Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Bugging plot develops

Since the discovery of Corryn Rayney's murder in August, clearly a lot of people are still waiting for closure about what happened.

The DPP are looking with interest at three other people of considerable standing in the community in Perth, in relation to the bugging of Ms Rayney's phone.

Gotta love that budget

I can see where the Beercat could come in handy.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Inner city blues

The young man who was said to have toppled out of the window of the Rivervale Hotel is still not able to speak after being brought out of an induced coma. But today's version of events from WAPOL, is that the 18 y/o - Kerrin Brown, got into a fight outside the pub and knocked the back of his head on the kerb after falling backwards, but they're still questioning witnesses. The West yesterday reported that the teenager fell down a flight of stairs after being punched.


Monday's West seized the mugging of Swiss tourists at Burswood train station on Saturday night, to plug the police initiative for Designing out Crime - admittedly, the Burswood train station is a muggers delight - even during the daytime, and you'd think with the neighbouring Burswood resort and the number of its guests that use the Burswood station, an upgrade of the area would have been a priority for the council. But alas no, maybe the police should start a Backpacker Beware initiative. The three tourists were worse for wear, one received minor stab wounds, and police said they were left with little more than the shirts on their backs.

AND from an anonymous source...

"This summer the House Judiciary Committee launched an effort to collect tips from would-be whistleblowers in the Justice Department. The U.S. attorney firings scandal had shown that much was amiss in the Department, and with the danger of retaliation very real, the committee had set up a form on the committee's website for people to blow the whistle privately about abuses there. Although the panel said it would not accept anonymous tips, it assured those who came forward that their identity would be held in the "strictest confidence."

But in an email sent out today, the committee inadvertently sent the email addresses of all the would-be whistleblowers to everyone who had written in to the tipline. . ."

Lunar activities

In the South-East metro area today, a police pursuit of a stolen Holden Commodore was called off in Ranford Rd Forestdale, after travelling at 140kmph through five suburbs for a quarter of an hour.

WA police officers said they later discovered the body of a badly injured 29 y/o Southern River man on the side of Ranford Rd, approximately 80 metres from the stolen car, which had smashed.

The police said they are unable to identify the man as the suspected driver of the vehicle and in media reports earlier today, did not rule out the possibility that he was injured as a result of a hit and run.

The man had severe head injuries and he died a few hours later at Royal Perth Hospital. There is a police internal investigation underway into the death.


On Saturday, the news that the much talked-up police drug bus was experiencing teething problems hit the press. On the day officers took the new "BAD Bus" for its first spin on Great Eastern Highway in Belmont, 30 out of 30 drivers tested negative - so it seems it's back to the drawing board. Karl O'Callaghan said each test costs about $40 - so at around $1200 for it's dismal launch it's living up to its name, with the cost of tests and officers' wages outweighing the (non-existent) revenue raised.

##### Anna Bligh gets on the "BAD bus."


A man who fell through a second storey window at the Rivervale Hotel on Saturday night has come out of a coma. The police are investigating whether he was in a fight at the time. The man had surgery to relieve intra-cranial swelling.

In Brisbane today, a woman raised a full-scale alert after misreading her boyfriend's text - streets were cordoned off by cops suited up in their Kevlar vests hunting down the baddies, when it turned out he had just been telling her about his day. gr8


In Queensland, the Crime and Misconduct Commission have finally cottoned on to what Bernie Matthews has been telling them for decades. The whole problem with the paid informant scheme doesn't just stem from the potential for cops and informants to share rewards, but also the possibility for the wrong person to land in gaol.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Statement discrepancies at death in custody inquest

The inquest into yet another death in WA police custody began last Wednesday.

Carl Woods died on April 11, 2006, after breaking into a Parmelia house screaming that someone was tyring to kill him.

Approximately ten minutes later he was dead.

Evidence given so far at the hearings has suggested that there have been some major discrepancies in statements offered to the coroner by police internal investigators.


On Friday the main witness said she had tried to give vital evidence that contradicted police officers' statements, to the senior sergeant from the Major Crime Squad who was overseeing the investigation, only to be placated with - 'we already have enough evidence,' and 'we'll see to it later.'

The witness - the occupant of the Parmelia home, said she saw an officer using a black baton-like object to hit Woods on the thigh and buttocks.

Though injuries on the body would suggest this did occur, all four arresting officers denied using their batons and torches to beat Mr Woods into submission. The witness said the use of the baton did not appear to be excessive.

Internal investigators did not test any of the batons for blood and only two of the officers' mag torches.

The witness said the object she saw being used by the officer was a similar shape, size and colour to the shaft of a mag torch.

The police use of force manual does not permit the use of mag torches for hitting suspects.


An ambulance officer who tried to resuscitate Woods said it would be beneficial and an alternative option for police officers to get ambulance officers to use chemical restraint rather than force in similar instances.

The medic also said that when faced with an anxious and confused person ambulance officers are expected to "talk them down" until they're calm enough to accompany them to hospital.


Another witness who lived across from the Parmelia house said he had observed officers applying CPR to Woods in a manner that he considered to be incorrect.

The witness stated he saw three police go into the house and four come out, and that the first had kicked in the door that Woods was accused of splintering when he broke in.

He also said he had not observed brute force being used on Woods, but that his vision was restricted. Since giving his statement to internal investigators the witness has become a WAPOL officer.

Mr Howard's pot calling Mr Rudd's kettle black

So Howard announced the election today and it's game on in the dirty tricks campaign.

Confirmation that Howard has taken his eye off the ball in recent years came today, as he warned that if voters elect Rudd for PM he would have unfettered power with state Labor governments in power across Australia.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Spin or sanity?

Photographer Oliviero Toscani's advertising campaign for new Italian fashion designer, Nolita, highlights the lunacy of mass-marketing that exploits women and girls.

The disempowerment of women promulgated by the mainstream media and their adverti$ing is called to task by Toscani in the campaign, and dethrones the chic fashion industry which pushes an unhealthy body image as a 'norm' that's far from normal.

Isabelle Caro's naked image is used in the advertising and her honesty and courage is quite confronting.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

How suspicious?

Another death in custody today of a young man in Belmont...

Police allege that after two "suspicious" young men were observed "casing cars" at lunchtime near a construction site in "The Bronx" in Belmont, one teenager was arrested, but during a pursuit the second suspect drowned.

There were some initial news reports police had been duck diving in the shallow water to find the suspect after he allegedly experienced difficulties swimming.

However, there have been no follow ups on what efforts the police took to ensure they fulfilled their duty of care to the young suspect and none will be made public now until the coronial inquest takes place, which could take years.

There were also initial reports in the media that the drowned boy had dumped his cash and mobile phone on the bank of the river before running into the water - but the reports didn't mention that he'd left any car-breaking tools.

Police said the suspect jumped into the shoulder-depth muddy water rather than be arrested. They reported he was missing, and police internal affairs and major crime attended and water police found his body at 5pm.

Apparently Major Crime are conducting the internal investigation of the death.

The case studies(p.85) in CCC's report,
‘Two Years Out’ - A report of the first two years of the Western Australia PoliceReform Program examine the quality(or rather, the lack thereof) of WAPOL internal investigations.

The small numbers of senior officers in WAPOL, swapped from one police station to another and from one unit to another on an ongoing basis, would seemingly make neutrality an impossibility in internal investigations.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The emporer's new clothes

The sudden death of Chris Mainwaring, sports commentator and former West Coast Eagle, though terribly sad, raises yet more questions about the culture footballers are subject to when they start in the AFL.

In the hours before Mainwaring's death, police were called to his home in the leafy exclusive Perth suburb of Cottesloe, after complaints the former football star was screaming in the middle of the road.

When officers arrived it was claimed he had settled down and they left the scene, but soon after was found unconscious and failed to be resuscitated, despite the fact he was very fit and relatively young for heart failure.

As a public we have to ask for the sake of our children, just how seriously are football clubs taking their duty of care to young players and to those who have slipped through the net during less "aware" eras.

Kids love football, but parental responsibility to help them find great opportunities in life would realistically eliminate the possibility to support them playing football as a healthy option.

The she'll be right attitude that has plagued Australia for so many decades could well spell the end of the great Aussie football cash cow. How many players have to be sacrificed to the football spin god that so many are prepared to bow down to?

Last Friday was the international public right to know day, but those who would seek to expose illegal activities and present less than glorious information in the public interest about football clubs and their affiliations, are stifled by both the private and public sectors.