ONCE EVERY HOUR
Crime remains out of control in Darwin and Palmerston as break-ins and thefts occur... Police association wants tougher booze restrictions Fed-up business owner says “just open bottle shops 24/7”
A PROPERTY crime is committed every hour across Darwin and Palmerston, on average.
The statistics are shocking. But that’s all they are, statistics.
It’s easy to become numb to the bane of incessant break-ins in the Territory – even the constant victims of property crime do.
Take Jason Hanna for example, the local publican and restaurateur, who said of his fourth break-in in less than a fortnight – “it goes with the territory”.
To prevent a fifth break-in in as many days, some of the Territory’s finest camped overnight on Thursday and Friday to make sure he wasn’t broken into a fifth time in less than a fortnight.
Mr Hanna’s cafe, Eva’s at the Botanical Gardens, has been broken into about 10 times since it opened last year. It’s hard to keep track.
The fatigue in his voice reveals he’s sick of talking to the media about the same thing and he’s sure the public must be too.
Referencing a piece written by Paul Toohey on alcohol abuse in the NT, Mr Hanna borrowed the words “familiarity becomes a form of inocu- lation” to describe how he feels each time one of his venues is robbed and damaged in a break-in.
The latest crime statistics from the NT Police reveal property crime, on the whole, is down in Palmerston and Darwin 1.2 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.
Mr Hanna said the overwhelming majority of perpetrators breaking into his Nirvana restaurant are “long grassers” desperate for a drink.
“I remember this one time, there was this bloke, a long grasser, who had broken in through plate glass and had absolutely shredded his legs on the glass crawling in and then crawling back out,” he said.
“He was found under a tree drinking the spoils of his robbery bleeding out on the grass.”
Long grassers are mostly Aborigines living rough in Darwin parks and beachfronts.
“If it’s liquor they want after hours, then perhaps to stop the millions of dollars of damage they cause trying to steal it after 10pm, we should just provide them with the ability to purchase it at any time,” Mr Hanna said.
His idea runs in stark contrast with one of the current, albeit worn, conversations playing out in the Territory right now: how can we restrict the amount of alcohol sold?
“Usually anyone with a solution to offer gets shot down, politically correct or not,” he said.
“This problem has been around for 30 years. It’s not a political problem, neither side of politics has fixed it.”
Despite the recent spate of break-ins at his restaurant, Mr Hanna says he and his business partner have been dealing with this problem for more than 20 years.
“When we opened in 1995, we were broken into nine times in the first 12 months,” he said.
“It’s sad to say it, but it’s part of living in the Territory.”
The lifetime Territorian said he didn’t believe the reintroduction of the Banned Drinkers Registry would help.
“The BDR doesn’t work ... it’s just a politically correct Band-Aid solution,” he said.
But Police Minister Michael Gunner doesn’t agree.
“The BDR applies to all problem drinkers, no matter their race,” the Chief Minister said.
“The BDR will also help to rehabilitate problem drinkers, making them less dependent on alcohol and therefore less likely to commit property crimes in order to obtain it.”