By OSCAR PERRI
Campaign signs along roadsides around town for many of those vying to be mayor of Alice Springs have been vandalised, as the election draws nearer.
Mayoral candidate Marli Banks says she was told last night that some of her core flute signs had been damaged by cars and pedestrians last night, and has found even more damage done this morning.
At first she thought that it was politically motivated and she had been targeted, but has since seen many other candidates, of all manner of political persuasion, have had their signs damaged.
“I think it’s petty crime generally, that is being conducted.
“It’s just disappointing to see that people in the community, which I would say would be adults as it seems to have been done by four-wheel drive vehicles, are going to the extent of doing this.
“It’s an obvious act by whoever to interrupt a democratic process and to intimidate through actions, whatever their motive is, and at the end of the day it is a crime.
“If we’re going to be working on issues everyone is calling out for around crime and anti-social behaviour that I think that, you know, that these, these types of behaviours certainly fall into those same brackets.
“The last thing that our police need to be tied up with is petty acts of vandalism towards a local government election.”
Cr Banks says that these acts of opportunistic vandalism are a symptom of the lack of pride that Alice Springs residents have in their town, and shows that the issue extends beyond just an issue with youth.
“If we are going to be serious about curbing crime and anti-social behaviour that has to extend more broadly into everybody walking the talk.”