An Australian city has been ranked the 18th most dangerous city in the world, with a crime and safety score as high as Tijuana, the murder capital of Mexico.
In a shameful milestone, Alice Springs has become the first Australian city to make the top 20 of the Biennial crime index by city ranked by Numbeo.
The 2024 Mid-Year Index tops the list: the crime-ridden South African cities of Pietermaritzburg and Pretoria.
This is followed by the Venezuelan capital Caracas and the capital of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby.
This is followed by three other South African cities: Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth, followed by the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Another South African city, Cape Town, comes in at 17th, followed by Alice Springs, the iconic Outback town that landed on this infamous list due to years of lawlessness, with gangs of children roaming the streets and committing crimes.
Although this is the second year that the city has been in the top 20, two years ago the city was not even in the top 450 of cities with the most crime.
The worst in Australia in 2022 were the cities of Gosford (ranked 58th) and Cairns (ranked 72nd) on the Central South Wales coast.
In the most recent index, Alice Springs ranks in the top 20 with a crime index of 72.1 and a safety index of 27.9.
The safest city of the 311 cities ranked mid-year is Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, with a crime rate of 11.8 and a safety rating of 88.2.
Two other cities in the UAE, Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah, are among the safest cities with the lowest crime rates.
In January 2023, the 16-year-old son of an Alice Springs hospitality worker was attacked by youths and struck in the face, stomach and legs with an axe
A stolen car was set alight on a street in Alice Springs after gangs of youths roamed the area under the influence of alcohol
Australia has eight cities on the list. Canberra is the safest with a 26.4 for crime and 73.6 for safety, the same as the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Beijing.
The Gold Coast is the second most dangerous city in Australia and ranks 139th in the world. It scores average for crime (46.9) and for safety (53.1).
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 except Alice Springs, followed by Christchurch (156th) and Wellington (223rd).
The wave of violence that turned Alice Springs into an unsafe outpost has been blamed on the Albanian government’s decision to lift the alcohol ban two years ago.
The problems arose ‘immediately’ when the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act expired on 17 July 2022, meaning alcohol was available in many Indigenous town camps in the Territory for the first time since 2007.
Alice Springs has been ranked in the top 20 most dangerous cities in the world for the second year in a row, but two years ago it wasn’t even in the top 450 worst places
Children began drinking alcohol, “sometimes in the form of hand gel diluted in soda, or using deodorant, gasoline or glue,” and using weapons such as machetes and axes.
This caused crime in the city to skyrocket. Gangs of up to 200 children roamed the streets at night, committing crimes such as house burglaries and car theft.
Residents complained of living in fear and being forced to hide indoors while children as young as five years old ran around the streets.
Videos and images posted to local bakery owner Darren Clark’s Action For Alice Facebook page (which charts the lawless behaviour before alcohol was banned) made headlines around the world.
Mr Clarke’s latest reports from the weekend of violence suggest that nothing has really changed, despite Northern Territory Police Chief Michael Murphy’s promise to establish an Alice Springs Territory Safety Division to restore law and order.
The department was headed by Assistant Commissioner Janelle Tonkin and comprised 18 highly qualified officers. The department was given ‘focused responsibilities for juvenile crime, highly visible policing and rapid response to public order situations’.
Last weekend, at 3.30am, three men wearing caps and carrying machetes burst into a home occupied by a mother and her four children, aged between 3 and 14, Action for Alice said.
The alleged perpetrators, aged between 18 and 30, aimed a machete at the eight-year-old boy to keep him quiet and also pointed a machete at the mother’s throat while demanding alcohol.
The 14-year-old protected the three-year-old as the mother pleaded for her children’s safety, while the six-year-old slept through the ordeal.
The intruders grabbed their alcohol and left. Mr Clark said things had gotten worse since a violence-control curfew for young people ended in April.
With his face disguised, a young man prepares to throw himself against the metal roller door of a liquor store to grab alcohol, a commodity that was still causing burglaries as recently as last weekend
The young man hits his feet against the liquor store door
His website says that car windows were smashed at the Mercure resort last week, and that windows were also smashed Saturday night when criminals tried to enter rooms.
Just two weeks ago, a gang of 20 youths attacked police officers, prompting calls for an immediate 72-hour lockdown.
Mr. Clark posted on Sunday: ‘Another machete robbery. Totally out of control. We are under attack. Where is the police chief now?
“Where is the Territory Safety Division you all brag about? Does it even exist?”