INDIAN SPECIFIC

Police have just issued a warning for all English-speaking people using the South Yarra train station. They are urging you not to speak loudly in your native language when travelling on trains at night. And not to display signs of wealth like flashing mobile phones or iPods. If you ignore the warning you could be the victim of a violent robbery. Sounds ludicrous in a supposedly civilized society, doesn’t it?  And if it were true the locals would demanding a stronger Police presence. And a more Police patrols on the trains.

Well it is true. Not in South Yarra but in the western suburbs. And the advice is being given, not to Anglo-Saxons, but to Indian people. Especially students.

And you read about it and think: Has our city really come to this?  Are we that close to a Mad Max society that one group of people are targeted by thugs because they are perceived to be ‘soft’ targets. A gentle, genteel, peaceful people who will surrender their iPod or laptop without a fight.

Inspector Scott Mahoney of Brimbank Police says it’s crucial to stop Indian students becoming victims. He says ‘They need to make sure they walk through a well-lit route, even if it might take longer, and they are not displaying signs of wealth with iPods and phones, and not talking loudly in their native language.’

 This warning has not gone out to other students – Chinese, Japanese – so there must be a pattern. And Police have actually set up a Police Indian Western Reference Group. A quaint bureaucratic name. Not sure what it is meant to achieve. But it does signal that there is a real problem here.

Last year a Victorian University academic Dr Zhongjun Cao was bashed to death by a gang in Footscray. He was not Indian but a court was told two gang members suggested they go out’ curry bashing’. Four gang members later bashed and robbed a second man, Binesh Mosaheb,  believing he was Indian. He was from Mauritius.

Robberies in the western suburbs increased by nearly 30% last year and Police say nearly a third of the victims were Indian.

I have one question: If Police are so quick to identify the common race of the victims then how about telling us the race of the attackers. Or would that be politically incorrect under the Christine Nixon Doctrine?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009