However, police say that crime from African “street gangs” is an ongoing, not growing, problem, and also that calling these groups “gangs” might be overstating the issue. Concern about crime gangs involving African youths in Melbourne can be traced to the outer eastern suburb of Dandenong in the mid-2000s. “From a Victoria police perspective we have been consistent all the way along that what we traditionally view as organised crime gangs are those high-level organised crime gangs,” he told reporters. Writing in Fairfax Media, Yoa said he was “furious” to hear Crisp say there were no Sudanese gangs in Melbourne. ‘A racialised moral panic’Public commentary on African youth crime gangs is dependent not on statistics but on high-profile incidents, of which there have been many.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2018 18:00 UTC