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Showing Tag: "crime" (Show all posts)

Christmas-themed theft at Tuart Hill post office

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, December 11, 2013,
As I mentioned in a previous post, Christmas here in Perth always seems odd. We are bombarded with all this northern hemisphere winter imagery at the hottest time of the year. And a recent local event adds sinister absurdity to the general incongruity.

See, a bloke dressed as Santa Claus robbed the post office on Wanneroo Rd in Tuart Hill. It lends itself to humour, but it must have been anything but funny for the staff involved.

And I'm sure the cops who nabbed the alleged perpetrator weren'...
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The Crime Factory and Cowboys in Uniform

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, April 15, 2013,
On the weekend I read a report about a controversial book about the WA Police Force. It seems that a former serving constable by the name of Ian Patton has been named by the press as the writer of this book. But he vehemently denies this.

My first assumption upon reading the headline was that the book in question was The Crime Factory, which I posted about earlier. But this book's title is actually Cowboys in Uniform. It appears possible that they are entirely separate works.

If this is the cas...
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Why the Rottnest severed head discovery seems so surreal

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, January 14, 2013,
You'll no doubt have heard about this severed head being found on Rottnest Island. Now, such a discovery would be bizarre and horrific pretty much anywhere -- except in a morgue, of course. But with Rottnest being such a quiet, relaxed, family-oriented environment, it is even more extreme.

The dim-witted nature of some of the reporting adds to the strange atmosphere. One article, for example, contains a classic line:

Given the head was found wrapped in plastic, a shark attack has been ruled out...
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Perth train and bus commuters have justified safety fears

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, November 23, 2012,
Not only have Perth trains become increasingly crowded in the last few years, but a high proportion of commuters feel unsafe on them, particularly at night.

The number of passengers who felt unsafe at night jumped from 23 to 28 per cent - including nearly half of all Armadale patrons interviewed and nearly one-third of all Midland patrons.

Four in five commuters identified drunks and drug users as the biggest safety threat at night.


This survey measured commuters' perception of risk, so it was ...
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Out-of-control party legislation targets organizers

Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, September 26, 2012,
Out of control parties are a scourge in this city. The Government has tabled new legislation to crack down on the problem. Part of it involves punishing the party holders if things get out of hand.

Under the proposed laws, a person who organises a gathering of 12 people - at which two people break the law - could face a year in jail or a $12,000 fine and an additional penalty of paying back the cost of police resources.

Not surprisingly the Civil Liberties Council of WA has deemed the laws ove...
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ATM and drug lab explosions in Perth

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 16, 2012,
A thought on the ATM explosions that have been occurring of late: Such events are happening with increasing frequency. They often occur in twos, sometimes within hours.

This is reminiscent of the ram raiding of pharmacies. In these smash and grab robberies, thieves steal as much cold and flu medication as possible for use in making meth, a drug that's having a really bad effect on many people in this city. (When I was living in Yokine, there was an occasion in which three of them were hit. The...
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Brazen daylight attack in Fremantle

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, June 18, 2012,
Something I've posted about repeatedly on this blog is the alarming increase in the amount of violence that is committed in this city. Of course I've read or heard about it much more than I've actually witnessed it.

But I did observe a disturbing incident yesterday afternoon in Fremantle. At around 5 PM I started walking up Wray Avenue from South Terrace and I heard yelling from up the street. I saw some blokes beating up one guy near the Hampton Road intersection. He managed to escape and run...
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The drug DMT is now being made in meth-ravaged Perth

Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, April 29, 2012,
Perth has a real problem with drug abuse in general and "ice" in particular. It seems that not a week goes by without at least one clandestine meth lab exploding in a house or unit somewhere out in the suburbs.

And you do see a surprising number of people who seem to be under the influence of the drug, or ravaged by its long term use. I was on a bus into the city a few months ago and this very wound-up young guy got on. My first thought was that he was high on meth. And sure enough he soon sta...
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The rise of girl gangs in Perth is disturbing and depressing

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, April 13, 2012,
Any kind of violence is disturbing, of course. But it seems more so when the perpetrators are female, and young as well. Some might think that's a very sexist thing to say. Well, maybe it is. But then human nature is pretty sexist.

Men -- particularly young men with their bodies full of testosterone -- are naturally very aggressive. Throw in other factors such as emotional scars caused by parental or other abuse, lack of good role models, poverty, allegiance to a gang, drugs and alcohol and yo...
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Three thieves run amok in Claremont, Cottesloe and Como

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, April 10, 2012,
Having recently moved to Mosman Park, I've been walking down to Cottesloe Beach in the afternoons lately. While wandering down that way at about 4.30 PM yesterday, I saw a police paddy wagon zoom north, sirens blazing, along Marmion St. At the time I thought it was probably heading to a pub in Cottesloe, or maybe Claremont, to deal with a drunken brawl. But I think it may have been attending to this criminal rampage.

Inspector Mal Anderson said the crime spree started about 4pm yesterday with ...
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Agencies launch anti-violence campaign

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, March 30, 2012,
Here's more confirmation of the increasing violence in Perth: The state government is launching a massive, coordinated anti-violence campaign:

The plan, backed by more than 30 agencies across health, education, corrective services and police sectors, calls for more health nurses to help troubled children, compulsory alcohol and drug education in schools and more public transport after midnight to stop loitering.

It singles out alcohol as a major cause of violence and calls for tighter controls ...

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Premier Colin Barnett laments Perth's increasing violence

Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, March 9, 2012,
Having returned to Perth from Sydney close to two years ago, one thing I noticed was how many news reports of amazingly vicious and violent attacks there were in this city. There even seemed to be more than when I was last here in 2006-2007 (I was shocked at all the mayhem being reported at that time, too). But even that period was far worse than when I was growing up here in the 70s and 80s.

I wondered that perhaps this was a kind of illusion resulting from my greater interest in news and cur...
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Deli ram-raided in Royal St, Tuart Hill

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, October 27, 2011,
One alarming social phenomenon that has been getting a lot of justifiable media coverage in Perth lately is the rise in drug use in general and the "ice" epidemic in particular. Not only are more and more people using this hugely powerful and damaging drug, but many are making it in makeshift labs in the suburbs of Perth. These seem to explode at almost regular intervals.

Related to this are the numerous robberies of various shops that occur from time to time. I'm not sure exactly how many ar...
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Body found in Great Eastern Motor Lodge car park

Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, October 11, 2011,
A week and half ago (on the last day of September) I was walking down Great Eastern Highway in Rivervale. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a lot of roadwork being done. I decided to take a few shots of it for this blog. The Great Eastern Motor Lodge is a landmark on that particular stretch of the highway so I took a photo of it.

Recently the body of a murder victim called Mite Naumovski was discovered in the boot of a car left in the building's car park. It appears he was murdered on...
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Double murder in Tenth Avenue, Maylands

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 25, 2011,
Having actually lived in Maylands some years ago I immediately took notice of the news of a gruesome double murder in that suburb. My immediate assumption was that it was drug related and that seems to have been the case. Apparently the perpetrator was a heroin addict who had recently managed to kick his addiction, then relapsed.

Sadly, Maylands does seem to be one of the Perth suburbs where these terrible events occur comparatively often. I assumed it happened somewhere on the eastern side of...
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Walga Court Yokine, scene of knife attack

Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 18, 2011,
The photo below is of Walga Court in Yokine. I took it early this afternoon. As you can see it looks like a pleasant, quiet and safe place to live.

Yet yesterday, at around the same time and on a similarly sunny day it was the scene of a horrific knife attack. The victim is in hospital in a serious but stable condition, apparently.

Hard to believe when you look at the scene.



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Robbery in Tuart Hill Minimart on Wanneroo Rd

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, May 23, 2011,
I live in Yokine, and I often go into the Minimart in Tuart Hill to buy the paper. I just read that it had been robbed last night. Thankfully no one was hurt. However the thief did brandish a gun, which must have been terrifying for whoever was working at the time.

Events like this are more and more frequent in this city. You just read about them all the time. Only a few days ago there was a terrifying home invasion in Dianella, the suburb I grew up in.

Back in those days, in the seventies and ...
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Good books about and set in Perth and Fremantle
Perth
Line of Sight
When War Came to Fremantle
The Devil's Garden
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