Pollies jump on Victoria crime stats as fighting over ‘gang’ problems heats up

CRIME statistics which break down Victoria’s violent crime offenders by their place of birth have poured fuel on the fiery debate over the state’s so-called gang problem.

Following the tragic killing of Laa Chol in a Melbourne apartment party — which was reportedly gatecrashed by around 20 people of white and African appearance — over the weekend, hundreds of angry Victorians have used social media to slam the state’s government for being soft on crime.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton led the charge yesterday, saying the tragic death points to a “major law and order problem” with “Sudanese gangs” in Victoria.

Now his colleagues have jumped on figures from the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency (CSA), to the end of March which show Sudanese-born people are 57 times more likely to be charged with aggravated robbery in Victoria than their Australian-born counterparts.

They also show that Sudanese-born people, who make up just 0.15 per cent of the state’s population, are 33 times more likely to be charged with riot and affray compared with Australian-born counterparts.

Figures for the past five years show Sudan has consistently been among the top two or three places of birth for offenders charged with crimes including aggravated burglary, serious assault, motor vehicle theft, aggravated robbery, and riot and affray.

Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister Alan Tudge pointed to the figures in an interview with Sky News yesterday — claiming some Victorians are too frightened to go out at night because of crime gangs associated with the Sudanese community.

“Basically the crime data is kept by country of origin, and what it shows is that typically the Australian-born commit most of the crime, naturally, because three-quarters of Victoria are Australian-born,’’ Mr Tudge said.

“But often now, Sudanese-born is number two or number three, despite them being a tiny proportion of the population, so there clearly is an issue going on there, and the Victorian public know this.

“The interesting thing, though, is that there isn’t the Sudanese problem in NSW, nor in Queensland, despite the fact that there is a similar-sized Sudanese population in Sydney, so to me that says it’s actually a law-and-order problem right here in Victoria.

“We know they are weak on crime here in Victoria, and I think that many of the gang members know they can get away with it, and consequently continue to commit it.”

However, hundreds of Aussies social media say the statistics actually show how overblown issue of violence committed by members of the Australian-Sudanese community actually is.

Some shared a CSA statistic which shows only one per cent of crimes in Victoria between April 2013 and March 2018 were committed by members of the Sudanese community.

Premier Daniel Andrews said Ms Chol’s family “deserved better” than a political debate so soon after her death.

Hundreds backed him on social media, saying politicians shouldn’t be using the death of a teenager to begin a political slanging match.

Yesterday, Mr Dutton — who has previously been mocked for saying people in Melbourne were “scared to go out at restaurants” because of African gang violence — lamented Ms Chol’s death as the “tragic and needless loss of a young life”.

“There is a major law and order problem in Victoria and more people are going to be hurt until the rule of law is enforced by the Victorian Government,” he said in a statement.

“We don’t have these problems with Sudanese gangs in NSW or Queensland.”

Commander Stuart Bateson told 3AW that Ms Chol’s death had nothing to do with Sudanese gang violence, as had been suggested by some politicians.

“When we start to make an issue that is bigger than what it is and when we start to racialise and we start to target this specific community, that leads to some unintended consequences,” he said.

“That means a whole community feels vilified. They often feel frightened to go out in public in groups, they’re shouted out.”

Mr Andrews told ABC radio Ms Chol’s family “deserve fundamentally better than what they’ve been given over these past 12 or 24 hours”.

“I don’t think her family would be getting very much comfort from this sort of discussion,” he said of debates linking the death to gang violence.

This weekend’s attack was initially believed to be gang-related, but Ms Chol’s family have clearly stated that she had no connection to any “so-called gangs”.

“[She was] not a partygoer, she just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” a family member told The Age.

Victoria Police said a 17-year-old male from Sunshine North had been taken into custody in relation to the “fatal assault” on A’Beckett St, at about 5.15am on Saturday.