Information presented to Burdekin Shire council

Meeting with Burdekin Shire council 24 Th February 2009

Mayor Lyn and Councilors

Purpose of meeting to update councilors and the community of what our group have discovered since the group was formed in 2008. This information is in no way meant to offended any person or group just making the council community aware of these findings.
I have a lot I would like to share with you so if you have a questions could you please wait until I have finished my address

Time line of events

Group was formed in July 2008? After several very vocal public meetings to discuss crime and lawless people re offending in the community.

Our group is made up of a broad spectrum of community people this ensures we just do not have a predetermined attitude to these issues

Street March held to state that the community was going to have zero tolerance against crime

A 3000-signature petition voicing community concerns about law and order presented to Member of Parliament Rosemary Menkins. (As yet we have had no response from Government)

Police

During this time we have worked with our police service to learn and understand the challenges the police and other community services endure to keep a safe community.

Some of our groups members have attended magistrates court on a regular basis to gain an insight on the sort of punishment repeat offenders receive for their disgusting attitude towards our community property and its citizens.


We wrote to the District Magestrate and had a meeting with him and the police prosecuters.
We gained an insight to our problem and also made them aware of some issues our group members had seen occur in the court. ( since that time they assured our group a police officer would be present at all court sittings )

In this short time our group have heard many substantiated events that go on in our community reported and not reported and you may ask why are they not reported, (here is why they are not reported)
Because of fear of retribution and intimation carried out by the perpetrators. These are manly theating the elderly and young families with threats like we are going to rape your daughter and burn your house down.

At this point you are possible saying where I live I have never been affected, well not yet anyway.

This is where we have a saying of (Its not in my back yard syndrome) where key members of the community have not endured these lawless people.

Though our correspondence with assistant commissioner Clem Oregan dated 28 November 2008 he acknowledged that at times the police station has only 2 persons on duty in afternoon and night shifts I am sure these lawless people also are aware of this situation and conduct their crimes during this time.
We have been assured by the acting police sergeant that he can call more officers should the need arise at his discretion I am sure the perpetrators are also aware of the time delay to have more police come on duty so that they can carry out their job and make a get away before the officers arrive



So its clear that we do not have enough police resources and enough training for the type of criminals. one member of our group Ardella Alberts has who has recently moved to our town has asked at one of the first town meetings if our police were trained in gang crime /violence the answer from a senior police person was no. She added that she though they fitted that profile and police should receive training in that area

Ardella would you like to speak about your experience and observation of our town and what we accept is just not acceptable

While we have surveillance Cameras in our main street these need to be added to and with the ever changing technology these cameras have become affordable and have greater flexibility for example a remote wireless camera can be easily installed in a crime hot spots and while earlier in this paragraph I said affordable I simply do not think we should be concerned about cost in this area as shown recently.

In the proceedings of the 2008 water festival at approx 10.09 pm 3 perpetrators attacked two persons in the street where the festival is conducted.
Our group was able to view the security footage which was used as evidence to jail these persons while the footage clearly showed the court these persons were responsible for the crime it also showed our group and the community these persons have no respect for our community and its events held in our community.

We have a folder available that one our groups members has kept highlighting the crimes in our town.

This is not a safe community to live in and will only get worse if we do not keep perusing the lawless people. We will not attract good people to our community if it’s not a safe community.

Most of us would recall the recent spate of backpackers robberies and bashing I am sure they will be writing to their fellow backpackers all around the world telling them what happened at Ayr.


Don Fulton
A recent incident that happened to a resident on beach road that has giving his permission for me to tell of his experience when he was attached. While the paper reported in a small section about the incident this incident has left Don Fulton with a detached retina to one of his eyes as it turns out that was his best eye the effects of this only gets worse, he had to travel to Melbourne for surgery and can not return for two months due to the surgery at this point the outcome is very bleak for his vision, yet despite a previous string of offences conducted by this perpetrator this person got bail while Don lays on his side for 5 days after surgery and can not return for two months due to the type of operation with or without sight only time will tell.

I am told council has the ability to put a curfew in place this would not be fair on the good citizens of the community and I prefer not to use the word curfew perhaps we could use another name. This would target these groups of people who walk/ride or Drive the streets in the cover of darkness looking for opportunity.

In Closing our group needs our elected council to put more pressure on the government to strengthen police powers and numbers, to empower magistrates to give harsher penalties to re offenders and to refuse bail to perpetrators already on bail for a jail able offence.
These issues I have spoken about today are only a small part of what our group has seen to date.
This issue is solvable by determined people who work together ensuring a safer community.


That’s all for now