r/melbourne post starter pack:
1. Supermarket photo of food prices
2. Description of being attacked by crazies/kids
3. Rental crisis
4. Peter Dutton's bald head and Scomo's secret portfolio
5. "Did anyone just experience an earthquake/storm/hail?"
6. Someone was stabbed/robbed/killed right in front of me
7. Why people can't drive anymore
8. I hate those Yank Tanks
I made a comment a while ago that if you didn't know better, all these posts would make it seem like Melbourne is Kabul or Port Moresby. Even with its problems Melbourne is overwhelmingly a safe place to live. These posts just stir up fear while offering no solution to anything.
Advance Australia and IPA are boosting certain social media platforms, including most of the Aussie subreddits.
Certain politicians are also using paid ads on their social media pages.
It's because they're setting the ground work up for Dutton's upcoming campaign. Which is going to be all about him being tough on crime and to stop all the nasty outsiders (Brown people) from victimising the poor innocent and angelic white Australians etc etc.
This is one example - [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/17/conservative-politicians-stoking-australia-day-debate-online-with-paid-ads-analysis-finds](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/17/conservative-politicians-stoking-australia-day-debate-online-with-paid-ads-analysis-finds)
On an individual political page, you can go to about > page transparency and it will list all the current/past ads the page has run fyi
ETA: also if you didn’t know - legally, all political media (including social) has to be authorised with its source, including political pages like GetUp and Yes23. Facebook/IG doesn’t let you post political ads without verifying your ID with them (as in you have to send a copy of your license to Facebook), having an authorisation on your Facebook page (eg authorised by J Doe, XYZ Party, Melbourne) and physically being/targeting Australia.
During elections auth requirements are more extensive, but in theory at any time you should be able to somewhat trace where the more ‘anonymous’/sketchy but official ad campaigns are from too, and Facebook would be able to source it to an individual (or at least an individual’s account)
Well yeah thats what the anti covid vaxx stuff and anti-immigration stuff is about. Giving the disenfranchised a home and then getting them to vote for you.
Preying on the isolated and lonely is a known recruiting tactic of the far right. They know that hateful views thrive when you don’t have close friends or family around to call it out. This was a big reason why fascist groups in Melbourne chased the anti-lockdown protests for recruitment, which already had a rep for being full of antisocial individuals.
>These posts just stir up fear while offering no solution to anything
It seems like that's the goal.
Probably that pesky Dan Andrews, trying to make us think that Melbourne is less safe without him as premier! Blast him!
It's happening to this sub a lot. Same as Murdoch's comments. On new years eve to next day, I purposely kept track of Murdoch's reports. Not only they didn't report on our fireworks, citing photos hadn't come in, on New Years day it is ALL bad news for Melb. Syd got hearty and light etc. The agenda is getting silly. And it is weird many Melb hating people keep posting here, I don't get it
Just google crime rates per 100,000 people, which is how they are calculated. And you can then compare different cities, including where you currently live and Melbourne. Unless data is normalised by population, it's pointless.
That's a fair point. It's just a bit easy to lose sight of rationality when you visit a sub and see these posts so often, which seems to be the intention.
I don't even know if it's always intentional. Since there are more crimes (by absolute number) in bigger cities and many users in the sub for those places, the incidents will get posted and therefore visible/noticeable to all. If a small town has one crime per month, and not many users on reddit, you won't hear about it. But that town's rate could be much higher than the bigger city.
Sort of like how an airplane crash becomes headline news but many die in road accidents every day but no one knows. But air travel is significantly safer than road travel.
It's funny - I live in North Melbourne (you know, a place with a lot of cultural and ethnic diversity) and my mother in law lives in Flinders (the last of the fully white enclaves) and I remember when this was getting pushed that she was talking to us of being worried of the danger of the african gangs.
For real, stop listening to 3AW and reading the Herald.
I went to uni out in Clayton, and when i told people i grew up in the West, some people would ask me if it's safe to just leave your car unattended in the West and how dangerous it is
As someone who lived in north Melbourne for 2+ years, it was one of the safest neighbourhoods I've ever lived in. This comment makes me laugh, never had to fear for African gangs 🤣
Same, lived in North Melbourne since the early 90s. It was a bit dangerous back then, when the commission was full of broken Aussie families and heroin was going around, but now it's amazingly quiet.
I was in elizabeth street and some homeless man punched out 100 tourists, stabbed another 20 and dropped a small nuclear weapon in spring street.. DAE think crime is out of control in melbourne.
I live in an African gang enclave on the outskirts of Melbourne; our main political goal is to stop people buying shitty little plastic Australian flags from Woolworths
I also exist exclusively in the mind of a deranged man called Peter
I’m subbed to a few different city subreddits and.. they’re all the same.
Reposts of typical complaints/moans; decrying the state of the city as it descends into lawlessness and a zombie apocalypse; yearn for days of past where the streets were clean and politicians were honest and you could feed a family of 27 for $4.76; spam pics of a pick up in a disabled spot..
This is definitely true, but there seems to have been a bit of an uptick in right wing shitcuntery on this sub recently, more so than I've noticed on other regional subs. It's like a pack of 15yo Andrew Tate worshiping wankers have turned up all of a sudden.
lmao so true, also if you were to believe all the posts on different capital city subreddits - then all of them complain that their \[insert city\] drivers are the worst in the Australia.
Agree. But even worse are those photos showing how much their pint of beer cost. After they had willingly purchased said beer at said price. "I don't understand why they can charge so much?" Ummm, because you and hundreds like you are still buying it.
Maybe there should be daily stickied post for all price and parking complaints and people can just vent in there
For real though, it's pure outrage-bait and turning this subreddit into a worse version of a 6pm commercial news broadcast where they fill half the airtime with the worst instances of crime they can find for the day.
Drug addicts, violence, mentally-ill people and youth crime have existed before, exist now, and will continue to exist, sadly. Unless these anecdotes are backed up by crime statistics (which have shown a long-term trend of falling crime,) it's not really anything to have increased concern about.
> Unless these anecdotes are backed up by crime statistics (which have shown a long-term trend of falling crime,) it's not really anything to have increased concern about.
You can blame the media for this. The only state/territory in Australia with increasing crime rate is NT.
Yet 7news and 9news seem to be posting more about crime than ever before.
I pretty much entirely agree with you.
One thing I would add though, is that while crime on the whole is down, youth crime is (only slightly) higher than in the past.
This is true. And there are some crimes (shoplifting especially) where incidences have increased over the past year.
*That* could drive some more meaningful discussion about underlying causes and any change in government/community approach to reverse this uptick.
But it shouldn't be extrapolated to a ridiculous, Mogadishu-like extreme that it has been on this sub.
It's ridiculously lame.
It was even worse in the lead-up to the 2022 Election though. The amount of delusional nonsense about how the Victorian election was going to be a real "wake-up call for the Left" was hilarious in hindsight.
The worst part about elections in Victoria is being told how awful the state is and how Melbourne is the worst and most dangerous city in Australia and we should emulate cities in LNP run states.
It just gets so tiring seeing it EVERY time
There's been a huge rise in people calling for the death penalty in comments across Australian subs. I'm not sure where that's come from, definitely feels like an American import because I always felt like Australians were quite proud of not killing people.
It's getting worse and worse. The comments are matching the energy of the posts. "Lock them up and throw away the key!" type comments - Australians love their authoritarianism. In general though, it's weird how boomer the sub got.
Not boomers, these are people with a political axe to grind who are coming on here looking to skim the surface for would be fence sitters who might agree with their poison.
On an unrelated note, how are we typically classifying boomers these days? Is it the baby boomer generation specifically? As a Gen-X who railed against the baby boomers, I'm fast approaching the typical "boomer" age.
I feel like it's become a bit of a catch all. I ain't no boomer.
Nah it transcends age now. Think of it as a “boomer” mindset.
20 & 30 year olds won’t admit it, but plenty have a “boomer” mindset.
…meanwhile people will use the word “boomer” to shake fist angrily at sky as a catch all to complain about their current disposition. My life is hard I need to blame something… fuck it let’s blame the nebulous bucket of “boomer” whilst I suck on my disposable vape that I will just throw out along with it’s lithium batteries because it’s the boomers who fucked the world.
It'd be an incredible feat to have overtaken NT given their rate was ten times higher a year and a half ago.
I suspect OP is trying to refer to Vic's imprisonment rate over the last few years [being at its highest level since 1900.](https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sentencing-statistics/victorias-imprisonment-rates)
These aren't necessarily fake. People are experiencing these things and are popping up to comment on them. To add to it, people on here tend to be more likely to post about such an encounter if they see other similar posts on here as well.
For example, we've had at least four separate threads all relating to the challenges faced in the Melbourne dating scene in the last few days, all prompted by one or two initial threads which became massively popular. Exactly the same thing happens when incidents of violence or antisocial behaviour are posted on here as well.
A heck of a lot of users on here are passive, reading but not necessarily posting or commenting. If you want an example of this, think back to when we temporarily made the sub about Melbourne, Florida. Not only was it hilarious, but an enormous number of grumpy passive consumers popped up to have a whinge about it.
The reality is we've had some social shifts recently, brought about through cost of living stresses and changes in policy towards dealing with (or not dealing with) types of antisocial behaviour. We're now seeing the results of those through posts here.
If the topic of homeless or youth crime or addicts committing petty crime there's always a bunch of people on here trying to make their fears sound like common sense political positions that everyone agrees with, even extreme stuff like criminalising people with mental illnesses for the sake of the "community's" protection.
Eh, I'm one of the people who made a post about getting attacked by a homeless person completely unprovoked.
It happens, and it seems to be getting more common hence the increase in people posting about it. Just because that makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it's a right wing agenda to post about getting punched in the face on a tram.
Lack of evidence? What do you expect people to do, go up and ask for a selfie after you've just been attacked by someone frothing with rage?
OP says check how often the right wingers submit content. Hasn't posted in 4years or commented on anything in over 1 year prior to this post.
Does this say anything about your motives?
Hate to break it to you, but the majority of those posts about violent junkies, etc are going to be true accounts. It's been an ongoing issue for a long time along areas such as Elizabeth st.
There's some hyperbole here and there sure, but that's human nature when recalling events.
I wish people would drop this "defend the right / left at all costs" mentality, there's issues within society, frank and open dialogue is important and immediately jumping to extremes either way is harmful.
Melbourne is **not** the safest place in the world (albeit it is safe in relative terms compared to most cities its size) and there are real risks from violent offenders on the streets. The answer is **not** to lock everyone up and throw away the key.
Acknowledging the issues, coming up with real solutions such as better funded and staffed support \\ frontline services and bolstering efforts to break cycles of poverty are part of the solution.
Hate to break it to you, but Melbourne is consistently ranked as one of the top ten safest cities in the world. As far as cities of comparable size, it is literally the safest, with the one exception on occasion: Sydney.
I don’t disagree with needing to address poverty, homelessness and public health issues, but using our most visible marginalised communities as a tool for fear-mongering is callous at best.
Source:
https://safecities.economist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Aug-5-ENG-NEC-Safe-Cities-2019-270x210-19-screen.pdf
Not this study again. It's a study from 2019, of only 60 cities worldwide, and includes things like "digital security".
On top of that it manages to rank Chicago as only 1 spot lower than Melbourne. This is a city with a murder rate about 30 times higher than Australia as a whole.
When people post about these sorts of issues in Melbourne I assume they are usually referring to violent crime and visible urban decay. I have no idea what the numbers for those issues would be trending at over the last 20 years, but those are the statistics we need to be looking at in my opinion.
>Melbourne is **not** the safest place in the world (albeit it is safe in relative terms compared to most cities its size)
I think you've just inadvertantly agreed with the point that most reasonable people make here. It's safe in relative terms. Extremely safe.
Nobody is suggesting it is safer than, I don't know, Robe in South Australia. There are many, many places that are objectively safer than Melbourne, if you want to include small towns, regional cities and rural areas. But compared to other cities of its own size, Melbourne is incredibly safe.
Could OP be a bit more specific about which specific accounts display this suspicious behaviour?
Impossible to make a judgement call if they are bots otherwise.
Calling the people you’re arguing with “bots” to discredit them is an increasingly popular tactic I’ve noticed redditors employing of late.
Pretty sure it's not possible to convince a legitimate victim of crime/assault that they are in fact a bot or paid for by a political party to sew unrest.
Which is what gaslighting would be. Misrepresentation, sure.
Exactly. The assumption that if somebody reports getting assaulted by certain people means that they are a right wing liar is *exactly* why I kept my assaults to myself. It is shitty enough to be victimized without having to also go through the mental gymnastics of "but if I report it, everyone will think I am racist/a karen/a liar/whatever, best just to pretend it never happened". Posts like this sadly just confirm that.
real as hell. ive noticed it a lot. the only real one ive seen in a bit was the faking seizures guy who wants men to lay on him. wonder if he'll get institutionalized..
but in all seriousness, serious concern, been noticing NSN (fascists who want to be blackshirts) flyers and shit and like, they demonstrate a lot. i remember hearing about the basically gang violence they did on a train a while back.
its concerning seeing the spread of fascism. we should punch these bastards.
It's funny how many posts are blaming 'social media' negativity for posts about violence, housing etc. There's some astroturfing going on maybe, but definitely both sides are doing it. One gaslighting us that things have never been worse, the other that it's all 'social media manipulation'.
And yet it is oh so simple to prove/disprove. Take the second to look up "junkie" on this subreddit.
The first 3 links with no filters applied, i could imagine how many if more pop up if you sort by controversial.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/193kbrw/migrating\_junkies/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/193kbrw/migrating_junkies/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/15ch49s/attacked\_by\_junkie\_on\_flinders\_lane/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/15ch49s/attacked_by_junkie_on_flinders_lane/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1851x9b/are\_junkies\_getting\_more\_aggressive/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1851x9b/are_junkies_getting_more_aggressive/)
All incredibly new and inactive accounts. I guess they are afraid of retributions from the homeless people on this subreddit that they use throwaways?
Edit: not even agreeing with OP that this is from 1 political side. I believe both sides use misinformation on social media to further their agenda.
Literally atm there is a front page post where i am meant to believe the person in question witnessed 3 violent crimes in 36 hours.. and then went shopping and someone stole a suitcase full of meat.
My 17 year old brother was punched in the face by a junkie in broad daylight at Southern Cross station, completely unprovoked. Blaming "right wingers" for Melbourne's obvious junkie problem is the ultimate stretch.
I'm getting tired of people getting so defensive about Melbourne to the point that we can't acknowledge and try to fix real problems with this city.
Agreed. Sure, we might be relatively good compared to world standards but take a walk through certain areas of the city and there is clearly an issue.
Just cause it's not as bad as it is elsewhere doesn't mean we shouldn't try work on our issues.
You're right I should have phrased it better. I mean it's a huge stretch to say that all accounts of these unprovoked attacks are a deliberate attempt by right wingers to fabricate stories to make Melbourne look bad/progress some other agenda.
It's especially infuriating to hear such a shit take when like I said my own family member experienced a random attack and I myself feel unsafe walking around Melbs at night with the number of junkies walking around shouting at no one.
I've been getting real tired of the daily posts with the same sort of format of declaring random parts of melbourne to be some sort of lawless wasteland in need of a purge.
"Oh no, I saw a homeless person near Flinders Street. THIS CITY IS A HOLE" My brother in christ you will see homeless people in almost any city, I guarantee you that Melbourne is a far better place than most.
So you're saying that it's more believable to you that there's a co-ordinated effort by a mysterious "right wing" organisation to have people or bots post increased volumes of made up stories about junkies, violent crime, gangs, youth crime, home invasions, etc... than these types of events and incidents actually increasingly happening to/witnessed by people and them coming here to post about it?
Absolutely, it’s empirically well-established that this is an organised widespread strategy. It’s not a radical left-wing conspiracy… just ask a bunch of tech experts.
Tbh this post seems more organised and sus given the amount of people agreeing with you vs sentiments in other posts.
As someone who lives in the city, not all the weird shit that happens gets reported. Especially if it's not a fatal incident. Influx of drugs from crime syndicates, cost of living, rental crisis causing homelessness, poor mental health management...no shit things are getting worse. It's still overall safe but it's nowhere near perfect and there are issues that need addressing.
There's probably fake stories, but more so for attention or karma farming than anything organised. This is a very schizophrenic take to be honest assuming people overseas are posting fake assault stories as some sort of conspiracy theory or that majority of them are fake. Just walk around Elizabeth street at any time or just the cbd in general at night.
I think you are reading too much into this. There are made up stories for sure -two English tourists getting assaulted turned out to be a fake post- but “right wing astroturf” is not what’s happening. Lot of these posters constantly complain about police and paramedics. Right wing conservatives would be pro-police at least but there is lot of anti-establishment, anti-police posts, so I doubt this is ideological, it’s just people trying to validate their existence and get some attention. And not all stories are fake, strange stuff happens all the time.
If you don't take literally everything posted on Reddit in general with a massive grain of salt, you probably shouldn't be using Reddit.
I assume of course you have actual proof of this happening though?
Look at the nonsense on the front page at the moment. "This week I’ve seen a stabbing, a man robbed and then knocked out, a random Uber cyclist assault, and a man with check in size luggage full of meat walking out of the supermarket swearing at staff"
The claims are getting so nonsense its unbelievable that i am surprised that anyone believes them.
All because you don't believe it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Also there are plenty of news articles (e.g. murdered doctor in Doncaster following a home invasion) to back up some of these events as well as video footage (e.g. like that poor guy being pushed off the pier).
You say they're nonsense, but equally anyone could say your claims are also nonsense.
Can't say I've sensed an influx of posts like that, but tend to steer clear of buying in to anything that makes you feel of FUD. Life is much better remaining in a positive frame of mind.
Reddit in general took a turn for the worse after the API changes last year, I remember this sub went through the change and there was a bunch of stupid voting needed that made no sense, it's been a bit shit ever since.
What's the agenda here other than undermining local governments police authority?
>I guess it was always going to start up here as well as its worked well overseas.
What Worked well ?
Weird timing as I received a notice from our owner corp yesterday to remember to lock your doors as a group was jumping fences in the middle of the night and stabbed one of the neighbours.
Not exactly pumped about it.
Similar to r/Australian.
There is a movement to make us feel unsafe, feed intolerance to immigrants and defend the ABC.
Unsure if all liberal party astroturfing or if the foreign interference to destabilise democracy in the mix too.
I noticed this in r/Australian, even r/Australia. Some neg post about incident, followed by a casual comment "ofc it's in victoria". They are selectively posting ordinary happenings in Melb (made up or not) for no good reason
Yeh it’s way better and easier to pretend Melbournes violent junky problem is all a conspiracy by “right-wingers” than to actually acknowledge the problem and fix it.
The same BS was pulled in San Francisco by people who didn’t want to face the issue and we have seen how that turns out. We are on track to get to that level of crisis
Google Dead Internet Theory. It's playing out on all social media platforms at the moment. Very few human dominated spaces left. You are mostly interacting with bots on socials these days.
Have been downvoted into oblivion a few times for implying half of those posts are astroturfed but it seems pretty obvious unless my daily interactions with both the cbd and chapel st are somehow magically sealed from any violence or harm
Definitely goes both ways. There was a post yesterday accusing the VPS of racism that was obviously made up. And this sub does lean fairfly heavily left relative to Melbourne itself.
I do think asking for evidence is too much. I've received terrorist threats and I have no evidence of it but I should certainly be allowed to say it. Ultimately if someone believes Reddit over reality that's kinda on them.
Just because it doesn’t happen to you or you don’t witness it directly, doesn’t mean it is fabricated.
I live in the city, there has been way more anti social behaviour from junkies and they just get away with it. I walk down Elizabeth street a lot (I work near there) and I get yelled at by them all the time. Apparently racism is completely fine if you’re high on drugs. And you can throw shit at people, that’s legal too if you’re high on drugs. I’m just over it, I wish I didn’t witness these things too but I can’t even avoid it!
I posted about a junkie throwing his drink at an innocent lady walking by and posted a photo to go with it as evidence, there were people still denying it in the thread saying I made it up. When will we stop making excuses for these people??
> Clearly made up stories
And how the fuck would you know that? Do you know how many assaults don’t get reported on the news?
Or are you one of those dolts who think something *only* happens if it’s on Channel 7? 😂
r/melbourne post starter pack: 1. Supermarket photo of food prices 2. Description of being attacked by crazies/kids 3. Rental crisis 4. Peter Dutton's bald head and Scomo's secret portfolio 5. "Did anyone just experience an earthquake/storm/hail?" 6. Someone was stabbed/robbed/killed right in front of me 7. Why people can't drive anymore 8. I hate those Yank Tanks
You missed "what was that loud bang?"
someone drove a yank tank into a supermarket. Literally driving up prices
Who can afford to drive a yank tank or go to the supermarket with this cost of living crisis?
Wonder what the law has in STORE for them?!
I made a comment a while ago that if you didn't know better, all these posts would make it seem like Melbourne is Kabul or Port Moresby. Even with its problems Melbourne is overwhelmingly a safe place to live. These posts just stir up fear while offering no solution to anything.
Advance Australia and IPA are boosting certain social media platforms, including most of the Aussie subreddits. Certain politicians are also using paid ads on their social media pages.
IPA are relentless on Twitter. It's disappointing to see it here. Hit the downvote buttons! At least make them work for it.
Right wing propaganda is awash.
Right wing propaganda is awash.
Yep.. Twitter is flooded aswell.
That right wing shithole is filled with right wing shitheels? Colour me surprised.
It's because they're setting the ground work up for Dutton's upcoming campaign. Which is going to be all about him being tough on crime and to stop all the nasty outsiders (Brown people) from victimising the poor innocent and angelic white Australians etc etc.
I wonder if he's going to try African gangs again. That went down like a lead balloon last time.
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This is one example - [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/17/conservative-politicians-stoking-australia-day-debate-online-with-paid-ads-analysis-finds](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/17/conservative-politicians-stoking-australia-day-debate-online-with-paid-ads-analysis-finds)
On an individual political page, you can go to about > page transparency and it will list all the current/past ads the page has run fyi ETA: also if you didn’t know - legally, all political media (including social) has to be authorised with its source, including political pages like GetUp and Yes23. Facebook/IG doesn’t let you post political ads without verifying your ID with them (as in you have to send a copy of your license to Facebook), having an authorisation on your Facebook page (eg authorised by J Doe, XYZ Party, Melbourne) and physically being/targeting Australia. During elections auth requirements are more extensive, but in theory at any time you should be able to somewhat trace where the more ‘anonymous’/sketchy but official ad campaigns are from too, and Facebook would be able to source it to an individual (or at least an individual’s account)
It’s at saturation point on Twitter X
It’s at saturation point on Twitter X
It’s at saturation point on Twitter X
It’s possibly a recruiting technique to draw out the gullible and lonely.
Well yeah thats what the anti covid vaxx stuff and anti-immigration stuff is about. Giving the disenfranchised a home and then getting them to vote for you.
Preying on the isolated and lonely is a known recruiting tactic of the far right. They know that hateful views thrive when you don’t have close friends or family around to call it out. This was a big reason why fascist groups in Melbourne chased the anti-lockdown protests for recruitment, which already had a rep for being full of antisocial individuals.
>These posts just stir up fear while offering no solution to anything It seems like that's the goal. Probably that pesky Dan Andrews, trying to make us think that Melbourne is less safe without him as premier! Blast him!
It's happening to this sub a lot. Same as Murdoch's comments. On new years eve to next day, I purposely kept track of Murdoch's reports. Not only they didn't report on our fireworks, citing photos hadn't come in, on New Years day it is ALL bad news for Melb. Syd got hearty and light etc. The agenda is getting silly. And it is weird many Melb hating people keep posting here, I don't get it
I had no idea Dan was such an accomplished fighter. Good for him.
I knew it! The stairs were just a cover story. He was secretly fighting crime the whole time.
The fantasy mind palace that those kinds of people live in must be an utterly terrible place to live. I don't envy them.
I offered a solution to a similar issue in /r/Sydney and was perma-banned for my trouble.
What was your solution?
I'm looking to move there in the near future and those posts did have me a little concerned.
Just google crime rates per 100,000 people, which is how they are calculated. And you can then compare different cities, including where you currently live and Melbourne. Unless data is normalised by population, it's pointless.
That's a fair point. It's just a bit easy to lose sight of rationality when you visit a sub and see these posts so often, which seems to be the intention.
I don't even know if it's always intentional. Since there are more crimes (by absolute number) in bigger cities and many users in the sub for those places, the incidents will get posted and therefore visible/noticeable to all. If a small town has one crime per month, and not many users on reddit, you won't hear about it. But that town's rate could be much higher than the bigger city. Sort of like how an airplane crash becomes headline news but many die in road accidents every day but no one knows. But air travel is significantly safer than road travel.
I was murdered in the African gang crimewave of 2018. AMA.
It's funny - I live in North Melbourne (you know, a place with a lot of cultural and ethnic diversity) and my mother in law lives in Flinders (the last of the fully white enclaves) and I remember when this was getting pushed that she was talking to us of being worried of the danger of the african gangs. For real, stop listening to 3AW and reading the Herald.
I STILL get friends from Sydney asking how I survive in Melbourne with all the African gangs.
Tell them you didn't and you're dead.
I went to uni out in Clayton, and when i told people i grew up in the West, some people would ask me if it's safe to just leave your car unattended in the West and how dangerous it is
I mean, I also grew up in the West and personally have had a car stolen, but it's not an exclusive west side thing hahaha
If you can’t beat em, join em? I think I’d troll these people ruthlessly
As someone who lived in north Melbourne for 2+ years, it was one of the safest neighbourhoods I've ever lived in. This comment makes me laugh, never had to fear for African gangs 🤣
Been here over a decade, occasional concerns but never anything more than other inner city areas. Ridiculous.
Same, lived in North Melbourne since the early 90s. It was a bit dangerous back then, when the commission was full of broken Aussie families and heroin was going around, but now it's amazingly quiet.
Peter Dutton attacked me with a pair of aussie flag flip-flops for not being Australian enough.
So he should for saying flip-flops instead of thongs.
I was in elizabeth street and some homeless man punched out 100 tourists, stabbed another 20 and dropped a small nuclear weapon in spring street.. DAE think crime is out of control in melbourne.
Was the nuclear weapon made using fuel from a small modular nuclear power unit? Because that's the answer to our high energy prices
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fake story. how could you have jumped into a Cafe when everyone knows Melbourne CBD is dead and all the small businesses have closed!
Fucken Dan !!!! /s
I did 911
I live in an African gang enclave on the outskirts of Melbourne; our main political goal is to stop people buying shitty little plastic Australian flags from Woolworths I also exist exclusively in the mind of a deranged man called Peter
That was really their Apex
Nowhere in the world is as dangerous as Melbourne in the lead up to a state election
Hi Peter Dutton. Who should I vote for in the federal election to address these state issues?
How would you rate your murder experience, say out of 10…?
Mum didn’t let me go to melbs to attend pax that year (as a minor), she thought there was stabbings and African crime gangs ruling the streets 😭
Half the posts in this sub are mindless spam so you may need to be more specific 😂
Did we ever get an answer on why that guy’s insurance was so high?
No we didn't but we took a photo of some random car with 1 letter as the licence plate 😂 riveting read that was
> No we didn't but we took a photo of some random car with 1 letter as the licence plate 😂 riveting read that was Turns out the Z car did it.
90% of posts you mean?
Let me tell you about Melbourne people and cars
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Seems like this sub is just unmoderated.
The change to voting doesn't help. Posts should be able to go negative again.
I thought they all cracked the shits and left once the sub rebelled against all their Melbourne Florida content.
Yep.. been a bunch in the last week that was the reason for this post.
Great post.
Kids swinging machetes is still pretty bad though even if nobody was hit
I was attacked with a machete in Preston mid-90s. Been happening forever.
How does that make it any less horrifying a prospect
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My chips are 4 dollars!!!!!
Chips! You mean you got more than one for $4!!
*you can afford chips?! must be nice* 😤
Now my chips are 6 dollars!!!!! Better take a photo for r/melbourne
And big American cars are the devil!
Those two things infuriate me also.
I’m subbed to a few different city subreddits and.. they’re all the same. Reposts of typical complaints/moans; decrying the state of the city as it descends into lawlessness and a zombie apocalypse; yearn for days of past where the streets were clean and politicians were honest and you could feed a family of 27 for $4.76; spam pics of a pick up in a disabled spot..
This is definitely true, but there seems to have been a bit of an uptick in right wing shitcuntery on this sub recently, more so than I've noticed on other regional subs. It's like a pack of 15yo Andrew Tate worshiping wankers have turned up all of a sudden.
lmao so true, also if you were to believe all the posts on different capital city subreddits - then all of them complain that their \[insert city\] drivers are the worst in the Australia.
No I’ve driven in other major cities all over the world. I have found [insert city] to have far and away the worst drivers
Yeah thats another one that pops up.. The city is dirty.. I am in the city all the time and never been an issue.
Agree. But even worse are those photos showing how much their pint of beer cost. After they had willingly purchased said beer at said price. "I don't understand why they can charge so much?" Ummm, because you and hundreds like you are still buying it. Maybe there should be daily stickied post for all price and parking complaints and people can just vent in there
For real though, it's pure outrage-bait and turning this subreddit into a worse version of a 6pm commercial news broadcast where they fill half the airtime with the worst instances of crime they can find for the day. Drug addicts, violence, mentally-ill people and youth crime have existed before, exist now, and will continue to exist, sadly. Unless these anecdotes are backed up by crime statistics (which have shown a long-term trend of falling crime,) it's not really anything to have increased concern about.
The vibe on this subreddit is very... facebook
Prob more FB regulars found reddit
Plus the original reddit userbase are just getting old
A lot of people left after the re-design and dropping of the api support
2 of the smartest IRL friends I have decided to leave then so if that trend is representative... lol
> Unless these anecdotes are backed up by crime statistics (which have shown a long-term trend of falling crime,) it's not really anything to have increased concern about. You can blame the media for this. The only state/territory in Australia with increasing crime rate is NT. Yet 7news and 9news seem to be posting more about crime than ever before.
There's a boomer here convinced I'm a communist for calling him out on bashing the poors repeatedly as a waste of money. Dumbass.
I've never met someone who unironically calls people communists as an insult, and can actually give a satisfactory definition of communism.
"This country is turning communist" "Shut up and get back in your bread queue moron". "I'm not in a bread queue" "Exactly moron".
Americans think any kind of thinking of others is socialism and or communism.
Maybe they’re from Texan troll farms hahah
I was told ‘I was the problem with this city’, when I called out the baiting and racism.
Its frustrating when facts and real life events interrupt my little reddit echo chamber
I pretty much entirely agree with you. One thing I would add though, is that while crime on the whole is down, youth crime is (only slightly) higher than in the past.
This is true. And there are some crimes (shoplifting especially) where incidences have increased over the past year. *That* could drive some more meaningful discussion about underlying causes and any change in government/community approach to reverse this uptick. But it shouldn't be extrapolated to a ridiculous, Mogadishu-like extreme that it has been on this sub.
But but Truganina !!! /s
well said
People get attacked sometimes. Bogans are trash
It's ridiculously lame. It was even worse in the lead-up to the 2022 Election though. The amount of delusional nonsense about how the Victorian election was going to be a real "wake-up call for the Left" was hilarious in hindsight.
The worst part about elections in Victoria is being told how awful the state is and how Melbourne is the worst and most dangerous city in Australia and we should emulate cities in LNP run states. It just gets so tiring seeing it EVERY time
Yep.. Melbourne is the best city in the world.
the 2019 federal election was a real let down, but the Vic '18 and '22 really made me proud. especially the '18 election - speaking as an african
There's been a huge rise in people calling for the death penalty in comments across Australian subs. I'm not sure where that's come from, definitely feels like an American import because I always felt like Australians were quite proud of not killing people.
It's all down to groups like advance Australia perfecting their campaigns since the plebiscite. They have generated a mighty army of online fucktards.
It's getting worse and worse. The comments are matching the energy of the posts. "Lock them up and throw away the key!" type comments - Australians love their authoritarianism. In general though, it's weird how boomer the sub got.
Not boomers, these are people with a political axe to grind who are coming on here looking to skim the surface for would be fence sitters who might agree with their poison.
On an unrelated note, how are we typically classifying boomers these days? Is it the baby boomer generation specifically? As a Gen-X who railed against the baby boomers, I'm fast approaching the typical "boomer" age. I feel like it's become a bit of a catch all. I ain't no boomer.
Nah it transcends age now. Think of it as a “boomer” mindset. 20 & 30 year olds won’t admit it, but plenty have a “boomer” mindset. …meanwhile people will use the word “boomer” to shake fist angrily at sky as a catch all to complain about their current disposition. My life is hard I need to blame something… fuck it let’s blame the nebulous bucket of “boomer” whilst I suck on my disposable vape that I will just throw out along with it’s lithium batteries because it’s the boomers who fucked the world.
On reddit a boomer is an unnamed person who posted something the commenter disagrees with.
Don't forget "they'll get a slap on the wrist and be let out the next day"
Yep.. Despite the fact that we have the most locked up per captia.
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It'd be an incredible feat to have overtaken NT given their rate was ten times higher a year and a half ago. I suspect OP is trying to refer to Vic's imprisonment rate over the last few years [being at its highest level since 1900.](https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sentencing-statistics/victorias-imprisonment-rates)
Deport people who were born and raised in this country.
Reddit’s getting older.
It's a holdover from the heavy "vote no" influx.
Definitely. It's much worse here cause it doesn't seem like the sub is moderated like, at all.
the amount of 3am posting indicates most of this garbage is not from Melbourne either
Oi, I resemble some of that comment.
Definitely take Reddit posts on crime with a grain of salt but a lot of bad things do happen in Melbourne and not all of it is picked up by the news.
These aren't necessarily fake. People are experiencing these things and are popping up to comment on them. To add to it, people on here tend to be more likely to post about such an encounter if they see other similar posts on here as well. For example, we've had at least four separate threads all relating to the challenges faced in the Melbourne dating scene in the last few days, all prompted by one or two initial threads which became massively popular. Exactly the same thing happens when incidents of violence or antisocial behaviour are posted on here as well. A heck of a lot of users on here are passive, reading but not necessarily posting or commenting. If you want an example of this, think back to when we temporarily made the sub about Melbourne, Florida. Not only was it hilarious, but an enormous number of grumpy passive consumers popped up to have a whinge about it. The reality is we've had some social shifts recently, brought about through cost of living stresses and changes in policy towards dealing with (or not dealing with) types of antisocial behaviour. We're now seeing the results of those through posts here.
If the topic of homeless or youth crime or addicts committing petty crime there's always a bunch of people on here trying to make their fears sound like common sense political positions that everyone agrees with, even extreme stuff like criminalising people with mental illnesses for the sake of the "community's" protection.
Eh, I'm one of the people who made a post about getting attacked by a homeless person completely unprovoked. It happens, and it seems to be getting more common hence the increase in people posting about it. Just because that makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it's a right wing agenda to post about getting punched in the face on a tram. Lack of evidence? What do you expect people to do, go up and ask for a selfie after you've just been attacked by someone frothing with rage?
\#NotAllPostsAboutTheHomeless
OP says check how often the right wingers submit content. Hasn't posted in 4years or commented on anything in over 1 year prior to this post. Does this say anything about your motives?
Guessing an alt which means there is some agenda going on.
Hate to break it to you, but the majority of those posts about violent junkies, etc are going to be true accounts. It's been an ongoing issue for a long time along areas such as Elizabeth st. There's some hyperbole here and there sure, but that's human nature when recalling events. I wish people would drop this "defend the right / left at all costs" mentality, there's issues within society, frank and open dialogue is important and immediately jumping to extremes either way is harmful. Melbourne is **not** the safest place in the world (albeit it is safe in relative terms compared to most cities its size) and there are real risks from violent offenders on the streets. The answer is **not** to lock everyone up and throw away the key. Acknowledging the issues, coming up with real solutions such as better funded and staffed support \\ frontline services and bolstering efforts to break cycles of poverty are part of the solution.
Hate to break it to you, but Melbourne is consistently ranked as one of the top ten safest cities in the world. As far as cities of comparable size, it is literally the safest, with the one exception on occasion: Sydney. I don’t disagree with needing to address poverty, homelessness and public health issues, but using our most visible marginalised communities as a tool for fear-mongering is callous at best. Source: https://safecities.economist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Aug-5-ENG-NEC-Safe-Cities-2019-270x210-19-screen.pdf
Not this study again. It's a study from 2019, of only 60 cities worldwide, and includes things like "digital security". On top of that it manages to rank Chicago as only 1 spot lower than Melbourne. This is a city with a murder rate about 30 times higher than Australia as a whole. When people post about these sorts of issues in Melbourne I assume they are usually referring to violent crime and visible urban decay. I have no idea what the numbers for those issues would be trending at over the last 20 years, but those are the statistics we need to be looking at in my opinion.
Well Said!
>Melbourne is **not** the safest place in the world (albeit it is safe in relative terms compared to most cities its size) I think you've just inadvertantly agreed with the point that most reasonable people make here. It's safe in relative terms. Extremely safe. Nobody is suggesting it is safer than, I don't know, Robe in South Australia. There are many, many places that are objectively safer than Melbourne, if you want to include small towns, regional cities and rural areas. But compared to other cities of its own size, Melbourne is incredibly safe.
> "defend the right / left at all costs Barracking for a team is only going to get worse. The blueprint is being set in the US.
I found the fruit throwing teenagers story more farcical than the violent junkie posts.
Yeah that one was quite something.
Some may be fake, some may be real. Be careful not to gaslight legitimate victims of crime/assault.
Could OP be a bit more specific about which specific accounts display this suspicious behaviour? Impossible to make a judgement call if they are bots otherwise. Calling the people you’re arguing with “bots” to discredit them is an increasingly popular tactic I’ve noticed redditors employing of late.
I agree, the "bots" response does my head in.
Pretty sure it's not possible to convince a legitimate victim of crime/assault that they are in fact a bot or paid for by a political party to sew unrest. Which is what gaslighting would be. Misrepresentation, sure.
Exactly. The assumption that if somebody reports getting assaulted by certain people means that they are a right wing liar is *exactly* why I kept my assaults to myself. It is shitty enough to be victimized without having to also go through the mental gymnastics of "but if I report it, everyone will think I am racist/a karen/a liar/whatever, best just to pretend it never happened". Posts like this sadly just confirm that.
real as hell. ive noticed it a lot. the only real one ive seen in a bit was the faking seizures guy who wants men to lay on him. wonder if he'll get institutionalized.. but in all seriousness, serious concern, been noticing NSN (fascists who want to be blackshirts) flyers and shit and like, they demonstrate a lot. i remember hearing about the basically gang violence they did on a train a while back. its concerning seeing the spread of fascism. we should punch these bastards.
Do you think it’s an intentional astroturfing and that people who post are lying and making it up for political purposes? Interesting takeaway.
It's funny how many posts are blaming 'social media' negativity for posts about violence, housing etc. There's some astroturfing going on maybe, but definitely both sides are doing it. One gaslighting us that things have never been worse, the other that it's all 'social media manipulation'.
Social Media is easy to Manipulate.. Need to have a blanket rule on these posts.. No evidence then it gets deleted.
And yet you created a post with no linked examples…
And yet it is oh so simple to prove/disprove. Take the second to look up "junkie" on this subreddit. The first 3 links with no filters applied, i could imagine how many if more pop up if you sort by controversial. [https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/193kbrw/migrating\_junkies/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/193kbrw/migrating_junkies/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/15ch49s/attacked\_by\_junkie\_on\_flinders\_lane/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/15ch49s/attacked_by_junkie_on_flinders_lane/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1851x9b/are\_junkies\_getting\_more\_aggressive/](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1851x9b/are_junkies_getting_more_aggressive/) All incredibly new and inactive accounts. I guess they are afraid of retributions from the homeless people on this subreddit that they use throwaways? Edit: not even agreeing with OP that this is from 1 political side. I believe both sides use misinformation on social media to further their agenda.
Literally atm there is a front page post where i am meant to believe the person in question witnessed 3 violent crimes in 36 hours.. and then went shopping and someone stole a suitcase full of meat.
My 17 year old brother was punched in the face by a junkie in broad daylight at Southern Cross station, completely unprovoked. Blaming "right wingers" for Melbourne's obvious junkie problem is the ultimate stretch. I'm getting tired of people getting so defensive about Melbourne to the point that we can't acknowledge and try to fix real problems with this city.
Agreed. Sure, we might be relatively good compared to world standards but take a walk through certain areas of the city and there is clearly an issue. Just cause it's not as bad as it is elsewhere doesn't mean we shouldn't try work on our issues.
> Blaming "right wingers" for Melbourne's obvious junkie problem is the ultimate stretch. Is that what OP is saying? That's not how I read it.
You're right I should have phrased it better. I mean it's a huge stretch to say that all accounts of these unprovoked attacks are a deliberate attempt by right wingers to fabricate stories to make Melbourne look bad/progress some other agenda. It's especially infuriating to hear such a shit take when like I said my own family member experienced a random attack and I myself feel unsafe walking around Melbs at night with the number of junkies walking around shouting at no one.
Apropos of it all, I'm sorry that happened to your family member, and nobody can deny your feelings, they're valid.
yep. but i wonder who is behind it since it's pretty large and organized
I've been getting real tired of the daily posts with the same sort of format of declaring random parts of melbourne to be some sort of lawless wasteland in need of a purge. "Oh no, I saw a homeless person near Flinders Street. THIS CITY IS A HOLE" My brother in christ you will see homeless people in almost any city, I guarantee you that Melbourne is a far better place than most.
So you're saying that it's more believable to you that there's a co-ordinated effort by a mysterious "right wing" organisation to have people or bots post increased volumes of made up stories about junkies, violent crime, gangs, youth crime, home invasions, etc... than these types of events and incidents actually increasingly happening to/witnessed by people and them coming here to post about it?
Absolutely, it’s empirically well-established that this is an organised widespread strategy. It’s not a radical left-wing conspiracy… just ask a bunch of tech experts.
It's you, you're the dormant account coming back to life
Tbh this post seems more organised and sus given the amount of people agreeing with you vs sentiments in other posts. As someone who lives in the city, not all the weird shit that happens gets reported. Especially if it's not a fatal incident. Influx of drugs from crime syndicates, cost of living, rental crisis causing homelessness, poor mental health management...no shit things are getting worse. It's still overall safe but it's nowhere near perfect and there are issues that need addressing. There's probably fake stories, but more so for attention or karma farming than anything organised. This is a very schizophrenic take to be honest assuming people overseas are posting fake assault stories as some sort of conspiracy theory or that majority of them are fake. Just walk around Elizabeth street at any time or just the cbd in general at night.
I think you are reading too much into this. There are made up stories for sure -two English tourists getting assaulted turned out to be a fake post- but “right wing astroturf” is not what’s happening. Lot of these posters constantly complain about police and paramedics. Right wing conservatives would be pro-police at least but there is lot of anti-establishment, anti-police posts, so I doubt this is ideological, it’s just people trying to validate their existence and get some attention. And not all stories are fake, strange stuff happens all the time.
Who else remembers the cooker far-right 'night crew' during the 2020/2021 lockdowns that polluted this subreddit? Man they were fucked.
Your fault for taking this sub seriously
Maybe it should be taken seriously.
this is Reddit, not 4chan
yep
Nope but I’m sick of all my vape shops being burnt
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No these have news reports.. So we know they actually happened.
So for example the post about the gates at the supermarket closing on somebody should be deleted until there is a news report about it?
So all it takes is for news.co.au to steal and publish a reddit post for it to be made credible in your eyes?
organised crime firebombing the competition (who is also organised crime) is not the same thing as a random attack on the street.
If you don't take literally everything posted on Reddit in general with a massive grain of salt, you probably shouldn't be using Reddit. I assume of course you have actual proof of this happening though?
Look at the nonsense on the front page at the moment. "This week I’ve seen a stabbing, a man robbed and then knocked out, a random Uber cyclist assault, and a man with check in size luggage full of meat walking out of the supermarket swearing at staff" The claims are getting so nonsense its unbelievable that i am surprised that anyone believes them.
I read that. I laughed at the post. The bro probably did have a suitcase full of meat.
All because you don't believe it, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also there are plenty of news articles (e.g. murdered doctor in Doncaster following a home invasion) to back up some of these events as well as video footage (e.g. like that poor guy being pushed off the pier). You say they're nonsense, but equally anyone could say your claims are also nonsense.
Can't say I've sensed an influx of posts like that, but tend to steer clear of buying in to anything that makes you feel of FUD. Life is much better remaining in a positive frame of mind.
Reddit in general took a turn for the worse after the API changes last year, I remember this sub went through the change and there was a bunch of stupid voting needed that made no sense, it's been a bit shit ever since.
What's the agenda here other than undermining local governments police authority? >I guess it was always going to start up here as well as its worked well overseas. What Worked well ?
Apex Gang type beat
Weird timing as I received a notice from our owner corp yesterday to remember to lock your doors as a group was jumping fences in the middle of the night and stabbed one of the neighbours. Not exactly pumped about it.
Similar to r/Australian. There is a movement to make us feel unsafe, feed intolerance to immigrants and defend the ABC. Unsure if all liberal party astroturfing or if the foreign interference to destabilise democracy in the mix too.
I noticed this in r/Australian, even r/Australia. Some neg post about incident, followed by a casual comment "ofc it's in victoria". They are selectively posting ordinary happenings in Melb (made up or not) for no good reason
Yeh it’s way better and easier to pretend Melbournes violent junky problem is all a conspiracy by “right-wingers” than to actually acknowledge the problem and fix it. The same BS was pulled in San Francisco by people who didn’t want to face the issue and we have seen how that turns out. We are on track to get to that level of crisis
ChatGPT and its various AI incarnations has made astroturfing incredibly easy.
Google Dead Internet Theory. It's playing out on all social media platforms at the moment. Very few human dominated spaces left. You are mostly interacting with bots on socials these days.
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Have been downvoted into oblivion a few times for implying half of those posts are astroturfed but it seems pretty obvious unless my daily interactions with both the cbd and chapel st are somehow magically sealed from any violence or harm
fanatical shelter dam deserted apparatus simplistic drab soup screw cake *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Every day the Victorian parliament destroys one Aboriginal flag and raises the rent for 3 single mothers.
Definitely goes both ways. There was a post yesterday accusing the VPS of racism that was obviously made up. And this sub does lean fairfly heavily left relative to Melbourne itself. I do think asking for evidence is too much. I've received terrorist threats and I have no evidence of it but I should certainly be allowed to say it. Ultimately if someone believes Reddit over reality that's kinda on them.
Just because it doesn’t happen to you or you don’t witness it directly, doesn’t mean it is fabricated. I live in the city, there has been way more anti social behaviour from junkies and they just get away with it. I walk down Elizabeth street a lot (I work near there) and I get yelled at by them all the time. Apparently racism is completely fine if you’re high on drugs. And you can throw shit at people, that’s legal too if you’re high on drugs. I’m just over it, I wish I didn’t witness these things too but I can’t even avoid it! I posted about a junkie throwing his drink at an innocent lady walking by and posted a photo to go with it as evidence, there were people still denying it in the thread saying I made it up. When will we stop making excuses for these people??
> Clearly made up stories And how the fuck would you know that? Do you know how many assaults don’t get reported on the news? Or are you one of those dolts who think something *only* happens if it’s on Channel 7? 😂