Monday, February 28, 2011

Blue Iris CCTV Bandaid MIA in Belmont stabbing

The skate park in Belmont is under constant CCTV surveillance, along with several streets in and around Belmont (even extending to adjacent suburbs, Redcliffe, Cloverdale and Rivervale) and it is one of the only areas in Perth to have CCTV purportedly live-streamed into the WA Police Surveillance Unit.

If the big-brother presence in the largely multi-cultural working-class suburb was not troubling enough, more troubling still, is the fact that police are appealing for witnesses to this young man being stabbed ...in front of the 24-7 live-streamed Blue Iris CCTV, and yet the roll-out of CCTV in WA continues indiscriminately and without questioning.


CCTV has caught on in Belmont shire like wildfire. The local council has volunteered the area's streets, resident pensioners' homes, and local businesses, up to the omnipotent CCTV gods for 24-7 surveillance. But, are any of the WA police watching? The police helicopter is fairly attentive over the area, but is reactive and not the preventative measure that Blue Iris was meant to be.

Is it a conflict of interest for the Federal Home Affairs minister to also be responsible for crime prevention funding, where CCTV surveillance(if someone is watching) might lead to the racial vilification of the area's population, largely comprised of migrants, war widows, refugees, Indigenous people and a variety of low income families from minorities?

In late 2009 Brenden O'Connor fleetingly appeared in Rivervale's Needlestick Park to launch the combined approach of CCTV and the older and much more organic Eyes on the Street program in the suburb. Belmont Shire's Eyes on the Street idea involved all council workers and residents spotting people and incidents that they perceived as suspicious and filling out a form for the central police about them, retrospectively - it hasn't taken off in a big way, though. That section of Rivervale(about 6 blocks from the Skate Park) is never terribly short of suspicious occurrences, and maybe the residents/council workers require coaching from Uncle Brendan to identify what police might consider aberrant behaviours, that residents have suffered out for decades.

The Needlestick Park netball courts have now had a temporary fence erected around them but the needle disposal unit remains right next to the kiddies' playground. The parks in the Belmont district are a hub for bored youth and need closer attention. More generally, the shire is long overdue for a funding injection for culturally diverse services and entertainment(as opposed to $ for CCTV cameras) that can give young people a range of supervised and constructive activities at the times of day/night when they will use them. The skate park offers a lot to local youths despite the ever-present bullying there, but there is little else available.

In the AFP Association newsletter "Auspol" last October, CCTV upgrade$ were once again being peddled as a cure-all for the boogie monsters of "organized crime, "terrorism," and "national wellbeing," citing the violent death of one man at Sydney's domestic airport as the catalyst for Australia to transform into a police state. They obviously aren't a cure-all in the South-East region of Perth.

The same story was critical of the media not considering those issues as a first priority in the news, and simultaneously failed to mention the difficulties police have refraining from profiling minorities, aided by CCTV, due to the lack of diversity in their recruitment and promotion practices.

One AIC study of open-street CCTV found that the government tended to make "grandiose" claims about CCTV's potential achievements, where research showed that the results were "ambiguous." The study also said, it was necessary for policy makers "to remain alert to the negative potential of CCTV to discriminate against and exclude individuals who are legitimate users of public areas.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Misplaced wings

Ombudsman paddles NT Police for prying (into journo's secret source business)

In this post I looked at the 'whys and wherefores' of the NT Police covert search of a journalist's phone records after he reported on a drug raid on a high profile politician in the Territory.


I'd like to provide readers with a copy of the NT Big O's report, however the website is - down ...


So instead, here's an interview about the search debacle with former WA police head spook, John McRoberts, who is now the Commissioner for NT Police.


The Northern Territory Ombudsman ruled against the police last week, saying that though their search might have been legal, it was unnecessary and that in future such searches need to be authorized by officers with a rank of superintendent or higher. 


Club Troppo's Ken Parish gets 3 D-M golden elephant stamps for being a pace-setter and seeing through the spin.


This is an interesting angle on source protection and current government and media industry practices, although his glasses could be perceived as being a touch rosy.

##UPDATE## The O's website is back up but isn't hosting the report.

I just can't work out if this story informs, or does it entertain? Darn it - News Ltd UK gets all the scoops...

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Cyclone Yasi aftermath

North Queensland has emerged from the Category 5 Cyclone Yasi very well, although it's estimated 180k people are homeless and there is no power, mobile towers or fixed phone lines - there have been no fatalities detected.

Some communities are still isolated by the loss of communications and roads cut off by debris and flood waters. However, it seems as though the post-Cyclone Larry rebuild in this region 5 years ago, early evacuations and warning systems, as well as an increased amount of caution by the public due to recent catastrophic flooding in S-E Qld, has meant that, quite extraordinarily, there's been no loss of life. That's pretty impressive planning, considering the severity of the winds and the damage that has been done to homes and land.

The sheer magnitude of the cyclone has meant that it is still travelling into inland regions, which may not be quite as well prepared for this kind of severe weather, although it's power is dissipating as it moves away from the coast.

This Cyclone Yasi news cover by Reuters(of Mission and Cowley Beaches), on-sold to IOL, is a bit fresher than the 24-7 bombardment the Australian public has copped from the ABC and News Ltd.

Update on Cyclone Yasi - Eye to cross coast later, at 12:30am

I can see that since I published this last Cyclone Yasi post there have been quite a few people googling for information on how they can stay safe in their homes, when and where the cyclone will hit, and more generally, updates on what's happening at ground level. So, here's an update from the Premier's Office which hopefully may answer a few of your questions. The info given earlier today said that even if the roof comes off the house that it is still safer inside, and that the smallest room will have the strongest structure against the winds. Apologies for all the Premier's state of emergency info, as other sources emerge I will try to update it. This story has come from Townsville ten mins ago - details in it are a bit scant but it's still  a good indication comms are still up although power is out to 90k houses.



The most recent tracking indicates the eye of the cyclone will cross the coast around the midnight time. The core of Cyclone Yasi will cross the coast from about 8pm onwards...

Anna Bligh 10:30pm (AEST) - "The destructive core, that is, the part of this cyclone that will have the winds of up to 280 - 300 kilometres an hour, spans a distance of about 150 kilometres. It is five times wider than the same core in Cyclone Larry.
Between about 830pm, about now, and just after midnight is going to be the roughest time for the people who are living with this event right now. The very early signs of this cyclone are now starting to be felt; we have significant power outages and reports of powerlines coming down. We also know that we are going to see very, very high storm surge activity.

"...late this afternoon in Townsville, the monitor recorded a maximum wave height at Point Cleveland off Townsville of 6.6 metres. This is the highest that has ever been recorded since measurements began in 1975. Similarly in Cardwell, we are planning for a storm surge of higher than seven metres over the high tide mark; Lucinda Beach, 4 metres and at Cairns around the 2.6 metre mark. These are extremely high levels of water that will come into those towns and inundate all those low lying areas at a very high level.

The high tide that we're looking at in about half an hours time will add to that storm surge but we will also see a high tide in this region around 930am tomorrow morning. It is expected to be quite a high tide and this storm system is so big that we will be experiencing residual effects of high powered winds still around that 930 time and later.

What that means is that we could see a second peak of storm surging in all of these areas during and after the high tide tomorrow morning. So if the winds have started to die down and people, quite naturally, will want to get out and see what has happened in their homes.

I can't stress enough that you may be putting yourselves in danger if you go out after this event too early. You cannot, we cannot eliminate the very high likelihood that there will be a second storm surge that will peak sometime around that high tide event tomorrow morning.
North Queensland itself has very little power generation. The overwhelming bulk of power generation for North Queensland comes out of Central Queensland. It is then transmitted by a spine of transmission towers that goes inland behind Townsville all the way to Cairns. It is then supplied through another spine of transmission towers that goes down the coast from Cairns, right down south of Mackay. In Cyclone Larry that coastal spine saw six transmission towers knocked out and that seriously disrupted power supply in that area. But Cyclone Larry was a category 4 event.

The inland transmission system has never been tested at a category 5 level. If the transmission lines on the inland spine are disrupted or brought down by this event, it would mean a catastrophic failure of the electricity supply system to the entire North and Far North of our state.

So...if it does happen we could see a failure of electricity supply that would extend potentially to many areas that have not been affected by this cyclonic event and it could extend for a prolonged period of time... we are planning for an aftermath that may see a catastrophic failure of essential services. We now have 37 000 people without electricity supply. That's because winds have brought down local powerlines, not because we've seen any transmission towers down. Almost half of that is in the Caldwell/Innisfail area.

"...this cyclone is expected to have a life of between two and three days. It is now tracking to cross Mt Isa as a category 1 cyclone sometime on Friday. Still tracking as a category 3 cyclone over the Atherton Tableland and into towns like Georgetown as a category 3 cyclone, 450 kilometres inland, early tomorrow morning. So we are still talking about a massive and intensifying event."

"... everybody who is now bunkering down in North and Far North Queensland will be starting to experience what they will be living with for the next four or five hours.... it will take all of their strength to endure what they are about to experience. I think it's difficult for us to imagine what it might be like to go through four or five hours of listening to 300 kilometre winds going around our homes, torrential rain and to be doing that in the dark and potentially without any communications. It will not only take all the strength of those enduring it, we as a community, as Queenslanders and as Australians need to brace ourselves for what we might find when we wake up tomorrow morning.

Without doubt we are set to encounter scenes of devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale.This cyclone is like nothing that we have ever deal t with before as a nation... the next 24 hours I think are going to be very, very tough ones for everyone."

The Deputy Police Commissioner said the winds were rising, the streets were clear and that everyone was bunkered down, "it is too dangerous right now in all of those areas for our police crews and other emergency crews to go out. We are not yet receiving calls for assistance from the public related to the cyclone. It is eerily quiet in terms of that area of police operations. I don't expect that to last much longer as the cyclone encroaches on landfall. We are certainly thinking of all of the community and all of the emergency workers in the area right now."

This coverage came out about midnight (around 90 mins ago) and has the most up to date info on damage and the impact of the cyclone so far - it's estimated 90k houses have lost power.  This story was published from AAP at Mission Beach around 20 mins ago, and it would seem that they are coping ok at this stage.  Here is more recent footage of Yasi crossing the coast.

##UPDATE## Early reports from Townsville suggest that residents there have escaped the worst impact of the cyclone, official wind gusts measured at 220 kmph. Typical storm damage is being reported - roofs torn off, trees up-rooted, etc, although it is still too dangerous in the calm of the storm - in the 135 kmph winds, for emergency workers to assess damage or respond to requests for help. The weather bureau said that the tidal surge has not been as bad yet as anticipated, due to a receding tide at the time of the tidal surge which is countering the rise in water levels. 75% of Townsville residents have lost power. 10.5k residents are in Level 5 reinforced evac centres.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

North Qld in path of Cyclone Yasi

Just briefly...Anna Bligh said at her afternoon press conference today that it's time to bunker down, no more evacs the places are full and the weather, too woolly.  Cyclone Yasi's wind speed as it flattened Willis Island, just off the coast, was 295km per hour - just to put it in perspective Hurricane Katrina's top wind speed was 225km per hour - those in the affected areas will most likely have found somewhere reasonably safe to be, but there would still be a high risk to those on the outlying areas of the towns in the path of Yasi.

During the January floods "social media" became a corner stone for referral information for relief efforts, and Queenslanders are utilizing the same means in anticipation of this huge cyclone. If you need info or resources/support referral there are several sites including facebook offering contacts. The electricity and other resources will probably only be available for a short period, so there may be difficulties keeping in communication for people who have holed up in their homes, rather than evacuation centres.




One can only speculate the potential impact of this cyclone after the recent storm activity.


Here's an excerpt from an earlier press conference today with the Qld premier,

"By way of comparison the last category five cyclone to cross the coast of Queensland was in 1918. So this is an event we have no recent experience of. This also means that we will see very, very high seas and the Bureau has also issued a warning for dangerous swells all the way down to the Sunshine Coast. 

 The Bureau has issued a warning and they are only going to get more dangerous in the next 24 hours all the way down the coast to the Sunshine Coast.
The other important message this morning is to say to those communities to the west of the area between Cairns and Townsville that they need to be equally prepared.

The cyclone is looking like it will be around Georgetown as a category 3 cyclone around 9am tomorrow morning. So as this cyclone moves across the coast it will slow down a little but it will still be a very serious cyclone, category 3, in towns like Georgetown which normally you would never see a cyclone in. So the Tablelands, the Hinterland and then towns to the west need to start preparing and understanding that this event will affect them and give cyclonic conditions.

We now have approximately nine and a half thousand people in 20 evacuation centres between Cairns and Townsville. Most of them in Cairns or Townsville but another large one in Innisfail.

There is still some spare capacity in some of these centres and I said this morning the window was still open and closing. It is still a little crack of light there and there is still some last minute opportunities, people who are in any of those areas that might experience flooding should be looking at their absolutely last chance. The next time I am doing an update there will be no further opportunities for people to move. Those people who are not in an inundation area please do not go to the evacuation centres. You are safer in your own home and you will only take up space from people who cannot be in their own homes or the home of a friend. So please, only go the evacuation centres if you are firstly in a flood or inundation area and you are not able to find accommodation with a friend or a family member.

Look I think it's very hard to even contemplate the unbearable circumstances that many families are going to be facing tonight. We need to understand that they will be in very frightening circumstances. They will be for the most part going through cyclonic winds of up to 300km an hour, torrential rain and many of them will do that without any electricity, without any mobile telecommunications and some of them may well be doing it with parts of their roof coming off. As the Deputy Commissioner said this morning people who are bunkered in their house are safer in their house even if parts or all of the roof come off. I know it will be raining on them but going out into those winds even if it seems sensible is just the most dangerous thing to do.

So people do need to prepare themselves and particularly their children for something that will be quite frightening. But everything that can be done is being done and the safest place right now given it is not possible for most people now to leave town, the safest place is to be in their homes in the smallest room in the house. Whether that is your toilet, your bathroom, a laundry; the smallest room in your house will be the most structurally sound and that is where you should take your family when these winds really escalate."

(In response) "We're not evacuating people off Palm Island. The Palm Island Council has worked to ensure that anyone in a low lying area has been relocated to a house in a higher area. Palm Island is a council that is ready for this event. It will be one of the islands that experiences some very early symptoms of the cyclone because it's just that bit offshore. Without doubt because it's now south of where the cyclone is going to hit, it's those areas to the south that will feel the brunt of some of the stronger winds and particularly the storm surge so all the planning that can be done on Palm Island for that storm surge has been done. I'm very confident the council has done a good job in alerting people. It is a very small community and that does mean that you can just about talk to everybody."

JOURNALIST: Is the ETA still ten o'clock tonight?



PREMIER: At this stage yes and we'll update you through the day.

JOURNALIST: What happened to the cyclone bunkers promised after Cyclone Larry?

PREMIER: What was committed to after Cyclone Larry was that as we built large public infrastructure that lent itself to being capable of taking a large number of people that would be done at a category five cyclone level. That has happened. In Innisfail State High School the centre that is accommodating 500 people right now is a category 5 shelter and that was as a result of that rebuild. Redlynch State School which is also accommodating I think close to 1,000 people, built and finished at the end of last year, is a category 5 shelter and is accommodating a thousand people. The hall at the Babinda RSL is a category 5 shelter. So that's three that have been done in five years. The commitment was as we build the things that are necessary like school halls, where people could take shelter, we will build them to a category 5 level. But you can't accommodate 75,000 people in these sorts of shelters. That could never happen. You always need to expect that some people will be sheltering in their own homes."