Did any of the Pollies in your area use their expenses (Tax payers money) to clean their Country Manor Moat or tune their Piano?. (Douglas Hogg)

Yes, I know.

As I'm sure you are already aware what I am saying is that your stated Melbourne assault rate and Melbourne Indian assault rate (which you seem to have derived yourself based on the police commissioner numbers), which happened to show a statistically similar rate are not comparable. If you're going to use the highest crime rate area in the state surely both sets of numbers should apply to that area.

As I said - if that's the case then in 2007/8 1083 out of 2583 (42%) assaults & robberies in the Melbourne PSA had Indian victims.

If you mean that the assault rate across the whole of the Melbourne area for Indians is 2,854 per 100,000 then that is indeed statistically dramatically higher than for the general population.

Which is it?

I've tried to find out what that 1083 figure quoted in the Indian press actually related to, but can't seem to locate it.

However, looking deeper, and assuming the figure is correct, we have Simon Overland, Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, having released the following figures:
34,616 Assault and robbery cases in Victoria in 2007/08 Vic Police Crime
1,083 cases of robbery and assault were reported against Indians in 2007-08

The question is; was this 1,083 also for all of Victoria ? as he is the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, not just Melbourne as quoted in the Indian paper.

Been there done that.

I caught a cab with an Indian today, he was safely ensconced behind a plastic screen. Nice bloke. We chatted. I did not come over with a desire to lay into him, and I've got citizenship.....

Maybe we could stop all these attacks on Indians by doing things the Indian way. The next time that thugs (or other Indians) bash an Indian taxi driver, all the other Indians could go on a rampage and chop down a lot of trees. Ha ha ha. These guys are priceless, and they actually try to lecture us on how to behave. What a joke!

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/01/10/s...1050020100.htm

Mob goes berserk after hit-and-run

Special Correspondent

25 trees felled in frenzy in Mysore

Corporation employee killed in the accident

Controversy over road-widening boils over

MYSORE: A hit-and-run accident that killed a Mysore City Corporation (MCC) employee on Saturday morning developed into mob hysteria, leading to the felling of some 25 trees along Lalitha Mahal Palace Road where a road-widening project has been stalled since June by the Tree Court following objections by environmentalists.

The victim, Swamy (57), a resident of Kurubarahalli and a Group D employee of the MCC, was on his morning walk when he was knocked down by an unknown vehicle.
Mob frenzy

The news of the death brought a crowd, which staged a dharna at the spot even as a mob went berserk burning tyres and stoning a bus near Kurubarahalli Circle. Another mob gathered near the Arch Gate close to Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel while relatives and friends of the victim prevented authorities from removing the body, escalating tension.

Local councillors P. Devaraj, Ananthu, Vanitha and Mahadevamma joined the dharna and raised slogans in support of the road-widening, criticising environmentalists opposing the project. Soon some people, armed with axes, began felling trees on both the sides of the road near the Arch Gate.

Mayor Purushottam and Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Commissioner P.C. Jayanna reached the accident site and the former announced a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to the victim’s family. The two were confronted by the mob demanding immediate doubling of the road, saying four people had been killed on the stretch during the past month alone. Mr. Jayanna said the project was slated under the Chief Minister’s Rs. 100-crore special grants to the city but was held up due to the Tree Court’s refusal to allow felling of nearly 200 trees. “We will resolve the issue and initiate measures in the meantime to reduce accidents along the road,” he said. “We will erect barricades and road humps to reduce the speed of vehicles.”

Pleading for patience, Mr. Purushottam said a Tree Authority would be constituted to evaluate and reconsider the Tree Court’s decision. A meeting of all stakeholders, including Forest Department officials, environmentalists and local residents, would be convened on Monday even as the MCC council would raise the issue, he said.

Meanwhile, the police announced that heavy vehicles would be banned on Lalitha Mahal Palace Road, which joins T. Narasipura Road popular among morning walkers, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.

count yourself lucky

All this talk of Torching cars and burning bodies on this thread... if I caught a Taxi I would be checking to see if the driver had a can of petrol and a box of matches at hand.

Its becoming a trend

I'm not, based on nearly 6 years of living in the UK and seeing how it's run. From the top to the bottom it's all about who's got the biggest wallet. I could even tell you some stories about my time at Walsall Council...

OK...let's assume the figures applied to all of Vic.

For 2007/08 the all Vic rate for combined assualts and robberies is 659 per 100,000.

If the 1083 Indian cases are over all of Victoria then for the rate of assault and robberies to be the same would need an Indian population in the state of close to 165,000. I suspect the actual number is closer to a third of that.

Or another way to arrive at the same conclusion - over 3% of assualts and robberies in 2007/08 had Indian victims. Do they make up 3% of the popluation of Victoria? Again I suspect the actual number is closer to a third of that.

If the figures apply only to Melbourne then I wouldn't expect any dramatic change to these numbers as, and I'm just guessing, while 70%+ of the state's population live in Melbourne, I'd bet that for Indian nationals that figure is substantially higher. I was actually surprised looking at the stats to see that many of the metropolitan Melbourne areas had far lower rates of these type of crimes compared to some rural areas and country towns.

I can't see anything to suggest that the assault rate for Indians isn't at least double that for the general population. The commissioner states that there is no significant difference in the assault rate so I assume this is based on other factors such as the types of job people do being prone to such crimes e.g. taxi driver etc. And that is a fair enough point as has previously been said.

It would be interesting to know what the Indian population of Melbourne is nowadays (including students). The 2006 census puts it at about 50,000 (and about 30,000 for Sri Lankans). As I've said previously, I've noticed a huge increase in the number of Indians around (in Melbourne and at tourist locations around Vic) in the last 2 to 3 years. I wouldn't be surprised if the 2011 figures are a huge increase on the previous numbers. (Assuming they haven't all left again.)

Actually no.... they just took massive backhanders from property developers. So much so that the entire council was sacked.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...03/2178201.htm

or the council next door that was so bent and incompetent that it was also sacked.

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/n...ed/807820.aspx

It's not always 'better' in Oz than the UK you know.

See answer in previous post.

It's just more visible in Aus.

In the UK it's often out of sight out of mind but it's all still happening.

Corruption is more visible?!

How does that work then?. A fundamental of corruption is that its 'under the table'. I don't think that Wollongong and Shellharbour councillors put adverts in the local press saying they were willing to take bribes to ignore building regs. They just got caught doing it.

Corruption seems to be more accepted in Australia, which I find odd.

People have a "shit happens" type attitude to it.

Well in the case of the Wollongong council all the men involved came from communities where back handers are just a way of life. They have all pled not guilty to corruption charges... and they probably really, truly, believe that they did nothing wrong.

All as bent as nine bob notes.