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Speaker 1: But Northern Territory police say that they've arrested three female

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Speaker 1: us after an assault on two women in Austin Lane

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday afternoon. A twenty one year old woman was

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Speaker 1: returning to her vehicle when she was approached by the

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Speaker 1: group who allegedly assaulted her before attempting to steal her vehicle. However,

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Speaker 1: they were unsuccessful. Now, the group stole her handbag and

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Speaker 1: continued walking when they approached a second woman and allegedly

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Speaker 1: assaulted her. Now, as I understand it, a nearby witness

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Speaker 1: came to the aid of the second person and the

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Speaker 1: group left the scene on a bus and that bus

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Speaker 1: was then tracked to Casarina and all three of those

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Speaker 1: offenders were arrested.

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Speaker 2: Now, joining me on the line to tell.

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Speaker 1: Us more about what happened is one of the victims

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Speaker 1: of that assault.

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Speaker 2: Leah, good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie. How are you.

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Speaker 2: Probably better than you I reckon? How are you going? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Well, Katie, Yeah, I'm starting a little bit. It was

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Speaker 3: quite traumatic. I've worked in the city for over twenty years,

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Speaker 3: and yeah, I've never experienced anything like that before or

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Speaker 3: seen anything like it, So yeah, but I am traumatized

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Speaker 3: by it and I'm sure, and I'm sad, and this

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Speaker 3: has happens in the city and it happened to me.

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Speaker 1: I was bloody sad I when I found out that

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Speaker 1: it was you, because I think to myself, you know,

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Speaker 1: for as long as I've been going into the city

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Speaker 1: and frequenting different retail outlets, you have been such a friendly, familiar, wonderful,

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Speaker 1: beautiful face that I know of. Plenty of the women

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Speaker 1: of the territory will know you and will certainly know

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Speaker 1: what a lovely person you are. So I was shocked

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Speaker 1: and saddened when I realized that it was you who'd

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Speaker 1: been assaulted.

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Speaker 2: Tell me what happened on Tuesday afternoon.

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Speaker 3: Well, just previously, over the last two weeks, Katie, I've

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Speaker 3: actually had to lock the door to the shop because

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Speaker 3: I felt unsafe. And on Tuesday, I was leaving the

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Speaker 3: store and I had just walked past Flash and then

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Speaker 3: walked over towards Austin Lane to go to Ruby, you know,

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Speaker 3: passed Ruby's there, and these girls just came from nowhere

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Speaker 3: and you know started, you know, they said to me,

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Speaker 3: you know, what are you looking at? You know, why

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Speaker 3: are you looking at me? And all of this, which

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Speaker 3: I wasn't I just I just I didn't have you know,

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Speaker 3: I just kept looking and walking straight ahead. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: they grabbed me from behind with my hair and threw

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Speaker 3: me to the ground and I tried to sort of

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Speaker 3: get up, but I couldn't. And then they did it

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Speaker 3: again and again, and I started calling towards There's a

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Speaker 3: cement seats along there, and there were two men sitting there,

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Speaker 3: and I looked at them as if to say, can

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Speaker 3: you please help me? But yeah, I don't blame them

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Speaker 3: because it was very savage and very Yeah, there was

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Speaker 3: a lot of power in these girls. For young girls,

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Speaker 3: they had a lot of power.

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Speaker 2: How luck are you injured?

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Speaker 3: Yeah I am. I'm just Yeah, my head sore and

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Speaker 3: I do have a very soret egg and lost a

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Speaker 3: bit of skin off here and there. But you know

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Speaker 3: that that's in time, you know, will go away. But

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Speaker 3: you know the mental side of it, you know, having

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Speaker 3: to go back into the city. I'm a little bit.

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Speaker 3: I'm a bit worried about that. And I feel sorry

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Speaker 3: for this other girl as well. I mean, she must

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Speaker 3: be traum and traumatized as well.

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Speaker 2: Is spot on? How what what's your family's reaction being?

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Speaker 3: Well, I'm sort of glad that my husband didn't catch

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Speaker 3: them on Tuesday night. Put it that way. Tell me

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Speaker 3: and I have had a lot of support from friends

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Speaker 3: and my family have been amazing. But you know, yeah,

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Speaker 3: they've been really really good and I've had a lot

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Speaker 3: of support, So that has been wonderful.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 1: And look, I think that that's the wonderful thing that

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Speaker 1: we see in Darwin so often is when something terrible happens,

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Speaker 1: you do see the best you know in people as

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Speaker 1: well and in everybody, and that's a beautiful thing. But Lea,

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Speaker 1: you've worked in the city for a long time, on

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Speaker 1: and off.

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Speaker 2: You've lived here. You've lived here in Darwin for a

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Speaker 2: long time as well, haven't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I have. We've been here thirty years now, Katie,

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Speaker 3: thirty years. I have worked off and on in the

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Speaker 3: city for twenty years. So yeah, they definitely need to

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Speaker 3: put more security on in the city. I mean the

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Speaker 3: security of fine now, but it's just not enough in there.

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Speaker 3: Definitely needs to be more. The police are amazing, but

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Speaker 3: they can only do so much. But yeah, I really

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Speaker 3: would need someone to walk me to my car.

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Speaker 1: Well this is the thing, well, this is you know,

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Speaker 1: this is the thing The fact is this happened at

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Speaker 1: like five o'clock in the afternoon on Tuesday.

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Speaker 3: Yes it did, and in a busy like intersection sort

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Speaker 3: of area. And I'd hate to think of it was

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Speaker 3: the tourists were an elderly lady or anything like that,

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Speaker 3: because they wouldn't have hope in hell. And thank god

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Speaker 3: this lovely man, big tall man come running over to me,

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Speaker 3: because without his help, I wasn't getting any help from anybody.

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Speaker 2: What did what did the girls do? Then? After that

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Speaker 2: bloke came over and helped you?

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Speaker 3: Oh, they just thought they ran off Katie up towards

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Speaker 3: you know, the loading bay that way. I thought that

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Speaker 3: they were heading up to Woolworth, you know, that sort

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Speaker 3: of area. But apparently these girls had been at the

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Speaker 3: cool spot just previous to coming into the city and

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Speaker 3: they caused quite a promotion there as well. So I

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Speaker 3: don't know if they were reported to the police then

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Speaker 3: or you know, but yeah, very very very vicious.

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Speaker 2: Have you ever had anything like this happened to you before?

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Speaker 1: Never?

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Speaker 3: Ever? Never? How does this casarina anywhere? You feel a

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Speaker 3: bit sort of intimidated now, but you sort of just,

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Speaker 3: you know, we learn to live with it. I suppose

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Speaker 3: we just don't look keep walking, but yeah, I'll certainly

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Speaker 3: be looking behind me and beside me and around me.

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Speaker 2: Y well, and you know that is not fair.

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Speaker 1: It is like, it's not okay what's happened to you?

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Speaker 1: And it's not okay for us as a community to

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Speaker 1: think that it is in any way, shape or form,

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Speaker 1: because you cannot have a situation where you've got kids

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Speaker 1: they are like you know, teenagers and younger, thinking that

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Speaker 1: they can assault somebody and that it's okay, that's exactly right.

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Speaker 3: And this eleven year old girl, she will she's back

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Speaker 3: out on the street and she was probably one of

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Speaker 3: the most vicious ones. I'm the power that she had

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Speaker 3: in her the anger. Well apparently you know, they've been

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Speaker 3: snipping deodorant beforehand. You could, you could see it in

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Speaker 3: their eyes.

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Speaker 2: Just not on It is not on, Leah.

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Speaker 1: What like, what do you think needs to happen in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory right now?

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Speaker 3: Do you really want to know? Oh? I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I just honestly think as far as you know, the

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Speaker 3: city is concerned, you know, we do need more security

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Speaker 3: in there. Definitely that's got to be ramped up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how are you feeling about going back to work

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Speaker 1: or do you think, like, you know, are you going

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Speaker 1: to sort of be able to.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I will be able to, but I will be

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Speaker 3: more cautious and more you know, every time someone opens

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Speaker 3: the door or whatever, I'll be a bit nervous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I had an internet on Sunday where I worked on

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Speaker 3: Sunday and I had to lock the door because I

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Speaker 3: had used out the front that made me feel uncomfortable.

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Speaker 3: I had used to come in two weeks before that.

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Speaker 3: Four of them. I had to tell them to get

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Speaker 3: out of the shop. A gentleman in the shop that

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Speaker 3: was a tourist and he helped me. And because they

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Speaker 3: were just going to go blist in the shop, they

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Speaker 3: were doing all the shops and I know this does happen,

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Speaker 3: It's happened before in the city. However, they weren't going

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Speaker 3: to let me shut the door and he put his

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Speaker 3: leg in the door. Just that even scared me.

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Speaker 1: So has there been like it sounds as though there's

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Speaker 1: been an increase in bad behavior in recent weeks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely ramped up in the last last six weeks. Definitely.

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Speaker 3: I also know of someone else that a woman that

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Speaker 3: works in the city and government job in a building

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Speaker 3: in Mitchell Street and she was approached and asked for

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Speaker 3: money by Indigenous girls and because she ignored them and

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Speaker 3: didn't just kept going, they slapped her across the faith.

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Speaker 3: That's so wrong.

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Speaker 2: It is, it is so wrong, and it is not.

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Speaker 3: What tourists getting tested all the time like leave them alone.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my goodness. I mean, like, honestly, I can't

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Speaker 1: tell you how many times on this show I've said

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Speaker 1: something has to change. But it is just appalling. And

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Speaker 1: you know, what happened to you is appalling.

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Speaker 3: It is, and you never think it's going to happen

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Speaker 3: to you. It has, Clea.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate you speaking to me this morning. It

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Speaker 1: takes a lot of guts to be able to, you know,

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Speaker 1: to stand up and speak out after what's happened to you.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I think, and we've got to do

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Speaker 1: it because we've got we've got to actually go. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're not all right with this, We're not okay with

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Speaker 1: what's happening to this town. We all want to live

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Speaker 1: here because we love the place, but we cannot live

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Speaker 1: in fear.

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Speaker 3: No no, but.

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Speaker 1: I Pati Leah, I really appreciate you coming on this morning.

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Speaker 1: I've got messages coming through for you already, some of

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Speaker 1: the names messaging through, people that you know, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: and all you know, applauding you for coming out and

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Speaker 1: talking to us this morning and for being really brave.

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Speaker 2: We will see you back in the city.

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Speaker 1: I know I'll be back in there to see you

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Speaker 1: and do not let this stop you from living your life.

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Speaker 2: And thank you very much for speaking to me today.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Pattie, Thank you you support.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Leah,