Distrust runs deeper than crime

Chaos ensued at a Daveyton Mall restaurant recently when a man strolled up to his elderly mother, allegedly threatening to stab her for giving police his photo, and beat her until she was left on the floor, bloody.

- KYLE ZEEMAN

Such an attack got even more out of hand when a mob of shoppers tried to retaliate by beating him. A security guard had to intervene.

The man appeared in court this week on two counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but his crime highlights how citizens have resorted to “fixing” a problem that should be left to police or other authorities.

We don’t know if police were investigating the initial assault case that led to the picture, which then led to the manic scenes, but statistics around gender-based violence suggest they probably weren't.