Pubdate: Sat, 7 Nov 1998
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Copyright: 1998 David Syme & Co Ltd
Author: John Elder

ST KILDA RESIDENT STIRS UP DEBATE ON PROSTITUTION

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster." Friedrich Nietzsche

St Kilda has two local newspapers delivered free to every mailbox.  This
week, Ken McLean ran hot on the front pages of them.  Same story, different
angles, both wild and dangerous.

Mr McLean found himself sought by television and radio.  The police also
popped by to have a few words.

"Can't understand the fuss, mate," he told The Age.

Mr McLean is the coordinator for Neighborhood Watch in St Kilda.

In The Emerald Hill Times, he claimed that Grey Street residents would no
longer call paramedics to help prostitutes who overdosed in the street.

He told the Times that locals were so fed up with being hassled that they
would rather see the women left to die.

He also urged the police commander, Mr Noel Perry, to send in the Special
Response Group - commando police who deal with hostage scenes and
shoot-outs - to wipe the streets clean of women who sell themselves under
street lights, under the cover of trees.

"We don't call them prostitutes, we call them drug addicts," Mr McLean said.

In the Port Phillip Leader, he said prostitutes working Grey Street were
spitting, kicking and throwing syringes at residents who refused their
business.  That is declined to take a drive in the dark somewhere.  He also
told the Leader that street walkers were behind the recent surge in
burglaries and street crime.

"We see it coming from our balconies.  We call it spectator crime," he had
said.  Mr McLean's balcony looks on to a courtyard.

For more than six years, Mr Mclean has campaigned hard for the eviction of
street-walkers from his neighborhood.

In 1992 he urged the State Government to cut funding to the Prostitutes
Collective of Victoria.

Mr McLean's recent claims - and the balcony quote - have since been retold
to various media outlets and widely reported.

Gone interstate, even.

"Well, it's all news to me," said Mr Perry, who is in charge of police
operations in Region One, which takes in St Kilda.

"What's he got to back it up? There's no correlation, in my understanding."

"We all have a duty of care to people who are sick, even if that illness is
related to drugs. It's a sick society if it has got to the stage where you
leave people to die."

"My one real concern is that Mr Mclean's remarks are being made on behalf of
Victoria Police and Neighborhood Watch."

A police sergeant has since visited Mr McLean for a chat.

"When I'm speaking," Mr  McLean said, "I'm speaking as a concerned
resident."

He then proceeded to talk at length about the concerns of his neighbors.
More of the same things he had said before.

"Some residents have already made the decision not to call paramedics for
overdoses in the street. I personally call the police to secure the
situation," he said.

Why not the ambulance first? "Drug addicts, when resuscitated, always
assault the paramedics. That's why you need the police there first."

Does he call the ambulance after speaking to the police? "No. No. I leave
that up to the police."

Not everybody who lives in the same block of flats as Mr Mclean sees the
street in the same way.

"We can see the street from where we live. He can't," one woman said,

"I've seen a girl beaten up by her pimp, and the pimp was a woman."

"There was a disturbed woman working the street for a while. She'd yell
abuse at people. But that's more to do with mental illness than
prostitution. The biggest problem is the men cruising in their cars."

Outside the building there were no girls to be seen, while in Greeves Street
a couple listened to the cars slowly passing in the dark.

- ---
Checked-by: Rolf Ernst