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Cairns (FNQ) crime and Operation Lima Ruck by Jack Andrew Wilkie-Jans 6 November 2013
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peration Lima Ruck is a special joint operation between the Police and community announced today to address youth related crime in Cairns. As a citizen of Cairns I commend the State Government, Gavin King and the local Police force for their efforts in addressing youth related crime here in Cairns and in specific areas highlighted by Police to be problem areas. Collectively we need to address the issues of crime and criminal behaviour and punishment is one area of the spectrum which needs addressing and I welcome the reforms to the Youth Justice Act however rehabilitation is also necessary which is why the Youth Empowered Towards Independence activities held for the operation is a good idea in the right direction. This shows the community that the Police and Government are prepared to actively work towards a holistic approach to crime prevention. As a member of the Cairns branch of the Deaths In Custody Watch Group I do however have a few concerns, the first is the six day time span of this operation. It is not enough and young people geared towards a life of crime will simply not be deterred by what, in all effectiveness, can be called a public relations venture, as a van in a park for six days with activities and one arrest is not revamped policing. Police conducting door to door inspections (as mentioned
Image: Gavin King MP 2013
would be a part of the operation on Gavin King’s official Facebook page) is a waste of Police time and resources, the Police should instead focus energies on substantial investigations which will get to the root of the youth crime syndicate in Cairns and not just frighten residents of Frances St. As for the youth engagement activities in Frances St. I can assure the people of Cairns of the ineffectiveness of this aspect of Operation Lima Ruck. Any young person involved in crime would not deign to engage in such activities. With all due respect to the youth group conducting the activities, they are directed wrongly. As a preventative or deterrent measure they will also be ineffective because it is at home, with peers in comfort zones where non-criminals are swayed or peer pressured into a life of crime- not in a park with a Police van for six days. Like I said above I welcome the sentiment of these efforts and it is good to see that the correct thought process is there however there needs to be something more direct and more targeted to address these issues. I made submissions many times in the lead up to the boot camps to the Attorney General’s office which is that they’re looking to non-criminals such as the Cairns
Safer Streets Taskforce to address crime when they need to be engaging with known criminals or inmates and investing in them and learning from them as that is the only place where true insight and hence true knowledge of what makes a criminal and what rehabilitates them will come from. Speaking to known criminals and their families, encouraging healthy school communities and giving the capacity to run community activities for the community back to the communities in the way of P&C groups and funding for Community Centres, setting examples by tough sentencing and parole standards and getting information from arrested criminals about the whole youth crime issue as opposed to just the incident they’re arrested for is the more effective way to address youth related crime and weeding out criminals, not flashing the blue and badge on every door in the neighbourhood. All in all this still remains a positive and encouraging step forward, albeit an ineffective one, but clearly the forward thinking mindset of the Police and government shows that they are prepared to begin to address crime from all angles. This is a first step and the approach will need to be fine tuned and this can only happen from taking lessons from the root cause and by listening to a much broader section of the community and this can happen by the Police and Gavin King MP going into the ‘trouble” suburbs and conducting community forums at local Community Centres or school halls. Page 1