When Melbournians started to notice that the violent mobs swarming public events, machetes in hand and invading suburban homes were almost all from a particular demographic or two, the elite lie-machine swung into action. Victoria Police indignantly denied that African gangs even existed. No, it was just ‘networked criminal offenders’, which pretty much sounds like what you’d find in the dictionary under ‘gangs’. Anyway, the rozzers insisted, Africans aren’t disproportionately represented in crime stats.
Except, we can all check the stats for ourselves. Even counting, as they do, only Africans born in Africa, and not ethnic Africans born in Australia, the stats are alarming. Five times more likely to figure in overall crimes; 29 times more likely to be convicted of assault; 90 times more likely to commit aggravated burglary (i.e., violent home invasion).
But, as ever, inconvenient data is hand-waved away as ‘racism’.
First Peoples, multicultural and multifaith communities across Victoria face embedded racism in the justice system.
Or, to put it another way, Aborigines, migrants and Muslims just commit more crimes than anyone else.
Negative experiences and perceptions of the justice system for First Peoples, multicultural and multifaith communities also contribute to a lack of trust in the justice system, institutions and support services.
I guess ‘getting caught and punished’ might be a ‘negative experience’. But, hey: there’s an easy fix for that:
While overall youth crime rates have declined in Victoria, the imprisonment of African-Australian youth has spiked.
African (predominantly South Sudanese) youth comprise at least 19 per cent of young people in custody despite being less than 0.5 per cent of Victoria’s youth population.
But are prejudice and police tactics behind numbers, or is the answer more complicated?
In fact, the answer is very simple: they keep committing crimes.
In a number of recent community surveys, African-Australian youth say they’re being targeted and harassed by police in public places because of their race.
Yes, sure: ‘I wuz jus’ minding my own bizness, drivin’ a stolen car and waving my machete around and they picked on me just cuz I is black!’
But here’s the clanger: the closest you’ll ever get to the ABC actually telling the truth.
So what is behind the over-incarceration?
Higher rates of African-Australian youth imprisonment are most likely because of an increase in violent criminal activity by some members that group.
A recent study pointed to the significantly higher rate of “crimes against the person” by South Sudanese-born youth compared to Australian-born youth between 2015 and 2018.
Whodathunkit? You go around, beating and robbing people, and the racist cops come and arrest you. Sheeeit.
The ABC goes on to tacitly admit that the ‘racis’ po po’ narrative is a complete lie. As they concede, while Africans arrested for violent crimes has skyrocketed, lower-order offences such as public order and drug offences have dropped. Yet, if police really were racist, those crimes should have climbed even more, “given that such crimes generally involve more police discretion”.
You can almost hear the gritted teeth as the ABC admits that:
It is unlikely that alleged racial profiling by Victoria Police members is driving the imprisonment rates of African-Australian young people […]
Over-involvement in serious crimes most likely explains the concerning trends in African-Australian youth imprisonment.
Well… no sheeeit, Sherlock.
It’s almost like the ‘racists’ were right, all along.
