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#AfricanGangs Hashtag Shows Real Life as an African Australian

Peter Dutton says African youths are terrorising Victoria. African Australians are disrupting that narrative.
Image via Twitter/@BApajok

Most state election campaigns are fairly tame affairs, with both sides haggling over school funding or whether a new road needs to be built. But not in Victoria. Both Premier Daniel Andrews and opposition leader Matthew Guy have made it clear that this time they will be focusing on the real issue facing the state: African Gangs.

Federal politicians have weighed in too, ignoring Victoria Police's pleas not to call African youths "gangs." Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his government is "very concerned about the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria," while Liberal minister Greg Hunt told reporters African crime is "out of control" in the state. Newly minted Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told radio station 2GB that Victorians "are scared to go out at restaurants of a night time because they’re followed home by these gangs, home invasions, and cars are stolen."

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Fear campaigns zeroing in on immigrant groups are nothing new in Australian politics. As Twitter user @missalier noted, "I understand that the Australian political spectrum and media gains precedence by [fuelling] fear in the mind of its people, it has done so with the Italians, Lebanese, Chinese etc…

"But this is a new era," she added, "the dialogue WILL NOT BE THE SAME!

The Victorian media's focus on African youth crime has heightened since the 2016 Moomba Festival, when a brawl broke out in Melbourne between two groups—Islander 23 and Apex.

Originally believed to be largely made up of Sudanese and South Sudanese youths, Apex has risen to prominence since the incident. But whether it's a "gang", or if it even exists, is still hotly debated.

What's less debatable is the fact Victoria is not experiencing a "youth crime wave"—that claim is just not backed up by statistics. As Paul Gregoire noted, writing for Sydney Criminal Lawyers, "Over the last decade, youth crime rates have actually fallen [in Victoria]" by around 10 percent."

But with Victoria's state election shaping up to be a referendum on who can be "tougher on crime," it's unlikely talk of Apex, African Gangs, or youth crime is likely to go away any time soon.