Apex gang and living in fear

[Mugwump]

[David]

Ah, that reminds me of the fourth key ingredient in right-wing political success: misplaced nostalgia. I'd strongly challenge your assertion that we had "few of these problems" 60+ years ago. On the contrary, we had muggings, burglaries, riots and organised crime like anywhere else – indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to find that these problems have actually diminished in today's society, as the overall crime rate has. But it's important to recognise that people feel things are much worse now, because that inevitably leads to the finger being pointed at the most visible sign of societal change: immigration.

On the other hand, it's not all about socioeconomics, granted. There are reasons why one impoverished teenager commits a carjacking and ten don't (including some of the reasons you list above). But socioeconomic disadvantage – and this isn't just about wages; don't forget the socio in socioeconomic – is such a substantial factor that I don't think we can tackle these problems without addressing it.

There's no one size fits all solution, and I'm sure many more experienced and knowledgeable people than me are working hard on the problem as we speak, but some immediate problems that would seem to need rectifying are 1) geography (that is, the forcing of new migrants out into far-flung suburbs), 2) job market (in which, if I recall correctly, there's something like one job for every ten unemployed people in the country), 3) housing prices (see point number one), 4) two-tiered schooling (where talented/well-off kids and teachers leave for greener pastures and the local public school becomes a ghetto), 5) lack of community (a problem that we all face in today's society, but a problem that is exacerbated for those without the tools to find new centres of meaning) and 6) for those who fall through the net, a dysfunctional criminal justice system.

Nearly all of these can be (at least partially) practically remedied by government policy or by redirecting funding. To be fair, I'm sure at least some of that work is being done right now. But there are also political forces right now actively working against those measures and entrenching poverty, inequality, uselessly punitive criminal justice paradigms and forms of de facto segregation. And the new Right have even less to offer: more scapegoating, more internecine conflict and a headlong run into the arms of fantasy economics. We can scarcely say we've done our best.

[Mugwump]

^ It is hard to find good data from Australia, but the Uk national statistics office (NB not Breitbart) keeps pretty good crime statistics :

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/116649/rec-crime-1898-2002.xls

Total recorded crimes against the person in 1960 : 15,759. In 2001 : 650,000.

I am sure there have been differences in reporting as well as changes in definition. Of course, more importantly, there are changes in the base population. Given the absolute numbers, however, i think the violent crime rate still clearly refutes your assertion. Of course they tally with the experience of older people who lived through both eras, too. Australia may be different, but i cannot find numbers, and i profoundly doubt it at the directional level. So, i don't think your channel-switch to "right wing nostalgia" broadcasts the "right" message. Maybe the liberal consensus has added less to aggregate human joy than the border-guards of virtuous opinion would have us believe.

I would not batter you on this, David, were it not clear to me that you are not a simple left-wing drone completely programmed against evidence and reason (though like most of us, i sense you are growing less open-minded - prone to being "appalled", if you will - as the years pass). I also agree with many of the injustices you mention such as housing prices, geographic dispersion etc. These blight the lives of new arrivals as well as the native-born young. I just wonder why we should import people who will cost us a lot of public money to settle when we have too little affordable housing, many other urgent priorities and a large, structural public deficit. The big corporations need cheap labour, a reserve pool of the unemployed and domestic consumers. Is that who really benefits ?

On the "ever more services" mantra, much poverty in the West is caused by globalisation, technology, poor education and the loss of jobs. Government has done poorly against these forces. It has expanded more or less continuously over the last fifty years and yet we continue to see great inequality, poverty and disadvantage. Our top tax rate is nearly 50% and it cuts in fairly early in the income scale. We have a large deficit. Maybe, on the evidence, more taxes, more borrowing and more money for government workers are not the answer (unless, of course, one is a state sector worker).

Maybe it is time to be a bit more genuinely radical. It seems to me that the liberal consensus (including neo-liberalism) has been too happy with status quo ideas for too long. And no, Trumpery is of course not the solution.

[HAL]

It is about that time now.

[Skids]

African Violence Intensifies in Melbourne

http://newobserveronline.com/african-violence-intensifies-melbourne/

The ongoing Third World mass invasion of Australia has caused yet another sharp spike in African gang violence in Melbourne, with car vandalism, stabbings, robberies, and assaults reaching a new high in December.

Figures released by the Crime Statistics Agency Victoria show that offenders under the age of 25 are committing more and more crimes.

None of these figures and statistics dared mention the race of the offenders, and the Australian—typically—went out of its way to pretend that the crime wave was being committed by a “united nations” of offenders.

However, the reality is obvious from arrest records, photographs of gang members in court, and the police’s own wanted notices.

<moved from terrorism thread>

[Pies4shaw]

Was it ISIS or a Sudanese gang, Stui?

Edit: Also moved from the terrorism thread - Allah alone knows why.

[stui magpie]

^

Dunno. I dare say neither are very good at rain dances.

[Jezza]

My brother's car was vandalised (broken windows) the other night along with other parked cars on the same street. Thankfully, my car was parked in the garage so I avoided the brunt of it.

Police knocked on our front door first thing in the morning to ask whether we witnessed or heard anything in overnight, but we didn't hear anything during the night, but I suspect it was a gang of some sort that was behind the attack.

Apparently, they were also specifically targeting Audis for whatever reason, but my brother doesn't drive an Audi though. It It could relate to a car re-birthing racket or something to that extent.

[David]

^ Might want to fix the quote above, Jezza! Pretty sure that passage was written by a Neo-Nazi, not Skids.

[Pies4shaw]

Ad hominem abuse, David?

[David]

No, they're, like, actual Neo-Nazis. The site is full of anti-Jewish stuff and pro-Hitler puff-pieces besides the usual alt-right rabble-rousing.

[Pies4shaw]

[stui magpie]

^

ISIS have a lot in common with the Nazis, how the Matrix comes into this I'm not sure.

[David]

^ That's more of an alt-left thing (that and V for Vendetta).