Australia`s African community swept up in debate over crimes by `African gangs`

Source: The Straits Times in Sydney, 29/01/2018

Australia`s African community is relatively small but it has
regrettably found itself at the centre of a heated national debate in
recent weeks.
The saga began with claims by the media in Melbourne that the city
was being ravaged by gangs of African youths, particularly from the
local Sudanese community.
These stem from several incidents involving young men of African
origin, including a brawl last month (December) in which large
numbers fought each other and robbed passers-by at St Kilda, one of
the city`s best known beaches.
The Herald Sun, Melbourne`s top-selling newspaper, ran stories on
the `African gangs crisis` and described Victoria as a `state of
fear`.
Australia`s hard-line Home Affairs Minister, Mr Peter Dutton, a
federal Liberal MP from Queensland, seized on the headlines, saying
people in Melbourne were `scared to go out to restaurants at night
time because they are followed home by these gangs`.
This prompted a rebuttal from the state`s Premier, Mr Daniel Andrews,
a Labour MP, who insisted the crime fears were overblown and invited
Mr Dutton out for dinner.
The state`s police chief commissioner, Mr Graham Ashton, said there
are no organised gangs and no `crisis` and the streets are safe.
Victoria`s crime is falling and the state is one of the world`s
safest places, he said.
But he acknowledged there have been crimes involving young thugs.
`If you put it into context, you`ve got a few hundred offenders
engaging in offending in a city of four-and-a-half million people,`
he added.
Statistics seem to bear out Mr Ashton`s claims.
Victoria`s Crime Statistics Agency`s figures show the state`s
Sudanese community is disproportionately involved in crime, but the
numbers are small.
Only 0.14 per cent of Victoria`s population of over six million is
born in Sudan or South Sudan. They, however, make up 1.4 per cent of
alleged criminal offenders.
African community leaders acknowledge there are small pockets of
problem, like with younger Sudanese migrants. But there is no
evidence the broader African community is involved in a crime wave,
he said.
A Sudanese lawyer, Ms Nyadol Nyuon, said there has been
a `racialisation of the issue`.
`When a Caucasian young person commits a crime, they`re described as
a teenager, a 17-year-old, a man from Dandenong, for example,` she
told ABC Radio.
`When it`s a black person, there`s such emphasis on their blackness.`
To fight back, members of Australia`s African community have been
posting images of themselves at university graduation ceremonies or
serving in the Australian military or wearing suits at high-profile
jobs.
The photographs - posted under the hashtag `#africangangs` - are
bland and inoffensive but that is perhaps the point.
In one image on Twitter, a father posted himself holding a newborn
with the message: `Another great addition to the growing number of
#AfricanGangs`.
Most experts said some groups of youths are isolated from their
parents and the broader community.
Most of the youths involved in recent crimes are either born in or
grew up in Australia. In the past 20 years, about 30,000 migrants
from Sudan and South Sudan have moved to Australia.
Some commentators noted Victoria`s left-of-centre Labour government
faces a state election later this year and this may have encouraged
some conservative politicians to portray the state as out of control.
A researcher and expert on recent migrant communities, Dr Melanie
Baak from the University of South Australia, is concerned the recent
panic will further isolate members of the Sudanese community.
`The long-term impact for the South Sudanese community is likely to
be increased exclusion, fear and contempt, rather than what is really
required for successful integration - a sense of belonging and
inclusion,` she wrote on The Conversation website on Jan 10.