When I was a student, the study of statistics was fundamental to my course.
The adage "there are lies, damned lies and statistics" was drummed into us to highlight the fact that statistical numbers can be manipulated to tell what ever story you want.
Attacks on convenience store workers, public transport riders, taxi drivers and people just walking along the street are abhorrent and should be condemned.
Given that there will always be some crime in society, those attacks need to be analysed to determine what patterns are emerging.
If 50% of the taxis being operated between midnight and 6 am on Fridays and Saturdays are being driven by Indian students, then you would expect that 50% of attacks on taxi drivers would be against those drivers.
As an aside, given the usual inebriation of taxi passengers at that time of night and the often appalling lack of knowledge of the layout of Melbourne, the level of "aggro" at these times will often end in violence.
Similarly, given the preponderance of students from the sub-continent in servos and convenience stores during the times when opportunistic crimes occur, then, of course, they will feature heavily in the crime figures.
I am no fan of John Brummy (sic) but the attack on Victoria's safety record by the new premier of NSW is uncalled for. The relative crime rate in NSW is roughly twice that of Victoria, but because of the popularity of Victoria for overseas students we see them representing a discernable proportion of the numbers in Victoria.
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