Toowoomba youth crime: LNP opposition leader David Crisafulli urges residents against turning to vigilantism

With the temperature rising across Toowoomba after the shocking attack of Robert Brown this week, community leaders have urged calm from residents ready to take the law into their hands.

Queensland’s opposition leader David Crisafulli has pleaded with Toowoomba residents not to resort to vigilantism in the wake of the city’s youth crime crisis, arguing it “doesn’t work” to bring about change.

Tempers are rising across the city after the serious alleged assault of 75-year-old man Robert William Brown on Monday just outside Grand Central — the latest in a long list of notable offences dating back several months.

Three teenagers, including 18-year-old Wilsonton man Isaac Zane Cubby, have been charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.

In the days following the attack, social media has been awash with commentary from locals threatening to use force against alleged youth offenders.

State Opposition Leader David Crisafulli stands outside Grand Central Shopping Centre in Toowoomba, the scene of where an elderly man was allegedly assaulted in broad daylight on Monday.

Mr Crisafulli, who laid out his party’s proposed solutions to problem this week, said he understood the frustration and fear shared by residents.

But he urged residents not to take the law into their own hands, calling it a counter-productive exercise.

“It does no one any good to have that — it doesn’t help change laws or behaviour, it just doesn’t help,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“The best way that people can change is by lobbying to improve the Youth Justice Act that was watered down and broken, and improve early intervention strategies, not by inciting violence and anger and hatred.

“The vast majority of people have signed onto what we’re saying (but vigilantism) just doesn’t help, it makes change more difficult.”

Darling Downs Detective Inspector Heath McQueen was contacted for comment.

It comes as residents in other parts of Queensland have considered forming vigilante groups.

Recently the children of a Queensland residential care home were the subject of death threats on social media by people who believed it was a halfway home.

Citizens’ arrests on the Gold Coast in December prompted police to wait until law enforcement arrived to deal with offenders.

Jennifer Board on the motorcycle she was riding when she was struck and killed in Townsville.

Townsville woman Jennifer Board was killed in Townsville back in 2021 after an alleged vigilante veered onto the wrong side of the road and hit her head-on.

Police allege the man, who has been charged with murder, had been following a stolen car at the time.