(Herald Sun, January 2007)
The young policeman was angry, and cautious. He knew what he was saying was dangerous and there was no way he would put his name to it. But it had to be said:
The Sudanese kids are a real problem. You pull them over in the car. They are drunk. They don't have a licence. Some of them are only 14. You tell them they'll be charged and they laugh at you. At home, they'd be shot or beaten. Whatever we do to them just doesn't matter. The next day, there they are again, out on the road. Chances are they'll be drunk or off their heads on something ...There was and is a serious and continuing problem with unlicensed and drunk driving among Sudanese refugees in Melbourne. The courts have seen the bloody evidence.
Remember Taban Gany? In May 2005, 18 months after arriving from Sudan, he got drunk and drove his car into a Dandenong school yard, injuring six children. He had been caught drink driving twice before. He had no licence.
But this problem does not end on the roads. There is now increasing evidence of a culture of violence imported to this country with some refugees. There is no point dodging around that fact for fear of being called racist ...
How many potential rapists, drunk drivers or lunatic gang members, Sudanese or otherwise, are being imported through a determination to be compassionate? And how far does that compassion stretch before it snaps into a backlash? ...
There are now about 18,000 Sudanese living in Victoria ... there is a problem and evidence of it is not racially based or simply anecdotal. Youth worker Les Twentyman has identified it and calls this a "divided nation."
The Police Association has identified it and describes the Sudanese trouble makers in particular as being "lawless." ...
It is not enough to say that a violent drug taking rapist has "slipped through the system", as Mr Andrews describes it. The system must be tightened. It is not enough to say the Federal Government is "putting in place" programs to help these people avoid breaking the law ...
For the right reasons, this Government welcomed these people to Australia, but it must now recognise it has imported with them an unexpected degree of dislocation, violence, and danger ... But government policy has caused this danger. It must find answers.
Herald Sun
Voice of the Shire
Modern Tribalist
