2018 Melbourne Summer African Crime Update, by Tim Wilms.
It began with three violent incidents at St Kilda Beach involving gang assaults and robberies perpetrated by youths described as being of African in appearance.
In response to public alarm at the continued violence Victoria Police launched Operation Sandsafe to patrol busy beaches. There has also been 10 new CCTV cameras installed at St Kilda Beach.
St Kilda Beach hasn’t been the only metropolitan Melbourne Beach which has been plagued by violent incidents involving youths of African appearance. On Thursday 6th December on the first night of Operation Sandsafe at St Kilda Beach, over at Chelsea Beach further down Port Phillip Bay riot police and the dog squad had to be deployed break up a large group of African youths who were brawling.
On Thursday night this week trouble started again at Chelsea Beach, first at 6pm a brawl erupted between two groups of Lebanese and Turkish beach revelers over a dispute over a jet ski. The Police Public Order Response unit was deployed.
Then at 9.30pm a group of youths of African appearance began pocketing the unattended belongings of swimmers on the beach. A swimmer who confronted the thieves was assaulted, another was struck in the head with a glass bottle and was taken to hospital while two others had to be treated by paramedics at the beach. …
Going tribal. Obviously we need more people like this.
Another violent incident involving African youths occurred in St Albans in Melbourne’s West when local Vietnamese shop owners frustrated with a string of local thefts confronted the African youths with chairs and pieces of wood used as weapons during the subsequent brawl.
Six African youths were arrested and are expected to be charged with theft and array. The local Vietnamese community in the area who fought back have vented their frustration with the African youth terrorizing them on social media and the lack of police response “Soon there will be machetes and guns out. And they will wonder why there is blood” while another suggested “Time to set up the Asian patrol squad.”
