Comments on: WA cops get frisky

By: skink

skink — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:13:10 +0000

I recently received a letter from the Dept of Motor Vehicles. I have ten demerit points on my licence, and will lose it at the next offence.

Luckily for me, Western Australia has introduced a new ‘double or quits’ policy.

if I achieve the twelve demerits that would cause me to be banned, I can either take the ban as it stands, or continue to drive, but if I offend again within a year I risk losing my licence for double the original period.

Gambling with road safety?

what’s next, Speeding Ticket Scratchcards?

By: Western Warrior

Western Warrior — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:17:27 +0000

Bakerboy,

I’m no lawyer, as I say, but I think the point of the new laws is that police no longer need to even have due cause to search someone. And even if these laws only mirror legislation in other states, it’s no reason to accept them in WA.

Skink,

I could write entire books about the incompetence of the WA police force…sadly, better cops and better resourcing for cops has run a poor second to populist jackbooting when it comes to prosecuting crime.

By: Kieren Reynolds

Kieren Reynolds — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:49:29 +0000

I have a personal experience i’d like to share. I was arrested on suspicion - for carrying vitamins in a car. Their reason for arresting me was the type of vehicle I was driving - a Hummer. No, they didn’t show any identification, simply started ransacking the car. When I was arrested I was denied the right to contact a lawyer “for fear it may spoil their investigation” and when they returned the “substances” to me they deemed the investigation “inconclusive” and offered little form of apology or closure for what was a spoiling event. I mentioned to the returning officer that I only have to walk down to the corner of Lennox & Victoria St, Richmond to witness drug deals by the minute to which he replies “Of course, it the heroin capital of Australia”
This event occurred not in WA but inner city Prahran, Victoria. The message is simply not sexy enough to sell newspapers but it is clear to me our basic rights have eroded to the point of oblivion.
My question is why the cops target recreational users and not the addicts? Surely the household breaks and clogging up of the streets occur from the latter.

By: Scott Grant

Scott Grant — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:53:29 +0000

Last time I was in WA, the local rags were full of terrible tales of miscreants (sorry, “thugs”) attacking our brave police officers and both sides of politics were in an unseemly rush to bring in the mandatory jail terms for “assault”, which at that time was being defined rather vaguely. Not having much access to WA news over here, I haven’t followed the outcome. At the time, one thing which struck me, was the articles in The West Australian describing, essentially, alcohol related violence, and on the same or opposite pages, large advertisements for cheap alcohol! That, and the lack of any significant alternate argument being put in public discourse.

In NSW, I and my partner attended the Newtown festival about a year ago. Tree hugging greenies that we are, we caught the train to Newtown railway station. We were very impressed that CityRail had scheduled many extra trains to stop at Newtown that day. Then we alighted. Waiting to greet us on the platform was a gauntlet of a dozen or so jack-booted greyshirts demanding to inspect our tickets. (Would not one have been enough?). We climbed the stairs, to be greeted by a dozen or so police officers with sniffer dogs. For some unknown doggy reason, a sniffer dog decided that we were both carriers of some interesting smell. So we were both subjected to a full search and inspection of everything we were carrying. The dog handler seemed most annoyed that nothing illegal was discovered upon our persons, but we were allowed to leave.

Several things about this bugged me. The first being that, had I driven in by car, I would have avoided the indignity of being detained and searched. Why are rail passengers considered to be such a danger to law and order? The second is that my partner suffers from PTSD. She was able to maintain an outward calm. But she suffered a great deal, and who knows how close she came to a full blown panic attack? I shudder to think what could have happened had she panicked. She probably would have run and been chased and so forth. As it was, our day was substantially ruined.

It really worries me that populist governments everywhere see law and order as such a vote winner. It is unfortunately all too human that if a person is given too much power without accountability, they will abuse that power. Whether it is tasering or searching or detaining someone just because they can. Of course one can smile and be polite and accept it all, and little trouble is likely to come of it. But to accept such indignities calmly requires the sort of emotional stability which is less likely amongst those from a disadvantaged background. So we get back to reinforcing disadvantage.

Enough rambling!

By: bakerboy

bakerboy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:09:25 +0000

Sorry Warrior, but I’ve got news for you. WA is just catching up with the rest of Australia. The cops can stop a car, search the car and its occupants in every other State and have done so for years. In Queensland, cops can stop and search any person on the street if they believe they have due cause. Get used to it.

By: skink

skink — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:39:10 +0000

since you mention the CCC, no discussion of the WA Police and DPP woudl be complete without a mention of their complete incompetence, highlighted by the Mallard Case, the Mickelbergs, and their distinct failure to get anywhere with the Rayney investigation.

it doesn’t matter how many extra powers they get, you have to wonder whether the WA Police could find their own arse in the dark using both hands

By: John Ryan

John Ryan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:38:41 +0000

Ah WA perfect one day police state the next,I mean people should look at the CCC and the powers they have been handed to conduct surveillance of every thing,which you can not access.
This State is run by Barnett with the right wing AG and troy the chair sniffer,the rest of parliament may as well not bother

By: skink

skink — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:02:48 +0000

you should have added that you’ll probably get tasered before you get into custody

yesterday’s paper showed police officers once again using a taser to subdue a suspect during arrest, in contravention of their terms of use.

the gentleman being taken into custody was shown ‘resisting arrest’ on his knees with his hands in the air, whilst the arresting officer jabs the taser into the back of his neck.

and don’t forget Barnett’s mandatory sentencing laws for assaulting a public officer. Two cases are before the courts, both people having been released from psychiatric care just prior to the alleged offence.