Look poor to avoid attacks: Victorian top cop to Indians

Dont display your iPods,dont display your valuable watch,dont display your valuable jewellery. Try to look as poor as you can, Overland was quoted as saying by The Age.

The Victorian police chief commissioner said students could take some steps to protect themselves. If you can live somewhere safer,live somewhere safer, he said. If you can avoid public transport into high-risk areas late at night,avoid it.

Victorian Premier John Brumby defended his top cop,saying the advice to the overseas students to avoid crime,as per Overland,was a comment about high crime areas. He may have been making the point that in some areas,there are higher crime rates than in others, the Premier was quoted as saying by AAP.

Brumby said he and the police chief condemned in the strongest possible terms acts of violence,and particularly any violence which is racially motivated.

But the Federation of Indian Student Association FISA rejected Overlands remarks with its spokesperson Gautam Gupta calling the police chiefs advice ridiculous.

Gupta said Indians need not look poor to feel safe. What is he Overland saying? Indians dont have the right to be rich? And if they look rich,do they may be have to get bashed? On one hand,everyone should look poor. On the other,dont live in poor areas where crime rate is high. I dont understand.

On Overlands remarks that taxi drivers,including Indians,had a right to feel safe no matter what their nationality was,Gupta said: Its a work place. Every work place should be safe. I think its a ridiculous idea. It is blaming the worker. It is blaming the victim.