Iemma's promotional police praise overshadowed by latest criticisms.

Continuing on with previus tracks of police inadequacy and refreshing news, I found the article article in this morning's SMH entitled "A great divide takes some great understandig" particularly interesting. The article features heavily, the opinions of ex-police officer turned social worker and academic Michael Kennedy. Kennedy shares a range of insights from his personal experiences liasing with Lebanese drug lords to the history of the Lebanese civil war. It was also good to hear deeper social issues dealt with, especially those surrounding the long-standing issue of police's general avoidance of crime associated with Middle Eastern gangs. Interesting arguments were also raised pertaining to the downfall of the police after the Wood Royal Commission and Peter Ryans stint as Police Comissioner. Most significantly, however, the quotes that follow act as a beautiful counterweight to Morris Iemma's kissing of police ass earlier in the week.

Here are a few of the best bits!

Moroney speaks in cliches. It suited the ALP to emasculate the police. They now run the police like a business, like a Coca-Cola bottling plant, statistics and productivity bonuses. It's all data-driven.

(Kennedy on Moroney's leadership)

The NSW Police has just developed into a pansy operation since politicians took away the kick-arse provisions in the law. You give the crims an inch and they take a mile.

(Kennedy's criticism continued)

It's as if they've left the police band out to do the job. They are small, young, one-stripe. Little experience. No street presence. They can't do it.

(A former police officer on police'sperformance at cronulla and other problem areas last weekend)

The mismanagement of this situation by politicians, lawyers and police has taken us to the point where we could see violent civil disorder on a scale we have not seen before. The minute you talk tough, and these Lebanese guys lose face, they only know one thing to do. Retaliate. You saw it immediately after the Cronulla riot.

(Kennedy on neglect for the issue)

As police began to gather and act on intelligence on these emerging Middle Eastern gangs, the NSW Police was restructured under Peter Ryan and crime intelligence was dismantled overnight and the NSW Police turned against every convention known to Western policing.

(Tim Priest, a police whistle blower criticises the restructuring of the police force, an issue also adressed by Kennedy in his honours thesis on policing in the Lebanese community.

In hundreds upon hundreds of incidents police have backed down to Middle Eastern thugs and taken no action and allowed incidents to go unpunished. I stress the unbelievable influence that local politicians and religious leaders played in covering up the real state of play in the south-west

… (Tim Priest showing incredible foresight in a speech in November 2003)

Kennedy, in his honours thesis, wrote:

Law enforcement changed significantly when zero tolerance policing was officially launched in 1998 by way of Operation and Crime Reviews … This declaration of war against the Arabic-speaking community in 1998 [caused] the young men of the community to retaliate, not only with an aggressive protest masculinity, but the withdrawal of support for the moral authority of the police … Zero tolerance policing is seen as being directed towards the entire Arabic community.

Kennedy:

There was a huge struggle by the legal establishment to undermine the police. We had a royal commission that fed the public a lot of nonsense. The Wood royal commission absolutely interfered with policing in this state.

Priest:

In 1996, with the arrival of Peter Ryan [as NSW police commissioner], and the continued public humiliation of the NSW Police through the Wood royal commission, a chain of events began that have affected the police so deeply and so completely that, as far as ensuing public safety, I fear it will take at least a generation to regain lost ground.

The Cronulla former detective (who doesn't want to be named because he has a business in the area and fears it would be attacked): "The young police know that if they ever go in hard, they will get no back-up from the courts, or the police hierarchy. They may be charged with assault and accused of being racist. So we have a static, scared, reactive police force that is driven by statistics, not arrests. That's why you're starting to see vigilante-type thinking.

This article was jam packed with a range of interesting and relevant information in the area of crime and policing... an absolute gem and a stark contrast to the comments of praise for police eminating from the meda and polititians earlier this week.