THE alleged assault of a teenage girl in Albury is a shocking crime and police should be given every assistance in finding those responsible to bring them before the courts.
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The community will have serious concerns such an attack could have been perpetrated at all in Albury, let alone in the early evening when the victim has been walking home from work.
However, we do take issue with a comment from Albury mayor Kevin Mack that both men and women should never walk alone at night.
The problem with offering this advice to the population is that it plays directly into the hands of those guilty of these crimes who would prey upon victims going about their regular business.
Let’s be clear; the victim of any kind of attack such as this is not at fault.
What kind of society do we create by encouraging residents to fear getting about because we allow those who would harm others to hold sway?
What kind of message does that send to young people and to visitors?
By all means encourage common sense, but the response in this case should be to find those responsible and prosecute them to ensure this kind of behaviour is understood to be completely unacceptable.
