An Australian city has been ranked the 18th most dangerous city in the world, with an equal crime and lack-of-safety rating as Mexico‘s murder capital, Tijuana.
In a shameful milestone, Alice Springs has been ranked the first Australian city to make the top 20 of the twice-yearly Crime Index by City ranked by Numbeo.
Topping the 2024 Mid-Year Index are the crime-infested South African cities of Pietermaritzburg and Pretoria.
They are followed by the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby.
Three other South African cities – Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth – come next, followed by the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Another South African city, Cape Town, is 17th and next is Alice Springs, the iconic Outback town which was catapulted into this infamous list by years of lawlessness with gangs of children roaming the streets committing crimes.
Although it is the second year that the town has made the top 20, just two years ago it didn’t even rank in the top 450 most crime-ridden cities.
The worst in Australia in 2022 was the NSW Central Coast town of Gosford (58th) and Cairns (72nd).
In January 2023 the 16-year-old son of an Alice Springs hospitality worker was set upon by youths and hit with an axe in his face, stomach, and legs
A stolen car is set alight on a street in Alice Springs after gangs of youths were seen roaming around affected by alcohol
In the latest index, Alice Springs has made the top 20 by scoring a crime index of 72.1 and a safety index of 27.9.
The safest city among the 311 listed in the mid-year rankings is Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates which scores 11.8 for crime and 88.2 for safety.
Two other UAE cities – Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah – are among the most safe and least crime ridden.
Australia has eight cities on the list. Canberra is the most safe at 26.4 for crime and 73.6 for safety, the same as the Chinese cities of Shenzen and Beijing.
The Gold Coast is the second most dangerous Australian city, ranking 139th in the world with middling scores for crime at 46.9 and a 53.1 for safety.
This is followed by Melbourne (163rd), Perth (175th), Brisbane (208th), Sydney (219th) and Adelaide (229th).
Auckland, New Zealand (122nd) is more dangerous than any Australian city bar Alice Springs, and is followed by Christchurch (156th) and Wellington (223rd).
Problems were ‘immediate’ when the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act ceased on July 17, 2022, meaning alcohol was available for the first time in many of the Territory’s Indigenous town camps for the first time since 2007.
Alice Springs has made the top 20 most dangerous cities in the world for the 2nd year, but just two years ago did not even feature in the top 450 worst places
As a result, the city’s crime rate soared, with gangs of up to 200 children roaming the streets at night, committing crimes such as breaking into homes and stealing cars.
Residents complained they were living in fear and forced to hide indoors as children as young as five run riot on the streets.
Mr Clarke’s latest posts from the most recent weekend of violence show things have not really changed, despite the Northern Territory police commissioner Michael Murphy’s promise to install an Alice Springs Territory Safety Division to return law and order.
Operated by Assistant Commissioner Janelle Tonkin with 18 highly trained officers, the division was to have ‘targeted responsibilities of youth crime, high visibility policing and rapid response to public order situations.’
Last weekend, three hooded and masked males wielding machetes broke into a home at 3.30am occupied by a mother and her four children, aged three to 14, according to Action for Alice.
The alleged offenders, aged 18 to 30, held a machete to the eight-year-old boy to keep him quiet, and a machete to the throat of the mother as they demanded alcohol.
The 14-year-old protected the three-year-old as the mother begged for her children’s safety, with a six-year-old sleeping through the ordeal.
The intruders got their alcohol and left. Mr Clark said things had deteriorated since the end of a violence- controlling youth curfew in April.
His face disguised, a youth prepares to hurl himself at the metal roller door of a bottle shop in order to take alcohol, a commodity still causing break-ins as recently as last weekend
The youth smashes his feet into the booze outlet door
His site recorded the fact that car windows were smashed at the Mercure resort last week, and on Saturday night windows were smashed as offenders tried to get into the rooms.
Mr Clark posted on Sunday: ‘Another machete home invasion. Totally out of control. We are under attack. Where is the police commissioner now?
‘Where is the Territory Safety Division that you all bragged about? Does it even exist?’
