By Alesha Capone
YOUTH gangs remain a big problem in the West, according to Melbourne youth worker Les Twentyman.
But the area’s police said the so-called gangs were not a significant issue within the municipality.
“It always has been an issue in the Brimbank area, since I started working in Sunshine in 1984,” Mr Twentyman said.
“Issues from what was the old City of Sunshine, which is now Maribyrnong, are now arising with gangs in Braybrook.
“They’ve got more entrenched over time, with more disadvantaged youth in the area.
“We’ve got some very, very severe social issues in Melbourne, especially in the north-west.
“The youth unemployment rates in Brimbank and Maribyrnong are some of worst in the entire nation.”
Mr Twentyman said the gangs were using internet social networking sites to recruit and organise their activities.
He also said gang members “knocked out” a school principal and were attacking other students in corridors at a western suburbs school last year.
Mr Twentyman said he believed there needed to be youth workers in every western suburbs school and more effort put into engaging young people with education and sport.
Acting Brimbank local area commander, Inspector Paul Allinson, said he did not believe gangs were a significant issue in Brimbank.
The recent media reports of gangs called STA (St Albans), SnK (St Albans N Kings Park), 3020, Sunshine Boys, SKS (Sunshine, Kealba, St Albans), DSC (Dirty Saint Crips) and JSC (Junior Sunshine Crips) operating in the area might not be entirely correct, according to Insp Allinson.
“Some of the named groups aren’t known to exist anymore,” he said.
When asked if gangs were a significant issue in Brimbank, he said:
“I’d say no, but any groups of youth who identify themselves or who, we feel are engaged in anti-social activity, quickly become the focus of monitoring and operations collecting intelligence,” he said.
“We have isolated instances of crime sometimes, involving two or three young people together, but as to whether people consider if that is a gang or not I don’t know.”
He said Brimbank police had youth resource officers who engaged with teenagers and helped steer them away from the juvenile justice system.
In April last year, several Molotov cocktails were thrown into a Toorak house and ‘3020’ was spraypainted on its outside wall.
