Stop hesitating, Indians are being targeted

The police need to acknowledge and loudly condemn racially targeted attacks on Indian international students.

Sourabh Sharma, an Indian international student, was travelling home on the train after a shift at KFC when he was brutally bashed and robbed by six people.

As the 21-year-old lay on the floor, being kicked in the head, face and ribs, his attackers screamed racial insults. They left him bleeding, broken-boned and crying on the floor of the train while other passengers watched and did nothing to intervene.

Sourabh is but one of many victims in a series of similar attacks in the western suburbs.

I am another brown person. I can say unequivocally, on behalf of every other non-white person in the country, that hearing about racially motivated crimes frightens us.

To an aggressor bent on beating up a "fob" (fresh off the boat) or a "curry", it does not matter that I was born here, and that my parents came here long before the attacker was born. To the aggressor, I simply match the description of their target.

What concerns me is that each time an attack against an Indian is reported, Victoria Police has quite determinedly ensured the issue of racism is not closely linked to the crime.

In May, the Islamic Council of Victoria issued a media release noting that police had "failed to adequately address the cause of the attacks - which is racism".

In response, Superintendent Graham Kent lashed out at the council on 3AW, claiming the police were "disappointed" and that the statement was "uninformed".

What is uninformed is the assertion by police that the attacks against people of Indian appearance were "based on opportunity, not race". Inspector Scott Mahoney said that "sometimes, it's just a combination of timing and chance". Is that supposed to mean that the attackers don't see colour when they incessantly find targets of Indian appearance? These "chance" encounters that he describes are occurring with alarming regularity.

With respect, the inspector's analysis is flawed. Victoria Police has itself claimed that people of Indian background are "over-represented as victims". When both the victims and the aggressors claim that these attacks are racially motivated, what purpose does it serve to avoid a discussion about racism?

The police are charged with upholding the law and fighting crime, whatever its causes. There is little benefit in denying the existence of racist attitudes in our communities.

Sure, the question of racism is something that, as a society, we often feel uncomfortable confronting, given our dark past. However, when we are confronted with attitudes that have resulted in brutal assaults, stabbings, innocent people ending up in comas, and one person being murdered, we need to start fighting the cause of all of these attacks.

So far, we have seen police directing their attention to victims and potential victims, telling them they should not speak loudly in their native language or travel on public transport with their MP3 players on display. Police also set up a hotline for Indian victims after the attack on Sharma. I fail to see how these measures tackle the cause of the attacks.

Then police plan went to India to educate Australia-bound students on how to minimise the risk of being attacked.

I thought the police said these attacks were opportunistic? Why, then, are they going specifically to India to advise Indians on safety? Or is this simply a business trip to ensure Indian international students continue to bring education revenue into the state by allaying their fears?

Where have we seen police addressing the racist aggressors? This is not to say the multicultural officers in the force are not doing a great job engaging with ethnic communities. But this is not a question of police talking to peak bodies such as the Islamic Council. It's about the fact that there has been no real, tangible response to this pattern of violent racism. The police are not responsible for defeating the disease of racism by themselves - the problem falls on all of our shoulders, particularly those of our leaders.

But what we can demand from police is a loud, vehement condemnation of racial intolerance. Victoria Police should not hesitate to do this - after all, it is the police who will be working overtime if these racially motivated crimes continue to rise.

Similarly absent from this conversation is Connex, which is responsible for security on its trains. It is ironic that the teams of public transport officers hired to stop fare evasion (with force, if necessary) are absent when a clear issue of safety emerges on the rail network.

In newspapers and on television, you may have seen ads for Championship Moves, a campaign by the State Government and the police to curb violence caused by excess alcohol consumption.

The website includes a variety of "moves" that party-goers can employ to get a mate out of an imminent fight, including "the muzzle" and "the lasso".

This follows similar public safety drives, such as the powerful Violence Against Women - Australia Says No campaign. Likewise, the Government, police and Connex need to begin a campaign to fight racial intolerance.

Silence at a time of increased racially motivated violence is a weakness we cannot afford.