Placeholder Content Image

Alice Springs plunged into curfew after wave of violence

<p>The city of Alice Springs has been plunged into a three-night curfew after a wave of violence that saw four police officers allegedly attacked. </p> <p>Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy declared the curfew on Monday, which will prevent people of all ages going into the city centre between 10pm and 6am over the next three nights without good reason.</p> <p>"Some of those reasons are if you're fleeing from domestic violence, if you're visiting family, if you have to care for someone, if you're here for employment purposes, if you go into a fast food restaurant or some lawful purpose," Murphy said.</p> <p>He said the curfew area would cover "Anzac Hill, Schwarz Crescent, down to the hospital, from the Stuart Highway across to Leichhardt and Stott Terrace".</p> <p>The curfew is a result of a crime-ridden weekend, where several incidents of violent crime allegedly took place. </p> <p>In the early hours of Sunday morning, a group of four off-duty police officers were allegedly assaulted by a group of 20 young men, while another officer was allegedly run over by a drunk driver outside a bottle shop.</p> <p>"The offending in Alice Springs over the last few days has been unacceptable," NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said.</p> <p>"The curfew will provide police extra powers to get on top of the situation on the ground in Alice Springs."</p> <p>Commissioner Murphy said he will consider requesting an extension of the curfew if required.</p> <p>"If there is a continuation of harmful conduct, which I hope there is not, we apply some measures now and use the community to help us we should see a turnaround," he said.</p> <p>Lawler said she believed the curfew would be an effective "circuit breaker", but Swinburne University criminology expert Dr Joel McGregor said longer-term measures were required for broader change in the region.</p> <p>"To address any crime problem, interventions that lead to long-term behaviour change are required," he said.</p> <div>"While the Northern Territory curfew may be stopping crimes being perpetuated during the evening, it should not be thought of as a solution to the problems the state is facing."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> </div>

Legal

Placeholder Content Image

COVID Lockdown: Victorian premier may have lied about curfew advice

<p>Both the Victorian Police Commissioner and the Victorian Chief Health Officer have embarrassed Premier Daniel Andrews this week by admitting on separate occasions to national media that the nightly curfews which have Melburnians locked in their homes between the hours of 8pm to 5am were not instigated by either of them.</p> <p>Now many are asking the question: who decreed the nightly lockdowns, and why?</p> <p>Originally, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told State Parliament that the Police Commissioner had told him that a nightly curfew would make it easier to police stage four restrictions.</p> <p>But this appears to be incorrect, with the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/i-was-never-consulted-police-did-not-request-victorian-curfew-20200910-p55u7j.html">Police Commissioner saying he was never consulted on the issue</a> and was only alerted to the curfew hours before it was put into place on 2 August 2020.</p> <p>Melburnians continue to face another several weeks of night curfews, although from this weekend, the night curfew will be changed to start at 9pm.</p> <p>Pressure to remove the curfew</p> <p>With many questioning the difference an hour could possibly make in terms of ‘stopping the spread of the virus’, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton has also admitted that the curfew was not his idea, although staying on Uncle Dan’s good side by saying he is not against it.</p> <p>“The curfew came in as part of the state of disaster, for example, it wasn’t a state of emergency requirement,” Professor Sutton told the media.</p> <p>Many believe overnight curfews are excessive and unnecessary, considering that under Stage 4 restrictions people in Melbourne are banned from travelling more than once per day and further than 5km to go shopping or to exercise, with very few exceptions, and must wear a face mask when in public.</p> <p>But despite mounting pressure to lift the curfew, Mr Andrews is adamant it will remain in place until 26 October 2020.</p> <p>Covid-19 fines exceed $1 million in Victoria</p> <p>According to data released last month, the curfew has also been a steady revenue earner for the state, with dozens of people fined for being out of home after 8pm, including a man who was <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/police-shoot-through-car-window-of-man-who-allegedly-ignored-curfew/">involved in a serious incident with Police who shot through his car window.</a></p> <p>In one night alone, <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/police-shoot-through-car-window-of-man-who-allegedly-ignored-curfew/">shortly after the curfew was introduced, police issued 43 fines</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/state-governments-collect-millions-in-covid-fines/">Victoria has collected a total of more than $1 million </a>in fines for Covid-19 public health breaches.</p> <p>Federal Government intervention</p> <p>In the meantime, the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has urged Daniel Andrews to lift the curfew, considering that it is not based on health advice, and has also asked the government to be transparent about its virus modelling.</p> <p>Whether his federal standing will actually make a difference is difficult to determine.</p> <p>Earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-10/annastacia-palaszczuk-scott-morrison-bullying-covid-19/12649008">found himself accused </a>by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk of bullying when he intervened in the case of a woman from the ACT who had been refused permission from Queensland Health Authorities to attend her father’s funeral. At the same time, a family with four children had been told that only one child could visit their dying father in a Brisbane Hospital.</p> <p>While the funeral issue was eventually resolved and the  family has since been allowed to visit, under strict conditions, there have been other reports of the harsh impact of the strict Queensland border closures on people in Northern New South Wales, with some being <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/twins-die-after-delay-in-border-exemption/">denied access to medical care</a>, and many families separated because of work and other commitments.</p> <p>The fact remains that at some point the state governments  have got to put sensible measures in place to deal with Covid-19.</p> <p>Medical experts have been saying for a long time that we will have to learn to ‘live with’ the coronavirus for many months to come, which means that governments should be considering ways to isolate, contain and manage virus outbreaks, rather than simply revert to severe laws lockdowns which are not only beginning to take a toll on people’s <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-mental-health/">mental and emotional wellbeing</a>, but have all but brought the economy to a standstill.</p> <p>This is a very real and complex issue that needs to be addressed so that Australia can start to move forward, and give people back their basic democratic freedoms and safeguards.</p> <p><em>Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/covid-lockdown-victorian-premier-may-have-lied-about-curfew-advice/">Sydney Criminal Lawyers.</a></em></p> <p><em> </em></p>

Legal

Placeholder Content Image

Curfew breakers on late-night Maccas run turn themselves in

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> <p>Three Melbourne vloggers have been fined thousands of dollars after they posted a video of themselves breaching curfew rules for a McDonald's run on Chinese social media.</p> <p>The international students are seen dodging police officers as they make their way into a McDonald's restaurant at 2:30 am on Sunday morning.</p> <p>The students boasted about their "courage" to break the city's 8:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew which has been imposed in parts of Melbourne due to stage 4 coronavirus restrictions.</p> <p>"Who does late-night McDonald's serve?" one student said in the video, accompanied by the James Bond theme tune.</p> <p>"It serves us — the heroic people," another student replied.</p> <p>The trio returned to their apartment before declaring: "This is why Melbourne's restrictions are like a fart".</p> <p>The video was posted on Weibo and received tens of thousands of views in a few hours, sparking widespread condemnation from the Chinese community. </p> <p>"Don't show off risking other people's lives, even if you don't care about your own safety," Wu Yufeng, a Melbourne resident, commented on WeChat.</p> <p>The criticism forced the students to pull the video and issued a public apology.</p> <p>The vloggers told the ABC in a statement that they accepted every criticism they received and they also "provided their detailed account" to police on Monday.</p> <p>"Our so-called 'courage' is very naive before the law. We were a group of shameful jokers, and ignorant people seeking attention," they said in the statement. </p> <p>"We have confessed our mistakes to the police today and received our infringements.</p> <p>"We accept all criticism, which is the punishment we deserve."</p> <p>Victoria Police have confirmed that each person was fined $1,652 for breaching chief health officer directives.</p> <p>"It followed a video which emerged of them filming themselves going out after the curfew hours at approximately 2.30 am on Sunday morning to get take away food from a fast food restaurant in the CBD," a Victoria Police spokesperson told the<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-12/melbourne-international-students-break-curfew-for-maccas-run/12546682" target="_blank">ABC</a>.</p> <p>"For the sake of the health and safety of every Victorian, we need people to follow these directives and will not hesitate to issue fines to those who choose to selfishly and blatantly show a disregard for community safety."</p> <p><em>Photo credits: <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-12/melbourne-international-students-break-curfew-for-maccas-run/12546682" target="_blank">ABC</a></em></p> </div> </div> </div>

Legal

Our Partners