LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Sir – The almost 30% increase in alcohol-related assaults in Alice Springs revealed in the latest published NT police statistics continues to expose the refusal of the NT Police leadership to respond to its own evidence.
This police data compares offending from the beginning of April 2016 to the end of March 2017, with that between April 2017 and the end of March 2018.
In the 2017-2018 period, assaults increased by twenty-five per cent, with alcohol-related assaults up by nearly 30%. That’s 292 more alcohol-related assaults.
Unfortunately, some assaults lead to death and Alice has again seen a suspicious death, yesterday evening, with police now investigating.
A town the size of Alice Springs, based on national rates, should see on average one murder every four years and one manslaughter every 40 years. We now apparently have a second homicide in a short space of time.
We know that many injuries and deaths are preventable with police on all the outlets all the time.
The police leadership knows this as well, but chooses not to implement this key public health policy.
This increase is appalling and it is at least partly attributable to the absences. We need police rostered back on full-time, immediately.
PAAC also says there is a link between the gaps at bottle shops and the high number of youth on the streets of Alice Springs.
Tennant Creek community leaders have made a very clear connection between the number of young people on the streets and parents engaging in heavy drinking.
The alcohol restrictions in Tenant Creek have seen a major reduction in the number of young people out and about at night, demonstrating the causal relationship between alcohol supply, parental drinking and youth behaviour.
Dr John Boffa (pictured)
People’s Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC)
Friday, April 19, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
Please explain to me how having police at bottle shops will stop banned or violent people from gaining alcohol.
They can only go by who they check at this liquor outlets. If those people of all nationalities have the correct paperwork then nothing will stop them from selling or giving grog to someone else outside of these areas.
So many of the same people buy a large dollar amount of alcohol every day.
Those are the ones who should be constantly be checked after leaving the bottle shops.
They are the ones who should be followed wherever they go and who they associate with.
Also I would love to know how much money flows after 9pm each night at the various venues that allow gambling. Seems lots of $50 notes get spent.
Of course that is the standard amount that normally comes out of ATMs so perhaps that won’t stand the test.
Police standing at bottleshops will never stop the behind closed door bashings, assaults, manslaughters and murders of family and friends and many unknown people.
It needs the total committment of communities to take ownership of this problem, not a cop checking a licence.