Out-of-control youth in Alice Springs have been filmed hurling racial abuse, spitting and assaulting pub patrons in a weekend of violence just days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the troubled outback town.
Rachel Hale, 45, captured the series of encounters from her room above The Diplomat Hotel on Gregory Terrace in the CBD on Saturday night.
In one video a group of young Indigenous girls are standing outside the pub’s fence yelling at customers before leaning through and spitting on a woman seated at a table.
Another video shows a man in a red shirt chasing a group of boys on the street after they allegedly stole something from his ute parked outside.
In a third video, a young man in a grey shirt gets in a fist fight with one of the teens as the pub’s security guard stands by watching.
“Kids taunting adults and spitting on ‘white *****’, stealing from cars out the front, very young children on the streets, disgusting violence, pack hunting and the level of hate displayed towards people in the firing line will haunt me!” Ms Hale wrote in a Facebook post shared more than 1000 times.
“Police struggle to apprehend anyone — they run as soon as they see them. I feel sick to my stomach seeing this and also having to stay here! Not much sleep — one of the most frightening nights of my life. It went on all night long!”
The nurse, who lives in Darwin but owns a business in town and visits every two months, said she decided to film the chaotic scenes and share the footage so the rest of Australia could see the everyday reality for Alice Springs residents.
“People describe these events that are happening here but no one’s actually seeing it,” she told news.com.au.
“Probably by 7pm it started. The most disturbing part is the taunting by these kids — for the locals it’s like water off a duck’s back — but they stand on the other side of the fence slinging insults. It’s just disgusting, racist. ‘You white b****h, you white c**t.’ Everyone’s sick of it. The patrons downstairs, they were firing back telling them to p**s off, but they don’t stop.”
NT Police has asked witnesses to come forward.
“NT Police condemn any form of anti-social behaviour, particularly alcohol related violence, within our community,” a spokesman said in a statement to news.com.au.
“We urge anyone who witnesses crime or anti-social behaviour to make contact on 131 444 or in an emergency 000. You can also report anonymous through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”
Earlier on Saturday, a news.com.au photographer witnessed a group of youths — including at least one girl wearing an ankle monitor — scrawling graffiti on walls along the Stuart Highway and throwing rocks at passing cars.
At one point an enraged tradie jumped out of his truck and chased two of the teens towards the Stott Terrace intersection near the Westpoint shopping centre.
One of the teens turned and picked up a rock from the ground, stopping in the middle of the road at the traffic lights to threaten the man.
Ms Hale said police were practically powerless to stop the young offenders.
Under controversial justice reforms passed by the Labor government in December, the Northern Territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12.
Children under 12 who engage in behaviour that would normally constitute an offence will instead be offered “intensive” therapeutic programs and psychological assessments.
The bill also simplified the legal test, commonly known as doli incapax, which is used to determine whether a child under 14 years of age has the mental capacity to commit an offence.
“Because now kids that age can’t be charged, the adults are loading the cars up with kids and dropping them off in the suburbs, they go and do all the crimes,” said baker Darren Clark, founder of the Action for Alice Facebook page.
“And if they get caught, it’s a thing called ‘doli incapax’, which means I don’t know what I’m doing. They plead it on the spot, and the cops just take them home.”
Introducing the proposed changes in October, Attorney-General Chansey Paech insisted “the evidence is clear — the earlier a child enters the justice system, the more likely they are to reoffend”.
“Punitive measures are not a deterrent for 10 and 11-year-olds,” Mr Paech said at the time, reported the NT News.
“In fact, it is more likely to increase behavioural problems and reoffending. It’s time to get smarter on our youth justice approach and break the cycle of youth crime. We’re asking Territorians to come on a journey with us. We’ve heard loud and clear that the old system is not working.”
Ms Hale, like other locals in the town which is besieged on some nights by hundreds of marauding youths, slammed the government as out of touch with reality.
“What would you have police do with an 11-year-old who’s just assaulted someone with a machete, attempted rape, bashed someone with a rock, broken into a shopfront?” Ms Hale said.
“What happens in Alice Springs is they move them on — if they can catch them. The kids know this, therefore their actions have become quite brazen. You can slap an ankle bracelet on all these kids — then what?”
She also slammed the Opposition for simply pointing the finger at Labor. “I’m sick of one political person blaming the other party,” she said. “We don’t care whose problem it is, we care that the problem is fixed.”
Ms Hale warned that unless the youth crime problem was addressed soon, she feared something bad would happen.
“People are getting fed up,” she said. “Someone is going to lose their s**t and retaliate and one of these kids is going to die, and it’s going to be splashed all over the headlines.”
She said locals were well aware they would have the book thrown at them.
In March last year, a machine operator was charged with murder — later downgraded to manslaughter — after shooting dead an Aboriginal man who broke into his property in the Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park, 30 kilometres south of Katherine.
Kim Kellett, 39, was sentenced to four years and 10 months over the shooting of Christian George, 29, who entered the family’s home at around 4am on March 17.
“It was not his intention to kill another man,” Kellett’s lawyer Jon Tippett KC told the court in October, NITV reported. “He was doing nothing more than protecting his family.”
It comes after another weekend of violent crime in Alice Springs, where a terrifying surge in home invasions, car thefts, assaults and property crime has sparked an “exodus” among the town’s 26,000 residents.
NT Police said on Monday two males had been charged over two separate home invasions in recent days.
“At 6am yesterday, two males, aged 17 and 20, allegedly unlawfully entered a residence on Andrews Court, Braitling,” police said.
“One of the males allegedly threatened the 75-year-old female resident with a blunt weapon before stealing her vehicle keys. Both males were arrested a short time later.”
The 20-year-old was charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated unlawful entry and criminal damage.
The 17-year-old was further identified as allegedly being involved in an aggravated unlawful entry at a residence on Memorial Drive, Gillen, last Monday night, where a 74-year-old female victim received a broken wrist after being assaulted.
The teen was hit with a slew of charges including aggravated robbery, aggravated unlawful entry, unlawfully causing serious harm and serious breach of bail.
“It is absolutely disgusting that two vulnerable members of our community have been preyed upon in this manner,” said Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Rob Kent.
“There is absolutely no excuses for this violent behaviour and police will continue ensure these offenders are put before the courts.”
Mr Albanese and NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles made an emergency visit to Alice Springs last Tuesday to announce new restrictions on alcohol purchases in response to the crime wave — which has made international headlines.
But the announcement has largely been panned by local leaders and community members.
Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said he was “sceptical” the Monday and Tuesday bans on takeaway alcohol sales would work — and feared it may only lead to more break-ins.
“We’re already seeing people break into properties sourcing alcohol at 3am, 4am,” he told news.com.au.
“What’s going to happen when they take alcohol away from these people for two days?”
Mr Paterson stressed the crime wave was “certainly not isolated to kids”.
“Adults break in for alcohol and kids break in for cars and a range of things,” he said.
frank.chung@news.com.au