So the thing on my mind this evening are the allegedly racist attacks in Melbourne last weekend. Let's leave the issue of racism out for a bit: four people were badly beaten up quite badly in a public car park in Epping, VIC, just about three quarters of an hour from downtown Melbourne. As near as anybody knows (and that might not be a lot; compare the link above with this version of events; there's a lot more clear information to come out of this thing), this attack was entirely unprovoked, and money does not seem to have been a motive. If you - or, more to the point, me - were there, there would have been nothing we could have done to stop the attack but tried to find what cover we could and hope for the best.
The whole violence-in-Australia thing is a lot easier to deal with when you look at the broader and the closer perspective. A good example is from that last link:
Simon Overland wrote that "Victoria Police has been concerned about the rise in assaults and robberies involving Indian students",[30][31] and said that "racism was clearly a factor in some of the attacks."[32] New South Wales Police said that Indians are not over represented in Australian crime statistics.[33] Sydney-based United India Association president Dr Prabhat Sinha takes the view that the attacks are not necessarily racially motivated. He said: "They become soft targets by groups of four to six drug users, for example, who just want cash."[34]
So, yes, sure, race is a factor, but as long as you stay away from the "bad parts" of town, keep your eyes open for suspicious groups of people, and make sure you are in significant groups, you should be fine, right? Maybe not, and that's the bit that scares me.
It's really not as bleak as I paint it, though. According to ABC news, the people who would later be "seriously assaulted" were verbally abused in the bar, at which point the abuser was thrown out. And check out this story from Epping, Essex: how safe can you be when people jump you and beat you for possibly no reason? (Oh hey, while we're on the subject of assault without any clear reason at all ...)
There is such a thing as inadequate law and order enforcement; but then again there's plain old-fashioned "being at the wrong place at the wrong time". I think I'm going to chalk this up as an example of the latter, but don't think you're off the hook, Australia. If these kinds of incidents continue, there will be fewer foreign students heading off to study in Australia, and I might end up one of those staying away.
