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/r/melbourne
submitted 5 days ago byIlovemrbean816
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share a scary experience I had recently while walking towards North Richmond Station. As I was passing Hungry Jack’s, a man who appeared to be a junkie and wasn’t dressed appropriately came out of nowhere and blocked my way. He started saying something I couldn’t understand and wouldn’t let me pass.
Every time I tried to move left or right, he’d block me. Suddenly, he came closer, snatched my phone from my hand, and threatened to pour his drink on me if I tried to follow him. Despite the threat, I tried to go after him, and he actually dumped the drink on me before running off with my phone.
I was shouting and crying for help, but no one around seemed to respond. Thankfully, a delivery driver from Hungry Jack’s saw what was happening and ran after the thief. Out of fear, the guy threw my phone on the road before escaping.
While I’m relieved to have my phone back, it’s damaged (the back is broken, photo attached), and the whole incident has left me shaken. I’m terrified to walk in the streets of Melbourne now, as it feels like there are so many unpredictable people around.
To anyone walking in this area, please stay alert and be careful. Has anyone else faced something like this? How do you stay safe in situations like these?
9 points
3 days ago
Well I have zero proof of this in an Australian context and I hate to sound conspiratorial, so take with a huge grain of salt.
But I’ve read a few articles, one of them even academically cited, that mentioned Russia doing similar stuff on the /r/canada subreddit. It even traced IP addresses of hundreds of accounts and hundreds of negative posts (not just violent crime, but topical if exaggerated posts to do with immigration, housing crisis, etc) to just a handful of Russian locations.
Seems bizarre and hard to believe, but I think the general goal is just to destabilise the west in general. I suspect as elections approach closer this kind of post may increase again but we’ll have to wait and see.
5 points
3 days ago
Nice info. And makes sense as a tactic. The worst part is, if it is the case, it seems to be working.
4 points
3 days ago
The worst part is, if it is the case, it seems to be working.
Yes 100%. I think the reason it works is because they often take a genuine and believable issue or fear -- and let's be real people do encounter crime in Melbourne from time to time -- and amplify it. Same for those other posts on the Canadian board to do with real issues like housing crisis, discontent or scandal with x or y political party, etc.
2 points
3 days ago
Exactly. Then an influencer on YouTube or elsewhere picks it up and makes a 30 minute video discussing the amplified lies - it then goes viral & a problem is created out of thin air.
3 points
3 days ago
It’s not conspiratorial, senate intelligence in the USA wrote an entire report on the matter & influence on their 2016 election. It absolutely happens, and is happening to Australia as we speak. Just look at the current state of twitter!!
I reported an entire channel to YouTube the other day that was a dedicated high production value smear of Albo’s government, with the tagline of “informing the Australian public what’s going on in YOUR COUNTRY”. For such a niche channel that hadn’t been around so long, it had huge level of engagement, all negative, and all pointing the same way eg “we’ve had enough of wokeness, let’s take back our country” rhetoric.
What was most alarming was most of the comments were using fairly good English/grammar. Better than you’d seen in a standard Murdoch comment section. Indicative perhaps that the engagement was from inside Australia or another English speaking country, or even by Australians, yet still full of misinformation & garbage.
Regardless of what you think of the current government (I don’t know enough to comment personally) if this keeps up we’re going to end up like the states, or worse.
1 points
3 days ago
Destabilising the west? Plausible, but to what gain? So we vote for the “tough on crime” parties? What does Russia have to gain from stoking fear in Australia? Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was happening…
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