Outrage as top Victorian cop says gang crime crisis ‘rubbish’

Victoria’s top policeman has attacked Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s claim that Melbourne residents feel unsafe.

An Instagram picture posted recently shows a youth taunting Victorian police. The post refers to MTS, the tag often used by emerging gang Menace to Society.

Victoria’s top policeman has ­attacked Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s claim that Melbourne residents feel unsafe, branding such comments as “complete and utter garbage”, while rejecting suggestions the city is facing an ­African gang crisis.

In his first public appearance since returning from six weeks’ sick leave, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton enraged former police commissioners, victims of crime and residents living in the city’s outer suburbs, who accused him of playing down the street-gang issue and safety fears.

Mr Dutton, the Turnbull government’s most senior security minister, responded by calling on the Victorian government to act swiftly before more people became victims of crime.

Mr Ashton fronted a news conference alongside leaders from the African-Australian community yesterday to unveil a community taskforce to address crimes committed by street gangs, some of which include teens from South Sudanese and African communities. The new taskforce would provide information to police about emerging hot spots and issues, Mr Ashton said.

The police chief said the problem of teen thugs using social media to communicate and act like street gangs had escalated in past weeks, but denied that the problem had reached crisis point.

“What’s changed over recent weeks has been … an increase in public disorder and misbehaviour in public by groups of young ­people,” Mr Ashton said. “We’ve certainly got examples recently of young African people engaging in what people want to describe as gang activity. I don’t think anyone has shied away from that.”

He said crime was falling in Victoria and dismissed criticisms that Melburnians felt unsafe. “I’ve heard people say that Victoria is not a safe place to live; that’s complete and utter garbage,” he said.

Mr Ashton was adamant that Melbourne wasn’t confronted by a gang crisis. “I wouldn’t describe it as a crisis. I think if you put it into context, you’ve got a few hundred ­offenders engaging in offending in a city of 4½ million people,” he said.

Melbourne crime has escalated into a major political issue, with Premier Daniel Andrews under pressure to return from holidays and recall state parliament.

Mr Dutton said last week Victorians were afraid to go out for dinner, for fear of violent crime. Yesterday he called for decisive action to address the issue.

“Victorians are expecting the ­Andrews government to act to clean up the gang violence which has resulted in a number of attacks on Victorians,” he said.

“They need to do it before ­anyone else becomes a victim.”

The announcement of the taskforce came as police hunted for a group of offenders, described as being of African appearance, who raided two service stations in Melbourne’s north and ­assaulted a worker.

Victims of crime and residents in suburbs affected by street gangs said Mr Ashton had missed the point by refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue. Tarneit resident Luke Mitchell, who chairs the residents’ association of Ecoville Estate, where a recreation centre has been vandalised by youth gangs, said people in the suburbs were scared.

“The reality is that the crisis isn’t playing out in shops or restaurants or the centre of the city; it’s in the streets in ­suburbs around western Melbourne, it’s in the parks, it’s in the unmanned buildings that people don’t want to go into,” Mr Mitchell said.

The Ecoville Estate residents’ association has spent more than $180,000 on repairs and maintenance to a park in the centre of the suburb which has been trashed by thugs who use it as an informal hang out for drinking and troublemaking.

A petition that Tarneit residents started on Saturday, calling for urgent government action to tighten bail laws and to ramp up penalties for repeat offenders, has already attracted almost 11,000 signatures.

Petition founder Arnav Sati said Mr Ashton’s comments proved police and government MPs were in a “state of denial” about the severity of the problem.

“OK, the 99 per cent across the state are fine, but the 1 per cent who have to deal with it are very, very scared by what they’ve seen or put up with in their neighbourhoods,” Mr Sati said.

Mr Ashton urged the community to keep in mind that total crime figures had fallen for the past two quarters, with the crime rate posting its biggest fall in about a decade in the quarter to September.

Former Victorian Police chief commissioner Kel Glare told The Australian that it was wrong to focus on the figures without taking into account terrifying experiences endured by residents in some parts of the city.

“You’ve got people fighting off intruders with baseball bats — it’s a crisis,” Mr Glare said.

Former National Crime Commission chairman Peter Faris QC called for Mr Ashton to be ­replaced now, given he had ­already flagged that he wouldn’t serve a second term.

“If he’s going to leave in a year’s time, given the seriousness of the problem, I think he should leave now,” Mr Faris said.

“They can put in a commissioner who’s got a longer term to serve and can give this response the continuity it needs.

“He’s a first-rate police officer but given those reasons, it could be time for him to go.”

Mr Faris said the crime figures failed to account for the brazen ­nature of the crimes.

“Crime always comes in waves, but this is a very serious one ­because, as far as we can make out this group, while it might be small, has no respect for people’s safety or property,” he said. “It’s wrong to downplay the problem.”

Asked about Mr Dutton’s comments made last week, Mr Ashton said: “I’m not engaging in political comment. I’ve heard comments made. I’m not getting involved in the politics of this, that’s for politicians, that’s not for me as police commissioner to get involved.

“But If there’s a sense that this is an unsafe city then that is wrong.”

Police have failed to arrest any offenders who allegedly took part in a violent rampage last week, involving four attacks in three hours.