MP demands Miami cop beat
RESIDENTS and a state MP want the government to set up a police beat in Miami to end ongoing crime and violence by out-of-control youths.
The breaking of a Japanese man’s arm by a group of youths outside a supermarket was the final straw.
The problem has got so bad some residents are refusing to shop at the Miami One shopping centre after dark.
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens says he has held talks with shopping centre managers and reached out to the Police Minister to ensure a police presence beachside between Palm Beach and Broadbeach.
The Bulletin has been sent photographs and video from residents of a bloody syringe in a shopping centre toilet, people sleeping rough on the pavement and drunken exchanges between youths.
Facebook messages from concerned residents reveal they will not shop at Miami One after dark.
Mr Stevens told state parliament he was appalled by a recent incident in which a Japanese person was set upon by four youths in the middle of the Miami One centre. The juvenile crime squad was investigating but it would lead to a “lettuce-leaf slap on the wrist” due to Labor’s weak laws, he said.
“I have spoken to senior police about the possibility of establishing a police beat in the Miami One shopping centre to send a loud and clear message to potential miscreants, such as the police beat they have established in the Harbour Town shopping centre,” Mr Stevens said.
He said he had contacted the shopping centre managers and they were “more than happy to assist by providing a highly visible premises to police at a peppercorn rental”.
The state government was prepared to back police beats in areas north of the Coast and should also consider the Miami proposal, Mr Stevens said. “I am pleased that as recently as this week in the House the Minister for Police has confirmed the use of police beats as a strong deterrent to crime when he said that the electorate of Pumicestone was soon to get a police beat in its central area.
“If it is good enough for the minister to provide a police beat in the Labor electorate of Pumicestone, then surely it is good enough to supply a police beat in the Miami One shopping centre, which obviously is not a Labor electorate and probably never will be.
“Whilst there is a police station at Broadbeach and one at Palm Beach, it is 12.7 kilometres between those two stations, which is the greatest distance between any stations on the Gold Coast.”
Miami Residents Community Group leader David Rogers provided the Bulletin with Facebook posts of concerned residents and the photographs of suspected crime and drug activity around the centre.
He said a Japanese man who works at a local language school spoke to a group of teens abusing customers as they exited Coles.
As one witness posted online: “They are obviously wasted or on drugs, the main one is just losing it at people and being totally menacing.”
But when the man attempted to speak to them, they broke his arm and stole his phone.
“He is physically and emotionally shattered,” Mr Rogers said.
“He is now desperate to get back to Japan. It’s a sad indictment on the crime in Miami.”