{"id":210957,"date":"2025-09-08T19:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T19:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:52:14","slug":"anger-over-meme-believed-to-have-led-to-murder-of-chol-achiek-and-dau-akueng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210957\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger over meme believed to have led to murder of Chol Achiek and Dau Akueng"},"content":{"rendered":"

About eight offenders, who wore masks and wielded machetes<\/a> and knives, are on the run.<\/p>\n

Gang members are shocked and angered by Saturday\u2019s attack on two innocent \u201ccivs\u201d, according to support workers as well as social media posts seen by The Age.<\/p>\n

\"Chuti<\/p>\n

Chuti Ngong, the father of Chol Achiek.Credit: Nine News<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is reeling,\u201d said Abraham Kuol, a criminology researcher and South Sudanese community leader who helps run mentoring programs for children involved in gang violence. \u201cThis is escalating. Every week, we are seeing another death or something happen. It\u2019s a public health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

One teen formerly connected to a gang told this masthead there was now talk of retaliation to defend \u201cthe youngins\u201d killed, and similar sentiments are spreading online among those who frequent \u201cleague tables\u201d keeping score of gang violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two boys have been remembered as bright, beloved members of their community, talented basketballers and promising young leaders.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush sent an internal memo to officers supporting comments made by Detective Inspector Graham Banks, who broke rank with the courts and state government on Sunday when he said that existing penalties for youth offenders did not reflect community expectations.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush.Credit: Justin McManus<\/p>\n

Banks said rising crime in Victoria was not just a policing problem, and strong deterrents were needed. \u201cWhether that balance is right is really a matter for the community and the courts and ultimately the government,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as I stand here before you, I think the penalties aren\u2019t in balance with what community expectations are or mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Bush said Banks had his full support as the force faced challenging times and responded to \u201cunacceptably high levels of crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to acknowledge the comments of Detective Inspector Graham Banks … who said what many [of] us think when asked in a media conference yesterday about the penalties which are being handed down in the courts for our worst offenders,\u201d Bush wrote to officers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere must be consequences for those who commit these crimes, which drive fear in our community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Victoria Police will always respect the independence of the courts, I understand the frustrations of members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my role \u2026 I will continue to advocate for a range of interventions (including legislation) that will provide the accountability and deterrence that is evidently needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chol, 12, is believed to be the youngest casualty so far of Melbourne\u2019s youth gang crisis, which The Age has linked to more than 20 homicides<\/a> in the past five years.<\/p>\n

Ngong remembered his \u201cintelligent, funny, peaceful boy\u201d as a natural leader who \u201clooked after everybody\u201d, and said his family was waiting for answers from police.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018We came here, from war, for our children to have a better life. Now you regret coming. Children are the root of the tree. Without them, your life is uprooted.\u2019<\/p>\n

Chuti Ngong, Chol Achiek\u2019s father<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elbino Akueng, the father of Dau, also said he was dismayed by the lack of police action after recent incidents of teens wielding machetes in the area.<\/p>\n

Elbino Akueng was at his job as a security guard when he heard news that two children had been killed. \u201cI protect people where I work, but no one protects my family at home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The deaths have now reignited political debate about tougher sentencing laws, though neither party has committed to a change.<\/p>\n

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Police Minister Anthony Carbines told the ABC \u201cthere\u2019s no silver bullet\u201d to solving youth crime, but the government had implemented machete bans and legislative change.<\/p>\n

Premier Jacinta Allan offered condolences to the families and said she met with South Sudanese community leaders on Monday.<\/p>\n

Allan said she \u201cstood with them in their fight against the cancer of youth gang crime that is breaking their community\u2019s heart\u201d, and called for community-led solutions to the problem.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Brad Battin said weakened bail laws had started the \u201crolling crisis\u201d of crime the state now faced.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJacinta Allan is all spin, no solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While bail laws have been tightened recently, frontline youth workers say there has been no effort to boost youth engagement and crime prevention programs shown to help prevent teens falling through the cracks.<\/p>\n

Recent funding cuts have meant wait times for such programs blow out by months, particularly in Melbourne\u2019s west.<\/p>\n

Kuol said the root causes of gang violence<\/a> \u2013 which include poverty, poor mental health and school disengagement \u2013 needed to be addressed before it became \u201can entrenched generational problem\u201d. It did not belong to one cultural group, such as the African or Pacific Islander community to solve, he said, though he was \u201cstill hopeful there will be a brighter future for these kids\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ngong was a teacher before he migrated to Australia with his family in 2008, and said he\u2019d watched his children, including Chol, struggle to stay engaged in a school system very different from what they knew back home. \u201cThen they just drop out, and they walk around together and become different people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools need to work harder to keep kids engaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here, from war, for our children to have a better life. Now you regret coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are the root of the tree. Without them, your life is uprooted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About eight offenders, who wore masks and wielded machetes and knives, are on the run. Gang members are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-210957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115170427539983956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}