But now that Australia's not-so-secret suburban law and order problem has become an international scandal, it's remarkable how vigilant the police can be. The Victorian commissioner, Simon Overland, was this week boasting about a "major crackdown" on crime, with uniformed police, rail transit officers, the dog squad, mounted police and the air wing to patrol the stations where Indian students have been mugged with impunity for years. In Harris Park, Sydney's new Little India, police were out in force this week as young Indians gathered to protest about the latest harassment by what they described as a gang of "Middle Eastern men". Regardless of whether the attacks on Indian students are racially motivated, or whether the violence is being committed by Middle Eastern, Caucasian or any other ethnic group, the fact is our governments and police forces have been turning a blind eye to it. It seems that allowing our cities to become no-go zones at night is easier than enforcing the law. Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne have simply decided they have had enough.

Saurabh, who has just completed a masters at the University of Western Sydney, has been aware of attacks on his fellow Indian students since at least 2004. In an email in response to my column last week, he described a bus trip from the city to western Sydney late one night when "a group of five teenage guys were troubling this lone nightshift Indian worker who was sitting in the front … He didn't resist and just ignored them … Right when they left the bus they spat on the Indian guy and ran away laughing." He says that in Harris Park, "muggings are a common occurrence". "I see the police as very vigilant only during protests like the G20 and the recent one by the Indian students … Also, the traffic police are very vigilant in giving tickets. But the normal police are not in giving public protection." It's not just Indian students complaining about police inaction. It's young Chinese as well. Yuening, for instance, a student from China studying at the University of NSW: "I can tell you that every international student studying in Australia is worrying about safety every day. I think more than one-third of us would have the unpleasant experience." Recently, he says, two friends were robbed on campus, on the main road. But he claims police "tolerate modest robbery".

Murtaza, an Indian student, was mugged 18 months ago on a Saturday night about 8.30 in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. "They broke my nose and ran away and as I called the police little did I know that my complaint will be just going to deaf ears and blind eyes," he said. He went to the police station the next day but was told the offenders had not been found. "I went to the police station two more times in the same week to get my complaint in, not because I expected the police to actually nab those guys, but just wanted a recognition by the law that such an incident had occurred. But every time I went there, I was greeted by a different officer who told me that they were too busy. "It's funny how the police seem to be so busy, considering that such incidents keep occurring in various parts of the city, with the lawbreakers getting away on most of the occasions." Another Indian student, Ajay Kumar, who was at the Harris Park protest this week, says he is so afraid of being assaulted on his way home from work at night, he doesn't go home. "If I finish my work, I stay there," he told the ABC. "Why? Because I know if I come back, someone will smash me, someone will take my money. I know. Because I'm not safe here. Because Australian police is shit, fully shit."

In a strange twist of fate, Superintendent Robert Redfern, the Parramatta local area commander who was hard at work at the Harris Park protests at midnight on Tuesday, was also police commander at Cronulla during the 2005 race riots. We saw then the dangers of vigilantism. Back then, Cronulla locals had been complaining for months that police were playing down assaults and menacing behaviour by what they described as "Middle Eastern" youths from south-western Sydney. There was a protest, which turned into an ugly riot with racist violence against anyone who looked Middle Eastern, followed by revenge attacks as young men from the south-west drove to Cronulla damaging property and assaulting people, with police nowhere to be seen. In Harris Park, the script is familiar. Police play down crime problems, victims lose faith in the authorities to protect them, start to protest, take matters into their own hands, attack innocent passers-by. So far there have been no revenge attacks but it's unlikely police can guarantee they won't occur. Devinemiranda@hotmail.com