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Morning news in Sydney these days seems to be dominated by details of yet another shooting in western Sydney overnight.
A rash of murders, including the gunning down of innocent bystanders within days of one another, has tapped the deepest fears of many. Yet authorities are at odds over how serious things have become.
The collateral killings prompted new promises from the Minns government on Tuesday to impose adult sentences on children caught carrying out contract killings and firebombings for peanuts, and crack down on offshore gangster kingpins and local middle men who orchestrate attacks linked to escalating gangland conflicts.
It was the government’s third significant crackdown on organised crime in two years. It also had a touch of window dressing about it, especially as it came just days after Police Minister Yasmin Catley denied that authorities had lost control of escalating violence.
Criminals ignored the message and continued their street war.
Not two days later, boxing coach Louis Meehan, 32, who had links to outlaw motorcycle gangs, was shot dead in an ambush in Sydney’s south-west on Wednesday night in what police believe is the latest targeted attack linked to organised crime.
Now the police are saying: get used to it.
NSW Police acting Assistant Commissioner Grant Taylor said on Thursday morning the city was dealing with its usual number of deaths. “It always looks like crime is out of control but when you look at it, we’re on track,” he said. “We always have about eight organised-crime murders a year. We’ve had six, and then last night made seven. It’s always going to be part and parcel of life in a big metropolis; this is no different.”
Hours later, Minns fired back, saying the situation is “not normal” and the shootings were unacceptable. “I’d hate it for anyone to believe that we’re accepting of the status quo, or we believe that it’s normal, or that it’s acceptable, or that we just have to turn a blind eye,” he said. “I don’t think any premier or any political leader can ever make the claim or promise that murder will stop in a big state like NSW, but we can promise arrests and we can promise longer jail time for the people who are involved.”
The schism is not just confined to NSW authorities.
A stoush between the NSW and federal Labor governments has opened over claims of inaction on Interpol red notices targeting figures connected to Sydney’s underworld who have fled overseas. The federal government insists NSW failed to provide all the required documentation on crime kingpins in Lebanon and Vietnam to international partners.
The spectre of federal and state governments trying to one-up one another on dealing with organised crime is unedifying, and the blunt message on the normalcy of organised-crime killings from NSW Police is disconcerting.
Their responses have created the impression that officialdom is oblivious to mounting public fears that organised crime is getting away with murder.
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