Eurydice Dixon floral memorial vandalised as debate rages on women’s safety

Victoria’s top cop has backed comments by senior officers last week over women’s safety in the wake of Eurydice Dixon’s death.

Victoria Police’s chief commissioner had backed comments made by senior officers last week in the wake of Eurydice Dixon’s death as debate continues to rage over women’s safety in Melbourne.

Senior state government ministers and police have been at loggerheads in recent days over whether statements on safety have put too much blame on women victims.

Graham Ashton told ABC News Breakfast police did not mean to “victim blame” when Superintendent David Clayton told reporters last Wednesday that people needed to take responsibility for their own safety.

Superintendent Clayton’s comments resulted in a barrage of online criticism for seemingly putting the onus on women rather than male perpetrators of violent crime.

“It was about trying to get the community just to be aware of what’s around you at the moment …But it didn’t really come out that way,” Chief Commissioner Ashton said today.

“We weren’t about victim blaming and we certainly agree that, absolutely, that women and men, for that matter, should have the right to walk around public spaces when they want to walk around them and do so safely.”

Jaymes Todd, 19, has been charged with Ms Dixon’s murder and one count of rape. Police released images of him last Wednesday and he turned himself into police. He will return to court in October.

Senior police and Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp will hold a special meeting today to discuss strategies for boosting women’s safety across the city with more CCTV cameras on the agenda.

Ms Capp made news last week when she told Melbourne’s 3AW radio she did not personally feel safe on the city’s streets at night.

“We’ve got a lot of CCTV which is really good and we’re looking to get more of that,” Chief Commissioner Ashton said. “We do have a large police presence in the city all the time anyway. So it may be a case of not changing anything too dramatically but enhancing the current arrangements.

“But we’ll talk about that and if they are improvements to make, we will certainly make them.”

There is still debate over the response to Ms Dixon’s murder and feminist voices have been calling for a change in how women’s murders and rapes are discussed by the media and police.

Victoria’s Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins wrote an opinion piece for women’s website Women’s Agenda at the weekend in which she said men had to take more responsibility for violent crimes against women,

Ms Hutchins defended her article this morning and told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that the media and men in power still had different attitudes to male and female victims of crime.

“I think that the conversations start to blame the victim rather than the perpetrator … it’s seems to be a bit of victim blaming,” she said.

“We’ve got to start asking why we have these attitudes and behaviours around women who are victims, and then we have a different set of attitudes when men are victims … The problem is gendered … we (need) to get men to step up.”

Meanwhile, police and emergency services have cleared up graffiti at the makeshift memorial for Ms Dixon in Princes Park where her body was found.

Police found lewd markings at the site around 3.50am this morning during a routine patrol. Firefighters used water and brooms to remove the white paint around the floral tribute.

Up to 11,000 people have indicated on Facebook that they will attend a vigil for Ms Dixon at Princes Park at 5.30pm this evening.

The Reclaim Princes Park vigil, organised by Victorian Trades Hall organiser Pia Cerveri, has sparked spin-off events across the country, with vigils also to be held in public parks in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and many regional areas.

The event, which aims to enforce the message that women “should be able to walk home, whenever we want, wherever we want, and assume we will make it home safe”, has the support of Ms Dixon’s family.

The 22-year-old aspiring comedian was walking home from a stand-up performance at a city venue late last Tuesday when she was attacked. Her body was found the next morning on a soccer field at Princes Park in North Carlton — less than a kilometre from her home.

Similar debates occurred when Melbourne mother Karen Ristevski first went missing and when ABC staffer Jill Meagher was murdered in 2013.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews weighed in, saying “Eury­dice died because of her attacker’s decisions — not because of her own”, while his colleague, Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins, wrote on theWomen’s Agenda website at the weekend that “thoughts and prayers” meant little “if we’re not prepared to change the culture of sexism”.

She said women were tired of marching for justice “wondering if perpetrators are actually listening”. “We are sick of being told to stay in well-lit places, with lots of people to avoid being sexually ­assaulted. Or raped. Or murdered,” she said, urging people to talk to the men in their lives and “tell them that violence is not OK”.