How safe do you feel in your own streets these days? The lyrics of Skyhooks’ 1970s classic: ‘Horror movie right there on my TV, horror movie it’s the 6.30 news,’ rings true (except for the time change). Murder, rape, home invasion and domestic violence have become staple items in every news bulletin. Footage of the accused abusing media and onlookers is the norm, and our justice system continues to fail us with cream puff sentencing.
Police have so many hoops to jump through these days; they themselves are often onlookers because of political correctness and being outnumbered in gang situations.
In among all that we have crime figures that apparently are coming down. Really? I think we now just have more categories so it is just spread into different boxes.
We have to draw a line in the sand. We have to embrace zero tolerance.
The death last week of Eurydice Dixon illustrates the depth of our plight. While we all have a responsibility of care to ourselves and our loved ones, the bigger issue is eradicating the thinking that brings this kind of violence to our society.
It is not a gender issue, it is a society issue. The only agenda here is safety and education.
While emotions are high and social media is such an unfiltered medium of communication, calm, clear-thinking leadership is required. We all want the same thing and hopefully we can achieve it without the need to blame, deride and be dismissive of the opinions of others. There is no unity in division and here we have a single goal to achieve.
Anyone making it about themselves or for the advancement of their career should be ashamed. We don’t need spruikers, we need meaningful action. We can be a leader in the implementation of programs that will change behaviour and thinking for the future.
Our council could and should be a facilitator here in bringing people together in a community-led forum involving all the relevant parties. While I am not a fan of talk fests, this one might be productive and beneficial.
