Part 1: Brighton's Gang Crime
Part 1 of a critical look at @toiletpaperaus1's refutation of Brighton's crime spike
A recent argument between Rebecca Judd, social media personality and Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews has led to widespread condemnation of Judd as misled regarding the stats and somehow ‘racist’.
At the beginning of this article, I should state, I have no interest in Rebecca Judd or her personal opinions, rather this article will be focussing on the widespread response to her claims, @toiletpaperaus1’s post being a good example of said response.
National Observers examination will be broken down into two categories,
Part 1 (which you are currently reading): Is Brighton experiencing a crime spike?
Part 2: Is discussion of Victoria’s ‘African gangs’ “hysteria”?
Just for context, this discussion began with Rebecca Judd sharing a 7News clip detailing a group of African youths carjacking and subsequently crashing said car in a quiet Victorian suburb with the caption:
“So sick of the rapes, bashings and home invasion at the hands of gangs in Bayside. The State Government don’t seem to care. We feel unsafe”
and
“I personally know 2 women who have experienced home invasions in Brighton in the past few weeks while they were at home.”
Is Brighton experiencing a crime spike?
According to ‘Toilet Paper Australia’: No. Why? Because of data that ends before the crime spike alleged by Brighton residents.
The crime data only reports up to 2021, we do not yet know if, though we can suspect, crime has rebounded in 2022 after Covid restrictions ended.
The Victorian Police Local Area Commander, Inspector Cath Wilkins has personally espoused such expectations in a News.com article:
Victoria Police Local Area Commander Inspector Cath Wilkins said the area remains “an overwhelmingly safe place to live” despite “a number of serious incidents recently”.
“While there has been an increase in offences recently, we are coming off record lows due to the pandemic, with Bayside experiencing a ten-year low in home burglaries last year and the lowest number of cars stolen since 2014,”
So it is not inconceivable that crime rates have been increasing in Victoria’s Brighton as of late, with plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this, even besides Judd’s examples:
Just over the past week, there were “three other home invasions” and “police fired a shot at a car and arrested a teenage boy over an aggravated burglary.”
As such it is very possible crime has spiked recently in Brighton, considering data for the whole year is not yet available and Area commander Cath Wilkins has noted a recent spike in offences, the data for which has yet to be fully published.
Part 2 will explore whether the discussion of Victoria’s ‘African gangs’ is “hysteria”