Justin Langer: How a scream for help brought the violent reality of our world closer to home

“JUSTIN!!! JUSTIN, QUICK MATE, JUSTIN!!!!” Ringing through the flyscreens of our open sliding doors, there was a real sense of urgency in the words overriding the TV in our front room. It was 8 o’clock last Thursday night, a light breeze was whispering through the doors, and I was sitting on the couch in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I wasn’t too far off heading to bed after a busy week and a busier weekend coming up. But like an unexpected alarm, my neighbour, one of the best you could ever wish for, started screaming my name from the road out the front. “Justin, Justin, quick mate, Justin I need your help.” Jumping up, I opened the door to see my neighbour looking rattled and serious. “What’s up mate?” I quizzed. “They are breaking in down the road. They are in the house. I need you to come down with me”. My surprised reaction was: “Who’s breaking in? Where?“ He explained that another of our neighbours had rung him to let him know that they had watched on a camera, from Down South, as two intruders broke into their house. Good as modern technology is, I can only imagine how scary and upsetting this must have been to watch. Standing out the front of the house not knowing how to handle the situation, we were both shocked to see a person open the front door and stroll out like he was wandering over for a sunset swim in the ocean. With that he just walked away, seemingly without a worry in the world. Heart pounding, I was relieved when the police arrived on the scene. Within minutes there was a helicopter in the air, and from all accounts their efforts were rewarded reasonably swiftly as the alleged perpetrators were quickly seized. In the short seconds on that driveway, and in the minutes later when we checked on the ransacked home of our friends’, it felt like I was living one of those nightmares when you are a kid. Maybe even an adult. That nightmare, when someone is in your house and you are trying to scream, but nothing is coming out. In that nightmare, I always feel completely helpless, frightened and violated. Difference was, this wasn’t a nightmare, it was actually happening. There was no violence outside, no confrontation. And yet, I was unnerved. It wasn’t even my house, but I felt uneasy about the situation. By chance, I read this week that on the other side of the country, former NRL player Brett White, helped out in the dead of night when a woman was being attacked. White’s description of what happened was shocking. “It was around midnight and I heard a car doing burnouts, then I heard a woman screaming,” White was reported as saying. “I could see out the window a bloke was punching her, pulling her hair and kicking her in the head so I ran out and told the missus to call the cops. I came in behind him, put him in a chokehold and pinned him down for about five minutes until the cops arrived.” This week I also listened to a man talking on the radio from Alice Springs. I didn’t get his name, but you could hear in his voice the overwhelming frustration and sadness accompanying his cry for help. He spoke of his house having been broken into more than 40 times in the last few years. He and his family never went out anymore, and their life was more like a prison than the freedom we all expect from living in our lucky land of Australia. From all accounts, rates of criminal offences in Alice Springs alone, as recorded by police, have increased massively. Assaults has gone up 36 per cent to 2556 offences, more than three times the corresponding national number of 790 in 2021 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Domestic violence assault went up 45 per cent (1668 offences), alcohol-related assaults 46 per cent (1316), house break-ins 24 per cent (1006), commercial premises break-ins 53 per cent (797), motor vehicle thefts 37 per cent (449) and property damage 54 per cent (3485). Listening to the gentleman on the radio and then reading these haunting words from the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory, Lia Finocchiaro, it made think of what is going on in our society today. “Behind the eye-watering crime statistics are families living in fear and business owners are being pushed to the brink,” Ms Finocchiaro said. “They are at breaking point because the financial, physical and emotional costs are just too much to bear.” When I heard that our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was making an urgent visit to Alice Springs to address these soaring crime figures, I sat up even further. Hearing the Alice Springs mayor Matt Paterson pleading for Federal Government intervention, added to the layers of sadness. Like Lia Finoccchiaro, he spoke of his town reaching breaking point and needing urgent help. “We can’t continue to live the way that we’re living and feel like prisoners in our own home,” he said. “It’s getting awfully difficult to live here. You have people who are scared to go to bed at night because they’re not sure what’s going to happen whilst they’re asleep.” Not far up the road from Perth, Carnarvon is reporting similar stories. Shire President Eddie Smith recently told The West: “I get a bit emotional about it because this is my home and this is my town and I just struggle with it. I’ve had equipment damaged, a dog bashed and cars and caravans broken into. The reality now is that people are living in fear for their lives and a lot of them won’t drive into some areas because it’s just too damn dangerous.” Local resident Jason Drury told The West the fear he felt after he was attacked by a burglar armed with boltcutters. “It’s been an anxious time and since I got hit, I can’t sleep at night. You just don’t know when they’re going to come back,” he said. “It’s a big reality check.” These are only a few examples from different parts of our State and country. Some of them are even closer to home than any of us would like. During the week a bottle shop owner in Fremantle declared, “It makes me so angry, I can’t just sit and watch them do whatever they want”, describing his frustration at the brazen and consistent thieves tormenting his family’s liquor store. The question is, what is going on? Why is this happening? Like so many things in life I don’t have the answers to any of these questions, but I do know there are so many layers in these dilemmas. On the one hand there are the victims of these crimes. Victims young and old. I shudder, wondering how they and their families cope with the incidents, during the moment, and beyond. Then there are the offenders. Some so young. How is it they have been able to fall into such bad habits and succumb to a life of lawlessness? My uneducated view would be a lack of leadership, mentorship and example from those around them. I am no martyr, but with love and direction, I would guess their lives could be so different. No one is born bad. I have seen how young men and women can change their lives if they have strong, loving people around them. Born into a great family and surrounded by incredible people throughout my life, I can’t relate to the challenges faced by so many people in our community and country. It does remind me though of the importance of strong role models, that can come in many different forms. Talking of community, I grew up hearing about neighbourhood watch. One sense of security in life is knowing you have people around who look after each other. Great neighbours are like gold, bad ones can cause chaos. Then there is the angle of the police. On Thursday night our police force was incredible. They were thorough, caring and hard working. They got the job done and my respect for them only increased. When I was growing up our police force and teachers were our most respected people. These days you hear stories which suggests this may no longer be the case. Surely, this is a problem in itself? I don’t envy our police force for a second. I hope they are supported because it seems we need them more than ever. Equally, I don’t envy the problem-solvers who need to find the answers to these incredibly complex, and at times delicate, situations. Ultimately, we all have a role to play in identifying the type of world we would like to live in. The question is what are we going to do about it?