs, he said Victoria Police had the resources but lacked “the political leadership and the determination on the part of Premier Daniel Andrews”.
Ms Neville said the government had “full confidence in the capacity and resolve of Victoria Police to disrupt and stop these criminal thugs”.
“Their efforts will continue to make inroads into this intolerable behaviour by a small group of young people in Victoria,” she said.
“The work that Victoria Police has done over the last 12 months has seen the biggest decrease in crime in over a decade in Victoria.”
Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp said: “I well and truly believe we’re on the right track ... We’re locking a lot of people up.”
The electorates of Tarneit and Melton, in Melbourne’s west, will be contested by new Labor candidates after the careers of former Speaker Telmo Languiller and his former deputy Don Nardella were ended by last year’s expenses scandal.
Cranbourne MP Jude Perera retires at November’s poll, as does Narre Warren South MP Judith Graley, who has a 5.49 per cent margin. Roads Minister Luke Donnellan holds Narre Warren North by a 4.56 per cent margin.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, the member for the Mornington Peninsula seat of Flinders, said African gang crime was “out of control” in parts of Victoria.
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