I saw a wonderful photo by Fairfax photojournalist Alex Ellinghausen showing three small girls running down the hill which forms the roof of Parliament House in 2016, before the security fence was erected. When I was younger I had a friend who worked as a journalist in the building, and one day when I visited Canberra he took me on a tour. We walked through endless passageways and up flights of stairs, then we went through a door and all of a sudden we ended up on the grassy slope that is the building's roof. There was something magical about this sudden revelation that has meant that I have never forgotten it.
We see creeping security measures everywhere we look, a desire to coerce and control people so that they don't transgress. We see it in the stories about recent increased security at the ABC building in Ultimo, where now guards pounce on visitors to ask them what their business is. You see it in the warning signals set in the macadam of the roadway at some pedestrian crossings in the city, where the authorities are trying out new ways to stop people crossing against the lights. You see it in the visibility of guards in shopping centres - those black-uniformed men and women constantly circulating among shoppers. You see it when there are police officers with sniffer dogs positioned outside train stations screening commuters for illicit substances. You see it in the bollards set up in busy pedestrian areas next to roadways to guard against people using vehicles as a weapon. You also see it in the federal government's giving authorities access to the meta data of people's communications, and in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's naming of encrypted communications channels as tools used to subvert the efforts of authorities investigating terrorism.
But the crime statistics show that overall we are safer now than we have been for a long time. These charts are from BOCSAR (the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, NSW).
We see creeping security measures everywhere we look, a desire to coerce and control people so that they don't transgress. We see it in the stories about recent increased security at the ABC building in Ultimo, where now guards pounce on visitors to ask them what their business is. You see it in the warning signals set in the macadam of the roadway at some pedestrian crossings in the city, where the authorities are trying out new ways to stop people crossing against the lights. You see it in the visibility of guards in shopping centres - those black-uniformed men and women constantly circulating among shoppers. You see it when there are police officers with sniffer dogs positioned outside train stations screening commuters for illicit substances. You see it in the bollards set up in busy pedestrian areas next to roadways to guard against people using vehicles as a weapon. You also see it in the federal government's giving authorities access to the meta data of people's communications, and in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's naming of encrypted communications channels as tools used to subvert the efforts of authorities investigating terrorism.
But the crime statistics show that overall we are safer now than we have been for a long time. These charts are from BOCSAR (the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, NSW).
Above: Long-term violent offences trend, NSW, Covers period from January 1995 to July 2016. (Violent offences include: murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault - domestic violence related, assault - non-domestic violence related, assault police, robbery without a weapon, robbery with a firearm, robbery with a weapon not a firearm, sexual assault and indecent assault / act of indecency / other sexual offences.)
Above: Long-term property offences trend, NSW. Covers period from January 1995 to July 2016. (Property offences include: break and enter dwelling, break and enter non-dwelling, motor vehicle theft, steal from motor vehicle, steal from retail store, steal from dwelling, steal from person, stock theft, other theft and fraud.)
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