Mental Meanderings

The Abundance of Crime - too close for comfort

I'm one of those really lucky people who live in a world fairly sheltered from crime and disasters that effect whole communities. We're an antigun country. I've never seen a real gun in my life and I'm glad. I can't remember a local bank being robbed or a child being stabbed in a school. I like to pretend that sort of thing just doesn't happen here but I'm not THAT naive.

Really, while those sorts of crimes CAN happen they are so incredibly rare that they'd be top breaking, on the hour, every hour, kind of news. Our prime hour of news tends to cover feature stories about loser Dad's who skip out on child maintenance payments, single mothers who make it in big business, million dollar lotto winners, and how the latest diet craze effects health.

The highlights on crime tend to focus in other areas of the world. Shoot outs in the US, terrorist bombings in Bali and the UK, suspicious plane crashes in Indonesia and Africa. More locally we get serious car accidents, bush fires, animal mutilation and very little else.

Of course, over the past few years the crime rate has been rising. It's also been getting closer, and closer to home. Serious assault in Northbridge or along the train routes perhaps Gosnells or Subiaco. Wild parties that got a little too wild with drugs and alcohol in Coogee. Knife fights in the city after dark.

Mostly however all seemed pretty quiet and low key. Then, recently we've had attempted kidnappings, attempted mugging, stabbings, car theft, and even murder. The crime rises locally but it's most significant when it hits close to home and it never had been as close as it was today.

My daughter went to school as she normally does every weekday. We enjoy the 20 minute walk the few blocks to her school in the already glaring morning sunlight. The air is warm this time of year but not overbearing and the walk is one we're accustomed to, even my two-year-old manages it the whole way there and only uses the pram for the return trip home.

As usual I left her at school thinking it was just another day and in the afternoon returned, walking those same 20 minutes in the oppressive heat but still, accustomed to doing so and although hot I enjoy the walk. As I got to the school I knew something was wrong. I walk past the school's office on the way to her classroom and outside were three men. Two of them were talking in rapid jargon on their mobile phones. I could tell right off that they were out-of-uniform police officers. The third was in a rather official looking white shirt but I couldn't tell what it was, I think maybe he was a medic or something for the police department. I'd almost think ambulance attendant but there was no ambulance in sight, I guess it's still possible if the vehicle was parked the other side of the school.

Anyway, this isn't such a strange thing. They have the men-in-blue at the school from time to time for the Constable Care Awards and other educational purposes. Then of course I came in sight of the quadrangle aka assembly area. Hundreds of students had recently been packed in there with the major speakers out. Those speakers are the ones designed to address the entire school. By now classes were being herded back to their rooms and the undercover area was clearing fast. Again, this was not something particularly remarkable but definitely noteworthy when coupled with police presence. Something was going on and I wanted to know what.

There were whispers from the other mothers at the door of the classrooms (I'd say parents but there are rarely any Dad's picking up their kids). We all knew something was up but few had any real idea. I got to talking to one mother who did. She'd arrived early that afternoon (to get a parking spot since the parking situation is a nightmare) and had been pulled aside by a teacher.

"The police were chasing down a car thief who had dumped the stolen vehicle and disappeared into the school grounds for cover." As a mother my heart rate climbed at this news. I've been in touch the whole day so if something had happened to my daughter I'd have known about it by then but it's still really scary to consider how close to danger she had been. Odds are the car thief had no plans on being violent or using the kids as leverage to escape being caught but when someone, obviously already desperate, is cornered there's no telling what he'll do.

Thankfully, the police rounded him up pretty quickly. Our cops are good like that. Not much happens but when something does they're right their dealing with it as quickly and safely as possible. The schools emergency systems were put to the test and performed perfectly. This particular situation was a lockdown. That meant alarm spread via the announcement system that the school had been put on lockdown and all teachers knew what that meant.

Basically a lockdown involves securing classrooms. They turn the locks on every door and window, do an attendance-check to ensure all children are in the rooms they should be and then stay like that until the all clear is given. Some of the younger kids had no idea that anything strange was happening. It was done with calm digression and the kids just kept on working. A mother who has a younger child in kindergarten told me, "They just told the kids that today was the day everyone tested their locks to make sure they work." That sounds pretty reasonable to me, nothing to worry about there.

Of course my daughter is a year two now and I can't say I'm too pleased with the way her teacher informed them what was happening. I mean honesty is great, but you have to cover all angles. My daughter tells me that her teacher told her, "There is a bad man in the school and the police are catching him." Ok, if I was six/seven that would freak me out. Personally, if I were going to admit the truth to the kids like that I'd also go so far as to tell them exactly HOW they were being protected and that none of them were in any danger. I'd also probably (if I knew) admit he had stolen a car because 'bad man' creates some pretty nasty pictures for kids these days what with all the stranger-danger education they get.

Ultimately everything was dealt with beautifully. The kids all walked away with a little bit of a scare, a moderate degree of excitement and a criminal was apprehended by the police. I'm proud of the way the school dealt with the incident but it really does drive home how serious the rate of crime is climbing. Even here in the backwoods of the civilized world (ok, maybe Western Australia isn't THAT backwoods, lol) the crime rate is increasing.

How long before we need metal detectors in our schools? How long before every other person on the street carries a gun (for protection *rolls eyes*)? How long before we're triple and quadruple locking our doors and windows and actually using the noise producers that are considered alarm systems? How long before a serious crime touches home?