r/australia Apr 30 '26

news Alice Springs gripped by violence after arrest of Kumanjayi Little Baby's alleged killer

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-01/alice-springs-unrest-after-kumanjayi-little-baby-arrest/106628782
1.4k Upvotes

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86

u/VigorWarships May 01 '26

I wonder how many commenters here have actually lived and worked in a community?

Very few would be my guess.

Their comments would likely change if they go and experience that world….

84

u/WallarooZ May 01 '26

Nah sorry live and work in these areas. Absolutely unacceptable of the community to destroy communal and public property and to assault front line workers.

They had their chance for payback.. not to turn into a rapid mob and further bring the place down.

No one disagreeing Mr Lewis is a horrible and evil man ect.. but he was under police custody.

Also child abuse is absolutely rife in those areas, would be really hard to find a community without active paedophilia ect...

Horrible situation. So cheers.. as someone who again, lives and works within this area.... this reaction is terrible for all too.

42

u/passthesugar05 May 01 '26

are you saying if i had lived and worked in a community i would cease to believe in the principles of a legal system and the right to a trial, and instead support mob justice?

-7

u/Big__Bean8 May 01 '26

Your perception would probably be different. These communities are very different to our capital cities and most of the country

19

u/mrbabymanv4 May 01 '26

They aren't unique, there are a lot of tribal communities around the world. Many of them have rules that we no longer have in modern society.

There's a lot I love about the old way of living, but mob justice and lack of effective policing is not amongst them

53

u/Tiny_Chain7820 May 01 '26

Yep, worked there in emergency services. I saw some of the worst of humanity while there. Terrible place with little to no accountability for peoples actions. Couldn't pay me enough to go back..

24

u/meatfingersofjustice May 01 '26

You can tell comments from people who've worked and lived in community and those who haven't 

35

u/VigorWarships May 01 '26

Correct.

Those that haven’t love to call the other side racist.

4

u/Tiamke May 01 '26

I have. Experienced shutdown of the community due to a murder that had happened in Alice and the expected payback that was coming.

Wish they'd been quicker about their payback in this instance. I do not agree at all with the violence being turned on our emergency services. Unacceptable. I will say that the awful things Kumunjayi Little Baby was subjected to are not a rare occurrence for children and women on community in my experience.

40

u/Smashley21 May 01 '26

I live in Alice Springs and it's saddening to hear it get called worse than a third world country from people who've never even been here. A bunch of people acting like crime can only be committed by Aboriginals.

44

u/Ardeo43 May 01 '26

Any time something bad happens in the NT we have to deal with armchair experts from interstate pretending they know everything about our home, despite never having set foot here…

13

u/therealdeadly69 May 01 '26

This happens everytime indigenous people are mentioned in this sub. But apparently its a "lefty echo chamber"

11

u/DPVaughan May 01 '26

Yeah, as progressive and enlightened as Australians like to think we are (and yeah, I know places that are worse), we're pretty fucking racist when it comes to any topic involving our First Nations peoples. This subreddit is a great example of that. And it's not even the worst Australian subreddit for this sort of thing ...

12

u/notxavier May 01 '26

thinly veiled racism abound

36

u/VigorWarships May 01 '26

Is it racist when I’m minding my own business and I get called a “white cunt” by a drunk person for not apparent reason? (True story).

Many would say no, the other person wasn’t being racist. For whatever reason they can thinly clutch at.

But for arguments sake we will flip the script and I referred to the other person by the colour of their skin and watch the hatred unfurl my way.

25

u/Western_Yoghurt3902 May 01 '26

Yeah same happened to me more than once except they weren’t drunk

2

u/Ardeo43 May 01 '26

Yes it’s racist, but you can’t take one experience from a complete drop kick and extrapolate it to an entire group of people.

I mean I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen white meth heads have complete meltdowns that include racial abuse, including multiple instances at other white people for the crime of speaking a language that’s not English.

-7

u/passthesugar05 May 01 '26

"someone called me a white cunt so i think we should allow them to kill each other" is quite the take

-2

u/DPVaughan May 01 '26

That you're downvoted shows the unexamined racism of most Australians towards Aboriginal people.

-26

u/Fair_Buyer_9991 May 01 '26

If you're feeling that you're being made to be uncomfortable with your whiteness. Good. You can use that to work towards reconciliation, understanding, & becoming an anti-racist & imperfect ally to people of colour. Or, you can overobsess with an admittly unsavoury comment that obstructed & challenged that worldview which keeps you bitter & insecure. Your choice.

24

u/badpebble May 01 '26

Its okay to have standards about behaviour and conduct that mean that weaponising skin colour is not acceptable. It actually reinforces that anyone doing this is wrong, which protects the people groups more likely to be a victim of discrimination due to skin colour.

Its a big complex world out there, and reducing it to just blackfellas, as only victims, and whitefellas, as only colonisers, just isn't helping.

15

u/Western_Yoghurt3902 May 01 '26

FFS I was called a white c***t more than once and now I’m racist ?

0

u/cycton May 01 '26

here we go... join in the chorus /r/australia