Murders plummet on alcohol ban

luckat

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/10/2270329.htm?section=australia

Alice Springs murder rate plummets

Posted Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:16pm AEST
Alice Springs was declared a dry town in August, 2007.

Alice Springs was declared a dry town in August, 2007. (ABc Local Radio: Nicole Lee)

* Audio: NT intervention helps Alice murder rate drop (The World Today)
* Map: Alice Springs 0870

For police in Alice Springs, attending murder scenes has been fairly regular work but Superintendent Sean Parnell says things are changing.

"The murder rate at the moment has obviously for a number of decades been unacceptably high in Alice Springs," he said.

"There's no doubt about that and certainly the rate at the moment is probably the lowest it's been in the last 20 or 30 years I would suggest."

Superintendent Parnell says that over the past decade, there have been between six to 13 murders a year.

"This year we have only had one murder and certainly for the last quarter last year we had none so for the last three quarters, we have only had one murder and that is a historical low. There is no doubt about that," he said.

He says the drop is due to alcohol restrictions in the town but also the Commonwealth intervention in the Northern Territory.

"We've noticed a marked difference in alcohol consumption and anti-social behaviour and some of the ensuing violence since things like income quarantine started in Alice Springs," he said.

<snip>

(I have no idea what 'income quarantine' means. Interesting, though.

Overheal

If I were drunk this article would make me soooo mad.

Xavi6

Alice Springs isn't the only place to have been made dry recently in Australia and seemingly it's working for the best in most cases. It's no secret that a lot of the problems were centred around indigenous towns (mouthwash products were taken off the market in some places last year for the same reasons) but fair play to them for embracing the changes.

ART6

Golden opportunity for another Al Capone:D

Xavi6

Rex Banner: "I'll get you Beer Baron."
Homer: "No you woooon't..."
Rex Banner: "Yes, I will."
Homer: "No!"

pirelli

I wouldn't believe half the stories that come out of austrailia. They are incredibly bad with statistics and geographical areas. The austrailian Journalist's are clueless as to size.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/australasia/australia-becomes-a-whole-lot-bigger-after-un-ruling-1355190.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/corrections/

The article is about austrailia which has roughly 38 times bigger total ( Incl waters) land area than Great Britain land area (incl waters) after making adjustments to austrailia to include the new UN approved territorial water boundary. The article claims that the new water boundary nearly one million square miles is roughly twenty times the size of Great Britain. This is nonsense as nearly one million square miles is just over 6 and a bit times the size of Great Britian.

In another article about global warming the Austrailian Independent states that an area of ice 200,000 Sq km has broken off the artic shelf and states that it is equivalant to two times the size of great Britian. Great Britian is 244, 820 Sq Km in total.



My point is Alice springs has a population of 26,000 people which is roughly the size of Bray in wicklow. It is incredible to imagine such a remote place to have so many murders. I know there are online internet references backing this story up and Alice springs has a crime problem, but I dont think that those statistics are realistic.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Mahatma coat

pirelli wrote: »

I wouldn't believe half the stories that come out of austrailia. They are incredibly bad with statistics and geographical areas. The austrailian Journalist's are clueless as to size.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/australasia/australia-becomes-a-whole-lot-bigger-after-un-ruling-1355190.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/corrections/

The article is about austrailia which has roughly 38 times bigger total ( Incl waters) land area than Great Britain land area (incl waters) after making adjustments to austrailia to include the new UN approved territorial water boundary. The article claims that the new water boundary nearly one million square miles is roughly twenty times the size of Great Britain. This is nonsense as nearly one million square miles is just over 6 and a bit times the size of Great Britian.

In another article about global warming the Austrailian Independent states that an area of ice 200,000 Sq km has broken off the artic shelf and states that it is equivalant to two times the size of great Britian. Great Britian is 244, 820 Sq Km in total.



My point is Alice springs has a population of 26,000 people which is roughly the size of Bray in wicklow. It is incredible to imagine such a remote place to have so many murders. I know there are online internet references backing this story up and Alice springs has a crime problem, but I dont think that those statistics are realistic.

having spent time in the Outback including time in Alice, Mt Isa, Cloncurry, Kunanurra, Normanton..........

I would say that the figures quoted for murders are actualy a bit low, having talked to some of the cops in Normanton about the fighting and agression and the Murder rates, th thing I remember is that he said they only called it a murder if there were weapons or it was clearly a 'Murder' He said that a lot of the time they will wait till whoever they have a grievance with is staggerin home and run him down with their Toyota, quite often resulting in the persons death from treatable injuries, these are classified as traffic accidents instead, as it keeps the murder rate down.

Domestic violence is a bigger issue in these comunities, most of the REPORTED murders stem from this

Mahatma coat

NT News wrote:

Third of traffic deaths pedestrians

REBEKAH CAVANAGH

14Jun08
ANOTHER TRAGEDY: A man, believed to be in his 40s, has been struck and killed by a tourist van on the Stuart Highway. Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY

ANOTHER TRAGEDY: A man, believed to be in his 40s, has been struck and killed by a tourist van on the Stuart Highway. Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY

A THIRD of deaths on Territory roads this year have been pedestrians.

The NT road toll last night stood at 26 (the two believed killed on the Tanami Track are yet to be officially identified) -- 10 were people struck by vehicles. One was a hit-and-run of a 15-year-old boy outside a teenage party.

Another was a 78-year-old grandfather-of-nine who was hit while on his morning jog.

And four of the deaths were a result of people sleeping on the road.

The latest victim was a man, believed to be in his 40s, who was struck by a tourist van on the Stuart Highway, 5km south of Alice Springs, about 8.30pm on Thursday.

The man was believed to have been sitting or sleeping on the road, and was dragged for several metres under the van -- with NSW numberplates -- before it stopped.

Another pedestrian was also rushed to Alice Springs Hospital on the same night with serious injuries after a separate crash in the Central Australian town.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was struck by a car driven by a 17-year-old female as he walked from the Todd riverbed on to South Tce near the intersection of Breadon St about 6.45pm. He was taken to hospital with head and abdominal injuries.

Police said the number of pedestrians getting killed on our roads was "too high''.

But this year's alarming rate of pedestrian deaths has been a gruelling trend seen in the statistics over the past three years. Up to July last year, eight of the 25 road fatalities were pedestrians.

And for the same period in 2006, pedestrians counted for seven of 18 fatals.

Road Safety Superintendent Bob Rennie said it was "worrying'' and motorists and pedestrians needed to learn to share the roads.

Supt Rennie said every car is a "lethal weapon''.

"Drivers have to be aware that they could have a pedestrian walking out in front of them at any time,'' he said.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/06/14/4382_ntnews.html

I've highlighted a paragraph in the article that helps ilustrate the point

Xavi6

Well the Northern Territory Government has just given the go ahead for a $110 million freeway to be built in the region so expect the road death toll to increase once it's complete.

Mahatma coat

yeah, the only way to make a dent on the situation would be to construct an East Coast style Highway, which is never going to happen

Black Swan

Checked out the Northern Territory news online for 16 June...

• "Two killed as car hits camel."
  
• "A deadly snake caused mayhem after it was found warming itself under a popcorn machine in a cinema."

Maybe the camel was drinking and the snake was hung over? Not the sort of news common to Dub... (except the Red Tops at checkout, where space aliens have kidnapped Brad Pitt threatening the breakup of his marriage to Angelina).

pirelli

Mahatma coat wrote: »

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/06/14/4382_ntnews.html

I've highlighted a paragraph in the article that helps ilustrate the point

Interesting article;

You can trace a vehicle with even a tiny spec of the car paint. Each car paint is unique and manufacturers provide references that make it possible match any car dating back any number of years. The missing paint can even be fitted back to the scratch area to match shape and size, although they can now match most materials chemical composition "analytically" i.e are now able to discriminate different paints, although the forensic tools are expensive. Tyres and glass are also unique even headlight glass.


If someone like that is caught using forensics after evading an accident they are going to get the book thrown at them.