WATCH: Neglectful parents BLAMED for Alice Springs' crime wave
Residents say parents are the main cause of the youth crime crisis sweeping the troubled town, with children often roaming the streets at night to avoid violence at home.
Neglectful parents are overwhelmingly responsible for the crime crisis sweeping Alice Springs, according to people I spoke to on a recent trip to the troubled town.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people all told me that the main cause of youth crime was parents who were not caring for their children.
“The problem is blame of the parents,” one Indigenous woman said. “Parents want to drink. Kids want to go out and do stuff what parents do.”
She said large numbers of children wandered the streets at night because they wanted to avoid violence at home.
“The kids, they have parents who are really violent,” she said.
Another Indigenous woman, fed up with young children roaming the streets at night causing mayhem, told me in no uncertain terms: “People can’t even control their children.”
She was adamant that parents were the problem and that the government was powerless to change things in the Northern Territory if parents did not first take responsibility for their own children.
“Mothers and fathers should take their stupid kids back where they belong,” she said.
An Indigenous man blamed adults who were “on grog and marijuana while their kids run wild”.
A white man I spoke with agreed. “Where are their parents? They’re down in the park drinking metho and stuff like that.”
While people in Australia’s capital cities should wince at such statements for fear of being thought racist, Alice Springs locals did not shy away from the issue.
An indigenous man said: “These young kids have no authority, no guidance, and no support. That’s why Alice Springs is the highest city in Australia in terms of the crime rate.”
All kids are naughty,” another man said. “They just need a bit of parental supervision to get them back on the right track. If you consider your own childhood, if you did something naughty your parents would smack the heck out of you. Supervision, that’s what the children need.”
Mainstream media like the ABC are not willing to tell the truth about what is going on here in Alice Springs. To see all of our reports talking to locals on the ground at TheRealVoice.com.au and if you can, please donate to help cover our costs in bringing you the other side of the story.
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