‘Don’t call them gangs’: police claim youth crime under control

African and Islander youths vandalising parks are just attention-seeking gang wannabes, police say.

Police say the crime problem plaguing Melbourne’s suburbs has taken new shape since the ­disruption of the Apex gang, with large groups of ­African and ­Islander youths ­destroying property and intimidating residents but no longer committing serious crimes such as aggravated burglaries and carjackings.

Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp said a new police operation targeting anti-social youths was codenamed ­Ecoville, the name of a privately owned community park repeatedly targeted by vandals in the outer western suburb of Tarneit.

Some of the youths responsible for the vandalism, predominantly teenage males of African and ­Islander descent, identify as Menace To Society, a reference to a critically-acclaimed 1993 film. MTS graffiti tags were left at the Ecoville community park, and last month at a trashed Airbnb property in Werribee where youths threw rocks at police.

Mr Crisp believes the group is a loose association of attention-seeking wannabes. He said referring to the group as a gang would give them notoriety and embolden their anti-social behaviour.

“Don’t play to their ego, don’t call them a gang,’’ Mr Crisp said. “Don’t build them into something bigger than they already are.

“Some of it is serious but it is relatively low-level; taking over a house for a party and throwing rocks at police is different to where we were seeing very good planning by groups of people sitting off houses, following people home, breaking in and stealing the keys.’’

Police remain confident that the Apex gang, a group of serious, recidivist offenders who terrorised neighbourhoods across Melbourne with home-invasion burglaries and car thefts, has been disbanded, with most of its members in jail.

Mr Crisp said police were continuing to crack down on Apex-­associated activities and were concerned at the capacity of jailed gang members to influence people who might identify with MTS.