Student Name:  Alex Leggett

Student Class:  10A

What can you tell us about this piece of work?

This piece of work was on an article discussing Launceston’s latest crime spike.

What is your favourite thing about English?

Book or play studies. 

What are you working on at the moment in English?

An essay on Macbeth. 

What book are you reading at the moment?

‘Read Between the Lines’. 

What is your favourite book and why?

‘In Cold Blood’ as it is a true crime about the 1959 murders of the Herbert Cutter family.  It was a well written and intriguing book. 

What are some books that you would really like to read?

True crime novels as they are interesting.

Northern Tasmania Shootings Prompt Calls for Dozens More Police to Tackle Launceston Crime Spike

This article was published by ABC news on Friday 23^rd April 2021 and shows the author's concern regarding the latest crime spike in Launceston. The author consults with three main leaders of the community - Albert Van Zetten, the Mayor of Launceston, Ivan Dean, a former Police Commander and Colin Riley, from the Police Association of Tasmania. These three men feel that Launceston needs more officers on the streets, special task forces for Launceston, surveillance teams and CIB (Commonwealth Investigation Bureau) teams in the region to keep people safe and reduce crime all together. The police union has called for an additional 70 officers to be immediately recurred state-wide, Mr Riley wants to bring in 33 of these officers to Launceston, Mr Dean would like a full time special operations group in Launceston and Mayor Van Zetten is urging citizens to speak up if they know anything about the shootings.

More police officers on the job will help prevent these shootings and to make people feel safe, Although more police officers will not solve the issue. You would need to get rid of crime all together for it to stop completely. It will help control the situation and instil more fear into these heinous criminals as there is more chance of them getting caught and being incarcerated. As Mr Riley has said ‘we need more investigators in Launceston to snip the crime in the bud’.  I agree that we, as a state, need these additional investigators. The police force are working to their highest ability with what staff and recourses they have on hand, which is clearly not enough as out of the 12 shootings only 4 have been solved. The government needs to spend more money to solve these horrific murders because the police are over worked and need more resources.

A Special Operations Unit in Launceston is unquestionably needed as they can be on call and be at the crime scene within 10 minutes so they can try and catch the shooters red handed and stop the shootings from the source. They can then be focused on one case to stop the crimes and put a lot of resources into catching them as Mr Dean said “We need a special operations group in Launceston not just the states capital Hobart” and “the morning the shooting happened the special operations group should have been on the ground in a very, very  short amount of time”. I strongly agree with these statements as they are undeniably right and a more than fair request. This big jump in officer recruitments will promote more jobs and growth to the economy. It would make sure the officers will respond in a timely manner as they must come from Hobart 2 hours away which is unexpectable.  

Many residents said they are not frightened by the recent rise in gun violence, but they are very concerned that this crime spike will lead to their loved ones being in danger. Mr Van Zetten the city’s Mayor has said “It's time not to just pretend and hide away from the facts, if you know of somebody who has been involved in this in any shape or form, please help the police and their enquires, so we can get on top of it” and I feel that this is a very strong statement that really encourages the public to step forward and speak up and this really shows that Mr Van Zetten cares about the public and their safety and wellbeing of the citizens of Launceston and surrounding area. I believe we all have a responsibility as members of this community to take these crimes seriously and help the police as much as we can to stop these horrendous murders.

In conclusion, this article outlines the seriousness of the latest crime spike in Launceston and some possible ways to solve them. Three prominent Launceston citizens show their opinions and how they would fix this problem such as more police, a S.W.A.T. team and a CIB operations unit in the city. I agree with these arguments as they would reduce crime and gun violence which will be good for the state and people’s state of mind as they will not be as scared to leave their homes.