Victoria Police message on african youth groups: the negatives far outweigh the positives

Many African-Australians contacted by AMA TV have reacted with dismay to recent media publications by the Victoria Police regarding the apparent increase in the rate of offending within African (Somali and Sudanese) youth groups. Many community leaders beleive that the way in which these crime statistics were published in the media does not help much to address the problem (even though there may be quite legitimate reasons from the Victoria police’s perspective to make these statistics known). Several African youth leaders accross the (victorian) community also think that these negative media reports relating to Africans are likely to hurt young African-Austrlaians more than they can help them. They fear that the perception that these statistics create in the wider Australian  community is that Africans are more likely to be criminal offenders than the rest of the community and this is not good for all sections of the African communities accross Australia  and not just in Victoria. The damage caused by this type of media attention on African migrants in Australia is far wider and a lot more serious than what members of the police  force may imagine, even if they may argue that they are just doing their job. (Photo in this post from Ken Irwin) .