A 21-year-old man visiting Alice Springs for the speedway competition was robbed and bashed from behind, allegedly by three males of Aboriginal appearance, according to police.
They are seeking information from the public.
He was walking from the casino just after midnight this morning when the trio confronted him. The man handed over his wallet and mobile phone.
A hospital spokesperson says he was taken to hospital unconscious, treated in the emergency department and discharged himself this morning.
Meanwhile Superintendent Travis Wurst says the many weekend visitors in town for football “behaved relatively well”.
He says there had been a strong police presence at the matches, in the CBD and at bottle shops.
However, last night there had been four unlawful entries, including one at the town pool.
On a lighter note, Segways (at right) have become the latest mode of transport for the local police, adding to cars, bicycles, motorbikes and horses.
Constables Peter Luong (at left in the photo) and Craig Waters did their beat on Saturday on the two-wheeled contraptions which Const Waters described as “awsome”.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
Good to read a positive report. Some social media commentators were predicting the end of civilization as we know it at the start of the weekend. Congratulations to the cool heads in all the groups involved.
As the event is predominately for people outside of the Alice Springs municipality, perhaps the residents of Alice Springs, being the owners of the sporting infrastructure, should be given the opportunity to offer input on the future of the Easter football carnival.
Whilst the positive impact of the mountain biking and speedway is unlikely to come into contention, it is worthwhile considering what social and economic impact the Aboriginal football carnival has for Alice Springs.
Judging by the sea of mess on the KFC lawns and the ASTC lawns, the takeaway shops did reasonably well.
Additionally, Memo Club seemed to have been a hive of police activity, so I gather that the indigenous organization that owns the Memo also had a profitable few days.
The Glaziers around town would have had a nice run, with quite a few smashed windows along Gap Rd and Todd St. But how about the other businesses and residents? What tourist and residents enjoyed the intermittent hour long fire work display at 4 am on Sunday? Did the NT treasury receive a bit of a boost from Rego renewals? I found at least ten vehicles with expired registration.
Did other businesses suffer a downturn, as the more experienced Alice Local knows that going out in the evening whilst football is on is a fine way to be assaulted or have your car smashed.
And of course, residents of the town camps vocally expressed their concern of all the unwanted visitors and the social impact of the overcrowding and alcohol.
Put the future of the Lightning Football Carnival in the hands of those that pay the rates and own the sporting infrastructure. Release the economic projections of the carnival, as it in all likelihood brings more people to Alice Springs than the Masters Games.
If the organizers are feeling really brave, commission a Social Impact Assessment.
Last week there was a lot of focus on Alice Springs of a quarter century ago, due to the 25th anniversary of the ABC studio on the corner of Gap Road and Speed Street.
Then, as now, we had the annual football carnival held on the Easter weekend. There were 388 people taken into protective custody that long weekend.
For the whole year of 1990, there were more than 13,000 protective custody cases; statistically more than half the population (22,000) of Alice Springs at the time.
This was also the time when Alice Springs was dubbed the “Murder Capital of Australia”, our town featuring the highest per capita rate of homicides of any population centre in the nation, virtually all related to excessive alcohol abuse.
There’s always a sense of dread each year in Alice Springs about the spike in crime related to the Easter football carnival but in fact the situation has much improved in recent years.
That’s not to say there still isn’t a significant problem but, for the first period of time in decades, the trends and the signs are looking much more encouraging.
Perhaps they need Gary Hall’s help?