Showing posts with label 1994. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1994. Show all posts

Friday, December 2, 2005

US passes 1000 executions in 30 years

December 3, 2005: Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd has became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since 1976. Another man was put to death on Friday for the 1994 murder of a store clerk, becoming the 1,001st person executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated 28 years ago. The somber moment drew a sizeable crowd to Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., to protest capital punishment...

Don't Kill For Me!


Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, of Rockingham, N.C., died by lethal injection for the 1988 shootings of his estranged wife, Julie Curry Boyd, who was 36, and her father, Thomas Dillard Curry, 57. Members of both families had asked to be present.

Shawn Humphries, 34, mouthed "I'm sorry" to his victim's two sisters before fatal chemicals were pumped into his veins. His death came about 16 hours after North Carolina executed Kenneth Lee Boyd.

Humphries' attorney said he had told her "he would rather be 1,000 because if he has to die, No. 1,000 will be remembered. No. 1,001 won't." Boyd told Associated Press in a prison interview that he wanted no part of the infamous numerical distinction of being the 1000th prisoner executed.

"I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd said on Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

Boyd's attorney, Thomas Maher, had hoped to win a stay for his client, who he said had an I.Q. of 77. The cutoff for mental retardation, a mitigating factor in some capital cases, is 75. Others argue that the death penalty should be reconsidered because it is so arbitrarily applied. He also hoped the U.S. Supreme Court and North Carolina Governor Mike Easley would consider that before these murders, Boyd had no history of violent crime, and that he had volunteered to go to war in Vietnam.

"The vast majority of those sentenced to death for their crimes are impoverished and live in the South," said Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights and a long time advocate for death row inmates.

"Texas has put 355 people to death in the last 30 years, with just one county in Texas, Harris County, accounting for more executions than the entire states of Georgia or Alabama. Where is the justice in that?" questioned Bright.

Boyd's son, Kenneth Smith, 35, who visited his dad every day for the last two weeks, said in an interview on Thursday that he felt the attention paid to the milestone had hurt his father's chances for clemency. Smith also said his dad was deeply troubled that he might only be remembered as a grim hash mark in the history books.

"He didn't want to be 999, and he didn't want to be 1001 if you know what I mean," said Smith. "He wanted to live."

Belinda J. Foster, District Attorney for Rockingham, N.C., who prosecuted Boyd, said she felt confident that the death penalty was warranted in this case.

"There are cases that are so horrendous and the evidence so strong it just warrants a death sentence," Ms. Foster said.

Michael Paranzino, president of the pro-death penalty group Throw Away the Key, agreed.

"You'll never stop crimes of passion, but I do believe the death penalty is a general deterrent, and it expresses society's outrage," Paranzino said. An October 2005 Gallup poll found that 64 percent of all Americans support capital punishment in murder cases.

Boyd never denied his guilt, but said he couldn't remember killing anyone and didn't know why he did it.

"We believe this occasion is the perfect time to reconsider the whole issue of execution," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, a group that has sought to end the practice of using executions as a punishment for crime around the world.

"Since 1976, about one in eight prisoners on death row in the U.S. has been exonerated. That should raise serious questions about ending a person's life," Schulz said.

North Carolina executed two prisoners last month, as well as two others earlier in the year.

Debate over capital punishment

The grim milestone has prompted global outcry from human rights advocates. In a media statement the European Union also condemned the execution, calling for the end of the death penalty worldwide:

"We consider this punishment cruel and inhuman. It does not act as a deterrent and any miscarriage of justice - which is inevitable in any legal system - is irreversible."

Boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison. After watching Boyd die, Rockingham County (N.C.) Sheriff Sam Page said the victims should be remembered.

"Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd. What I would ask you to do is not forget the victims of this crime..." Page said. "Pray for them. Pray for them and their healing."

"This is one small step for humankind - backwards," said veteran American campaigner Clive Stafford Smith in an interview with Reuters. "The death penalty makes us all far more barbaric. I have watched a lot of people die, and when you come out from watching someone being executed it certainly isn't a better world."

According to Kenyan National Human Rights Commission Chairman Maina Kiai, "[It is] a great pity that the US can keep on executing people [when much of the developed world had already ended the death penalty]."

"Also, the fact that in the US a lot of death sentences that are carried out invariably affect people of colour and poor people, it's an issue of great concern," Kiai said.

In Singapore, where a 25-year-old Australian was hanged just hours before Boyd's execution, Sinapan Samydorai, president of the think-tank Think Centre, said there was no justice without life.

"The US is supposed to be a champion of human rights and democracy [? since when? total rubbish!], yet they do not recognise the right to life," he said. Singapore has a mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking, and has hanged 420 people since 1991, mainly for drug trafficking.

"It is a scandal that the death penalty still exists in a civilised country like the United States of America," said Petra Herrmann, chairwoman of the German group Alive e V.

In Japan, where the death penalty is widely supported, Akiko Takada of anti-capital punishment group Forum 90 said despite frequent use of the death penalty in the United States, "crime there shows no signs of diminishing, so ultimately the death of these people has no effect."

Thirty-eight of the 50 US states and the federal government permit capital punishment.

Only China, Iran and Vietnam had more executions in 2004 than the United States, according to rights group Amnesty International.

Sources

"U.S. reaches death penalty milestone". The New York Times, December 2, 2005

"Death penalty foes slam US over 1,000th execution". New Kerala, December 3, 2005

"Capital punishment at 1,000 and counting". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 3, 2005

"S.C. Man Apologizes Before He's Executed". CBS News, December 3, 2005

By elliot_k posted 4 December 05

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THE DEATH PENALTY - WORLDWIDE
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005

NEW PRISONS MEANS MORE CRIME!!!

The Premier's announcement of 1000 new spaces for prisoners is irresponsible government behaviour. His statement that more prison capacity will reduce crime is misleading, and panders to ignorance and fear, while the policy does the exact opposite of what it claims.

New South Wales has the highest rate of recidivism in Australia at 44% and rising. This means that at least 44% of the new prisoners will commit more crimes within two years of their release.

The Premier also claims that the investment in new prisons will create jobs in rural economies. However, if the $1 billion were spent on health and education, it would reduce crime, and give a boost to rural economies by raising the number of skilled, healthy workers.

Money spent on prisons in NSW has been proven over and over to be money thrown down the drain.

Not only does the recidivism rate show that the Department of Corrective Services is failing in its own vision of, "Contributing to a safer community through excellence", but the net widening effect of building more prisons was acknowledged in 1994 by the Department's own Women's Action Plan:

"...the provision of increased access to correctional facilities in country areas may create a net widening phenomenon resulting in the courts sending more women to prison who may otherwise have received non-custodial sentences.

There is a strong body of opinion that in spite of oft stated support for a reductionist approach to women in prison, if additional places were provided, particularly in country areas, they would inevitably be filled." (p. 48)

Contact: Stacy Scheff, Brett Collins after hours: 0438-705-003

Justice Action
65 Bellevue St, Glebe, NSW 2037, Australia
P.O. Box 386, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
ja@justiceaction.org.au
voice: 612-9660 9111 fax: 612-9660 9100

Please log into the Justice Action Web site, designed and sponsored by Breakout Design & Print, exercising good corporate citizenship.


By Justice Action 17 May 05

Related:

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

US incarceration rate climbs

The US penal system, the world's largest, maintained its steady growth in 2004, the US Department of Justice reported.

The latest official half-yearly figures found the nation's prison and jail population at 2,131,180 in the middle of last year, an increase of 2.3 per cent over 2003.

The United States has incarcerated 726 people per100,000 of its population, seven to 10 times as many as most other democracies.

The rate for England is 142 per 100,000, for France 91 and for Japan 58.

The figures issued by the department's statistical unit showed that 12.6 per cent of black males in their late 20s were behind bars.

The comparable rate for Hispanic males was 3.6 per cent and for whites 1.7 per cent.

"Unless we promote alternatives to prison, the nation will continue to lead the world in imprisonment," said

Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, a [stink]-tank that studies prison issues.

According to the Justice Department, violent crime in the United States fell by over 33 per cent from 1994 to 2003 and property crimes fell by 23 per cent.

Yet the prison population has continued to climb, increasing an annual average of 3.5 per cent since 1995, partly due to high recidivism.

Within three years of their release, two of every three prisoners are back behind bars.

Criminologists attribute the growth in the prison population to "get tough on crime" policies that have subjected hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug and property offenders to long mandatory sentences.

"We have to be concerned about an overloaded system which sentences many offenders quickly and is not doing a good job of sorting out people who should be incarcerated from people for whom other responses would produce better, less expensive results," said

Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington [stink]-tank.

The rise in the prison population varies by state.

Since 1998, 12 states experienced stable or declining incarceration rates but crime rates in those states declined at the same rate as in the other 38.

Texas, with 704 per 100,000 people in state prisons, incarcerates almost seven times as many as Maine, at 149 per 100,000.

It costs around $22,000 to lock up one person for a year.

The United States spends about $57 billion annually on its prison and jail system.

Women remain the fastest-growing segment of the prison population, increasing by 2.9 per cent over the year to over 103,000.

In 1980, the United States imprisoned 12,000 women.

In addition, the United States jails around 283,000 people with serious mental illnesses and almost 92,000 foreigners.

By Just Us posted 26 April 05

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To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."-- Marilyn vos Savant.

Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America. This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America. The series is not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather a broad thematic overview. A related eForum article, "The Wet'suwet'en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice Program: Restorative Practices in British Columbia, Canada," can be read at:

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know."

The Long Trail to Apology
Native America: All manner of unusual things can happen in Washington in an election year, but few seem so refreshing as a proposed official apology from the federal government to American Indians - the first ever - for the "violence, maltreatment and neglect" inflicted upon the tribes for centuries.

Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Racial Justice Day 2005

Updated Photo: Monday April 18th, 5pm Gathered at NY City Hall

BACKGROUND

On Sunday April 17th, ex-NYPD officer Francis Livoti will be released from a North Carolina prison after serving time for violating the civil rights of Anthony Baez in 1994.

Religious congregations across the city will have services of remembrance & resistance, as a reminder to us all that police violence & brutality are real and continuing threats to the safety of communities throughout NYC and the nation.

On MONDAY APRIL 18th, JOIN US to:

Remember those who have been killed & brutalized by the NYPDs Racist/ Sexist/ Transphobic/ Homophobic/ anti-youth/ anti- immigrant policing practices.

Remember generations and communities being criminalized Remember families and communities that continue to survive and resist violence and brutality.

Demand an end to the policies & practices that continue to target communities of color, youth, immigrants, LGBTST people, homeless and low-income people!

For more information: 212-353-7825, or email: rjd05@hotmail.com

ORGANIZED BY THE NYC COALITION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY (CAPB)

(Coaltion members: Audre Lorde Project, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Justice Committee, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement)

By Pilar Maschi posted 14 April 05

Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Siblings say Milat innocent

Police corruption and corporate greed led the court during Milat's trial in 1996. 

(THE FIRM) FRIENDS OF IVAN ROBERT MILAT

ABC: "Australia's worst accused Ivan Milat, has admitted that the defence used in his trial was just a legal strategy and not based in any truth."

During Milat's trial for the murder of seven backpackers in 1996, his lawyers argued that the crimes could have been committed by one of his brothers in relation to the allegation made by a crown witness Paul Onions who claimed to have identified Ivan.

But in a series of PR stunts by the ABC these articles are presented to wind up viewers for ABC TV's Australian Story, Milat says his brothers were not involved in one of the worst set-ups in Australian history and his brothers say that Milat wasn't involved in one of the worst murders in Australian history.

Eight years after being convicted of murdering seven young backpackers, Milat has few visitors to his cell in Supermax, a jail within a jail, with "no fresh air" or "sunlight".

There is evidence that the Legal Aid Commission of NSW denied Ivan "assistance" to grant him the "legal knowledge and understanding" necessary to produce legal arguments and grounds for his appeal.

To get to the High Court of Australia you need to be granted leave to appeal. Not every case is granted leave but one would argue that without proper legal assistance getting to the High Court would be a difficult task.

Instead Ivan Milat was not only denied legal assistance but he was thwarted, isolated, and traumatised, by the government to prevent any form of appeal by him that would be able to reach the High Court. During that time Ivan was alleged to have committed other crimes, suffered hunger strikes, and self-harm just to prove his innocence.

Ivan remains in isolation at Goulburn's (HRMU) High Risk Management Unit.

The HRMU was recently hailed by the Commissioner Ron Woodham as NSW terrorist prison where Australia's suspected terrorists, [Scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], and worst criminals are now allegedly following the Koran. Woodham claims he needs a new "AA" classification because they support Osama Bin Laden. [?] And they could incite other criminals into a holy war on the Commissioner and blow up Long Bay's twin towers?

Perhaps a bit far fetched but that is the type of PR the New South Wales Corrective Services, the Un-Australian Newspaper and Ch/10 "seriously" get up to these days. These propaganda monsters are prepared to undertake the government's ideals without a doubt!

But Ivan still makes 6-minute phone calls to family members and his sister-in-law, Caroline Milat as well as the Department of Corrective Services who listen in and read his mail.

Allegedly during one phone call, recorded by Australian Story Milat admits for the first time that the defence of blaming one of his brothers was not based in truth.

But that's not the first time and is academic because we know why his lawyers chose that defence. They sought to test the witness Paul Onions to show the court that his description of Milat in reality could have been the same for anyone of Milat's brothers and was therefore not good enough to describe Ivan and therefore was not good enough to convict him.

Asked whether he would use the same defence if he were granted a retrial, Milat said: "I never argued that in the first place.

"I didn't know how that come into it. I was totally amazed when I was sitting there and I heard that - I had no idea.

"My basic defence in my trial was, 'it wasn't me'. I didn't know who did it. It was up to them to prove my guilt, not to me to prove my innocence," he said.

It is a key admission, although some police still believe other members of the Milat family were involved in the murders. [?]

No! Police just read more into it because they needed to ensure Milat was convicted.

Caroline Milat still maintains that her brother-in-law is innocent and speaks with him about everything from family business to how he cleans his cell inside Australia's highest security jail.

Despite receiving death threats? Last weeks PR stunt, Ivan's older brother, Boris Milat, is calling for him to come clean about other murders and says it is time for his family to face the truth and stop living in denial.

But in reality Boris is the only sibling who has a grudge and who had been directly affected by Milat's previous encounters with his own family. Allegedly because Ivan got involved sexually with Boris Milat's family and caused one of the family members to become pregnant so he remains hostile.

Boris: "These people that are in denial of him have really got to get their act together," he said. "This is not just a murder, this is well above it."

[Yeah, right well above it? How about Framed for the tourist industry!]

Boris: "I can tell you now, if this had happened to one of their kids [with] one-tenth of the evidence, they would accuse him straight away.

[With one tenth of the evidence and a grudge!]

Boris: "They've got to really put the bigger picture on and the bigger picture is seven people lost their lives in a horrific, cold-blooded, terrifying [way]. It's not as though you come and shot some guy walking down the street - this was terror.

But Boris regardless of the horror it does not mean people should be nailed to the wall for the crime just for the sake of the tourist industries 20 billion a year income because that leaves the murderer out on the street murdering other people?

Boris: "That's where I feel very strongly about it. I don't care if any member of my family talks to me again - I've got to express my horror for what he's done."

Because as Australian Story reported last week that he holds a grudge!

Most of Milat's 11 surviving siblings publicly deny his guilt.

That means it's a different story in private as reported by Everyone's ABC. The community often refer to Everyone's ABC as 'government propaganda' and say they should be impartial and objective.

The Reason for the propaganda?

The Milat tapes will air on Australian Story at 8:00pm today on ABC TV.

THE FIRM: FRIENDS OF IVAN ROBERT MILAT

Statement of Evidence
By Ivan Robert Milat


Statement of Innocence by Ivan Milat
May 15, 1998 - Two Years After Show Trial.


That morning of my arrest and the circumstances the police used to justify it. Paul Onions (crown witness} was given 13 photos to look at and he chose me.

He had no choice - I was the only one with the blackhair and the type of moustache, similar to the description he gave to police after he was robbed at gunpoint near the Belanglo Forest in 1990. He looks at photos and then writes out a statement to back up his description.

It was unreal. It was all there, my pepper and salt hair, colour of eyes, etc. I had to agree it was my photo he looked at in 1994, as it was one from 1990.

They (police) changed the 1990 description Onions originally gave in Bowral at the police station. At that interview he said his attacker was 6 foot tall, black hair, Merv Hughes moustache aged mid thirties(The original statement Onions made to the police has never surfaced).

The eyes of his attacker went from wearing dark sub-glasses to narrow squint eyes. He made the original statement to police 20 minutes after his attack. Onions had been in his assailant's car for over an hour. His first description would be accurate.

It was not until Onions returned to Australia in 1994 that the matter of Yugoslav parents and my divorce were mentioned as part of conversation with Onions robber. I complained that there were no other people in the 13 photos shown to Onions that resembled me in the photo lineup of 1994. The police answer to that was "the description given by witness Onions was sufficient.

By John Stewart and Just Us 9 November 04

Related:

Death threats made in Milat family feud: Everyone's ABC
The older brother of Australia's framed serial killer Ivan Milat has allegedly received death threats from his family after saying his sibling has been a psychopath since childhood.

Ivan Milat loses conviction appeal
Ivan Milat today lost an application in the High Court to appeal against his 1996 conviction for murdering seven backpackers. The 59-year-old had sought special leave to appeal the murder convictions and one count of detaining a person for advantage without legal representation, which includes Legal Aid.

MILAT WAS FRAMED FOR TOURISM $$$$$ AND THE WINNER IS? NOT IVAN MILAT! The murders were headlines overseas. The State government's public relations machine swung into action. An unprecedented $500,000 reward was offered for the heads of the perpetrators. (Commonsense says there was more than one assailant). Head of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Samaranch, was questioning whether Australia was a safe place to visit.

NSW Prisoner Hunger Strike: Ivan Milat
It looks like Premier Carr's anti Milat Campaign is working well again, his application to the Judge in chambers to seek an order to be allowed to orally argue his appeal to the High Court was refused.

NSW Prisoner Hunger Strike: Ivan Milat day 28
The messages my body sends to my mind is basically saying there is some serious concern on what I'm doing, one gets a clear impression that death is imminent, particularly being in my sealed up box *my cell* (in ordinary circumstances it's a fine line between normality and abnormality.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Milat Cuff-Linked to nurses missing since 1980
Why did it take them so long to get around to dealing with the 23-year-old case? Did they find a new way to solve crime? Or and easier way to set someone up for unsolved crime?

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

SIX YEARS IN HELL! The Sorry Saga of Ivan Robert Milat
This month, May 2003, Ivan Milat will have spent six years in segregation/isolation without any charge, enquiry, or breach of prison rules levelled against him.

'Police Integrity Commission' Why do you lie like that?
A Police Integrity Commission inquiry which took more than a year, heard more than 50 witnesses - many of them senior police - and cost millions of dollars, has recommended that no action be taken against anyone.

Civil libertarians condemn planned changes to prisoners' privacy rights The New South Wales Government is using a recent case involving [framed] serial killer Ivan Milat to justify its decision to remove the privacy rights of prisoners. [But really just another attack on Ivan Milat from Parliament House.

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

Tourist Industry Crime and Trial By Media Coincidences

Douglas Previte set-up for Stuttle murder
Australia: A 32-year-old man has been jailed for life for murdering British backpacker Caroline Stuttle in Bundaberg in south-east Queensland on alleged evidence possibly trumped up while he was in prison?

Day set aside for Falconio forensic evidence
More than a day has been set aside in the case of the man accused of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio to hear evidence from a Northern Territory forensic scientist. Yesterday the Darwin Magistrates Court heard from mechanics and friends of the defendant Bradley John Murdoch.

Mr Bradley Murdoch to go on trial next year!
The alleged man is not the alleged Falconio killer in my book. He's alleged to have committed a crime but the Faloconio mystery remains a secret to be unlocked by time itself and more interestingly may never be unlocked at all.

Falconio magistrate closes court
THE hearing into the murder of British tourist Peter Falconio has been closed to the public. Magistrate Alasdair McGregor has closed the court for part of the testimony of Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Ch/9 News? Or Ch/9's Department of Public Prosecutions?
Bradley Murdoch committal, lawyer calls for fair hearing
The lawyer of the man accused of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio has spoken to the media in Darwin.

Peter Beattie nominated as Australian of the year: Howard
Bradley Murdoch the man alleged to have murdered English tourist Peter Falconio who has been acquitted of rape and abduction charges in the South Australian District Court.

Tourist dollar drives set-up for crime
The man alleged to have murdered English tourist Peter Falconio has been acquitted of rape and abduction charges in the South Australian District Court. Bradley John Murdoch, 45, was charged with two counts of rape, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of indecent assault after an alleged incident in South Australia's Riverland in August last year.

Supreme Court rejects Nine appeal
CHANNEL Nine lost a Supreme Court appeal today to have a suppression order on details of the case of missing backpacker Peter Falconio lifted. The Full Bench of the NT Supreme Court today ruled Magistrate Alasdair McGregor had the power to make the order banning from publication some details of the case.

Falconio magistrate closes court
THE hearing into the murder of British tourist Peter Falconio has been closed to the public. Magistrate Alasdair McGregor has closed the court for part of the testimony of Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Innocent until proven guilty? Not in Australia's outback!
There is no way that Bradley John Murdoch can get a fair trial in the Northern Territory. The entire jury pool is already contaminated, the general public have accepted the verdict of the Northern Territory News and the NT Police State has turned on the cone of silence. Maybe some of the reporters might want to ask Director of Public Prosecutions Rex Wilde QC just how he is going to secure a conviction when a body has not been found. Surely the NT bureaucracy learnt from the Lindy Chamberlain case that it is not a good idea to jail someone for murder when you haven't got a body. Maybe they have the same people working on the case. The NT Police forensic team certainly do.

Taken "A Dingo Took My Baby!"
They were the words that Lindy Chamberlain had screamed out into the blackness of the cold night in a camping ground close to Ayers Rock, Central Australia, on the night of August 17, when she discovered that her nearly ten-week-old baby, Azaria had been taken by a dingo.

Man Says He Shot Dingo That Snatched Baby SYDNEY, Australia (July 5) - A distraught mother's scream 24 years ago that a dingo snatched her baby from a camp site near Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback ignited one of Australia's most enduring mysteries. An elderly man's claim that he retrieved the infant's bloodied body from the jaws of the wild dog has revived the case and - if true - could finally lead to the discovery of Azaria Chamberlain's body.

Australia to see the light on tourism
A total of $120 million has been earmarked for the campaign's international marketing, which tops up the Australian Tourist Commission's annual budget of $90 million. The inbound and domestic tourism industry contributes $70 billion to the economy and employs 500,000.

Ten reports $76.9 million profit
The Ten television network has reported a full-year profit of $76.9 million. Even if it were down by half on the previous year they're still greedy self-interested people who care little about the real damage done, not just in Australia but the world. That profit is obviously on top of wages and expenses yet they're still greedy enough to turn the news upside down to suit the Howard government's investment in advertising.

NSW Department of Corrective Services attack right to privacy
Corrective Services Minister Richard Amery has a problem attacking prisoners right to privacy. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Native title recognised for Wik people in Cape York

After 10 years of negotiation, the Wik Aboriginal people of western Cape York finally have native title recognised over the majority of their traditional lands, at Aurukun, the Federal Court has handed down two native title determinations covering more than 12,000 square kilometres of land.

The Wik and Wikway people's 1994 native title claim formed the basis for the High Court's historic Wik decision in 1996 that native title could co-exist with pastoral leases. Today at a specially convened meeting in Aurukun, Federal Court judge Richard Cooper handed down the first two native title determinations to cover pastoral leases In Queensland.

The determination was reached through negotiations with pastoralists, state and federal governments and other interest groups. Cape York pastoralists, say they are happy to have reached the agreement with the Wik people.

D'Arcy Byrnes from Holroyd Station says today's decision will not change the way he manages his business.

"Life won't change on our property, we'll just keep carrying on what we're doing," he said.

"If the traditional owners want to come in and go hunting or fishing they're welcome, so long as they don't go where we're working."


By Sorry 13 October 04

Related:

Poverty cycle must be addressed: Ridgeway
The Democrats' Aden Ridgeway says Prime Minister John Howard should stop beating up on people who are on welfare, and focus on solving the national Indigenous unemployment rate.

The congress has declared Townsville racist..
The Mayor of Townsville, in north Queensland, has dismissed accusations the city is racist. The National Indigenous Human Rights Congress says Townsville authorities are condoning racial hatred.

"MESSAGE STICK" NEWSLETTER:
"Message Stick": the newsletter of Senator Aden Ridgeway, Australian Democrats Senator for NSW.

AMA calls for extra health funding for Aborigines
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is asking for an extra $450 million a year to be spent on the health needs of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey.

Governments urged to change race hate laws
The Ethnic Communities Council of Australia is calling on the state and federal governments to amend racial vilification laws in response to a reported race hate campaign at Newcastle University.

Prisoner's right to vote attacked again!
Prisoner's right to vote attacked again! Tell Labor not to support the bill!

Labor to request Senate inquiry into ATSIC's future
The Federal Opposition has announced it will call for a Senate inquiry into the Government's plan to abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Forum on refugee and indigenous human rights
The long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers not only breaches multiple UN treaties to which Australia is a signatory, it goes against the principals of any decent and humane society.

The Young Man From Kamilaroi
On Monday, 5 July 2004, the Hickey Family and their supporters will come together in the Glebe Coroners Court with the Redfern Police, the same police, specifically unknown at this time, who pursued the Young Man to his death by impalement.

Reconciliation dreaming
Djerrkura had witnessed the collapse of ATSIC, which he led from 1996 to 1999, with sadness. Despite the peak indigenous organisation's flaws, which he did not deny, its abolition, he said, had been done in "the classic imperial fashion, without negotiation, without understanding and with little empathy". He noted that as early as December 2001 he had called on his successor Geoff Clark to resign for the good of the organisation. But he reserved his harshest words for John Howard.

Amnesty sees lack of progress on reconciliation
Amnesty International says the Federal Government must be held accountable for its commitments to Indigenous services.

The bone has been pointed at Howard
A Queensland Indigenous leader says an ancient Aboriginal curse placed on Prime Minister John Howard is no laughing matter and could even have deadly consequences.

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. Mr Purcell said the Government was also marked down because of the policy of holding children in immigration detention centres.

Friday, June 18, 2004

UN genocide court sentences Rwandan former mayor to 30 years in jail

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ITCR) has convicted a former mayor on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 30 years in jail.

Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, 57, was mayor of Rusamo, a town in the eastern Kibungu province, during the genocide in which up to one million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed over the course of 100 days in 1994. The slaughter was carefully planned by the then Hutu-led government and carried out by its soldiers and specially formed militia groups.

The tribunal, which sits in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, found Gacumbitsi guilty of instigating widespread sexual abuse of Tutsi women and girls.

According to the official indictment, the mayor drove around his district "announcing by megaphone that Tutsi women should be raped and sexually degraded".

On one occasion, he called for people to "rape Tutsi girls that had always refused to sleep with Hutus (and to) search in the bushes. Do not save a single snake," the indictment said, adding that "attacks and rapes of Tutsi women immediately followed". The prosecution had called for a life sentence for Gacumbitsi, who was arrested in Tanzania in June 2001.

The UN-mandated court, however, handed down verdicts of not guilty for charges of complicity in genocide and murder as a crime against humanity. Gacumbitsi had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, saying he was not in Kibungu in mid-April 1994 when the massacres took place there.

But the court ruled that between April 15 and 16, 2004, he led and personally took part in attacks against Nyarubuye church, which is in his administrative district, where thousands of Tutsis were killed.

The court ruled that Gacumbitsi was the most important official in his town, and this counted as an aggravating circumstance.

The court also noted that his "character and good relations with Tutsis before the death of (president Juvenal) Habyarimana" on April 6, 1994, the event that unleashed the widespread massacres, counted as a mitigating factor. This conviction brings to 19 the number of guilty verdicts handed down by the ICTR, where trials got properly under way in 1997.

By Just Us 18 June 04

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

MILAT WAS FRAMED FOR TOURISM $$$$$

AND THE WINNER IS? NOT IVAN MILAT!

The bodies of seven backpackers were discovered at the Belanglo Forest in 1992. The victims were German, British and Australian origin.

Australia at the time of the discoveries was well advanced in its bid for the Olympic Games to be held here in year 2000.


The murders were headlines overseas. The State government's public relations machine swung into action. An unprecedented $500,000 reward was offered for the heads of the perpetrators. (Commonsense says there was more than one assailant). Head of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Samaranch, was questioning whether Australia was a safe place to visit.

During 1989, a British backpacker, Paul Onions was the victim of a botched hold-up on the Hume Highway near the Belanglo Forest. Onions gave a lengthy and detailed description of the robber to Bowral police. The statement Onions gave to police at that time has not been seen since. The description of Onion's attacker, according to some surviving police notes would exonerate Ivan Milat from the crime. Onion's, at Milat's trial, swore that Ivan Milat was the man who attempted to rob him.

Milat was arrested at his home on 24th May, 1994, by a posse called Task Force Ayr from Chatswood Police led by Clive Small.

Among items seized from Milat's home was a part of a Ruger rifle. Some years later, acting on information police dredged up a sway of guns and gun parts from the Hawkesbury River. It is easy to believe that these items had been, or would be used as "throwdowns" in frame-ups. A Ruger rifle had been used to kill the victims at Belanglo.

At Ivan Milat's trial justice was not seen to be done. An old Victorian court was refurbished at a cost of $750,000. There was only space enough for 35 members of the public. The press and other media sources were "duchessed". Representatives of the overseas media were well in attendance. Australia by the time of Milat's trial had won the right to stage the 2000 Olympic games. The show trial needed to show the prospective International punters that Australia was a safe place to visit.

The press and electronic media have not let up on Mr Milat. Nor will they.

The powers cannot have the truth known as to why Ivan Milat was framed.


By The FIRM 16 March 04

Related:

NSW Prisoner Hunger Strike: Ivan Milat
It looks like Premier Carr's anti Milat Campaign is working well again, his application to the Judge in chambers to seek an order to be allowed to orally argue his appeal to the High Court was refused.

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

SIX YEARS IN HELL - The Sorry Saga of Ivan Robert Milat
This month, May 2003, Ivan Milat will have spent six years in segregation/isolation without any charge, enquiry, or breach of prison rules levelled against him.

Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. The Australian Institute of Criminology's Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia - 1996 just don't cover the Goulburn HRMU according to Mr Ron Woodham Commissioner of Corrective Services. The High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) is the centrepiece of a major $22M redevelopment of Goulburn Correctional Centre.

Just wipe your arse on Ivan again Minister?
Mr Amery Minister for Corrective services has a problem with finding a toilet roll to wipe his bottom. Justice Action is appalled at the attacks by Amery and others in parliament on Ivan Milat's right to privacy and their attacks on the Privacy Commissioner and his office.

Police Corruption Links:

Who let the dogs out? (woof, woof, woof, woof)
The Prime Minister has thrown his support behind the National Rugby League (NRL), saying the Bulldogs affair should not reflect on the game as a whole.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

'Police Integrity Commission' Why do you lie like that?
A Police Integrity Commission inquiry which took more than a year, heard more than 50 witnesses - many of them senior police - and cost millions of dollars, has recommended that no action be taken against anyone.

Australia: politicians should watch police
In Sydney yesterday the Opposition police spokesman, Andrew Tink, urged Federal Labor MPs to allow the public hearing of the claims, which include that senior police, the PIC and the Ombudsman's office were failing to investigate legitimate complaints of misconduct, including corruption in the police promotion system.

Updated 2009:

Tourist Industry Crime and Trial By Media Coincidences

Douglas Previte set-up for Stuttle murder
Australia: A 32-year-old man has been jailed for life for murdering British backpacker Caroline Stuttle in Bundaberg in south-east Queensland on alleged evidence possibly trumped up while he was in prison?

Day set aside for Falconio forensic evidence
More than a day has been set aside in the case of the man accused of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio to hear evidence from a Northern Territory forensic scientist. Yesterday the Darwin Magistrates Court heard from mechanics and friends of the defendant Bradley John Murdoch.

Mr Bradley Murdoch to go on trial next year!
The alleged man is not the alleged Falconio killer in my book. He's alleged to have committed a crime but the Faloconio mystery remains a secret to be unlocked by time itself and more interestingly may never be unlocked at all.

Falconio magistrate closes court
THE hearing into the murder of British tourist Peter Falconio has been closed to the public. Magistrate Alasdair McGregor has closed the court for part of the testimony of Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Ch/9 News? Or Ch/9's Department of Public Prosecutions?
Bradley Murdoch committal, lawyer calls for fair hearing
The lawyer of the man accused of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio has spoken to the media in Darwin.

Peter Beattie nominated as Australian of the year: Howard
Bradley Murdoch the man alleged to have murdered English tourist Peter Falconio who has been acquitted of rape and abduction charges in the South Australian District Court.

Tourist dollar drives set-up for crime
The man alleged to have murdered English tourist Peter Falconio has been acquitted of rape and abduction charges in the South Australian District Court. Bradley John Murdoch, 45, was charged with two counts of rape, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of indecent assault after an alleged incident in South Australia's Riverland in August last year.

Supreme Court rejects Nine appeal
CHANNEL Nine lost a Supreme Court appeal today to have a suppression order on details of the case of missing backpacker Peter Falconio lifted. The Full Bench of the NT Supreme Court today ruled Magistrate Alasdair McGregor had the power to make the order banning from publication some details of the case.

Falconio magistrate closes court
THE hearing into the murder of British tourist Peter Falconio has been closed to the public. Magistrate Alasdair McGregor has closed the court for part of the testimony of Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Innocent until proven guilty? Not in Australia's outback!
There is no way that Bradley John Murdoch can get a fair trial in the Northern Territory. The entire jury pool is already contaminated, the general public have accepted the verdict of the Northern Territory News and the NT Police State has turned on the cone of silence. Maybe some of the reporters might want to ask Director of Public Prosecutions Rex Wilde QC just how he is going to secure a conviction when a body has not been found. Surely the NT bureaucracy learnt from the Lindy Chamberlain case that it is not a good idea to jail someone for murder when you haven't got a body. Maybe they have the same people working on the case. The NT Police forensic team certainly do.

Taken "A Dingo Took My Baby!"
They were the words that Lindy Chamberlain had screamed out into the blackness of the cold night in a camping ground close to Ayers Rock, Central Australia, on the night of August 17, when she discovered that her nearly ten-week-old baby, Azaria had been taken by a dingo.

Man Says He Shot Dingo That Snatched Baby SYDNEY, Australia (July 5) - A distraught mother's scream 24 years ago that a dingo snatched her baby from a camp site near Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback ignited one of Australia's most enduring mysteries. An elderly man's claim that he retrieved the infant's bloodied body from the jaws of the wild dog has revived the case and - if true - could finally lead to the discovery of Azaria Chamberlain's body.

Australia to see the light on tourism
A total of $120 million has been earmarked for the campaign's international marketing, which tops up the Australian Tourist Commission's annual budget of $90 million. The inbound and domestic tourism industry contributes $70 billion to the economy and employs 500,000.

Ten reports $76.9 million profit
The Ten television network has reported a full-year profit of $76.9 million. Even if it were down by half on the previous year they're still greedy self-interested people who care little about the real damage done, not just in Australia but the world. That profit is obviously on top of wages and expenses yet they're still greedy enough to turn the news upside down to suit the Howard government's investment in advertising.

Monday, February 16, 2004

Riot in Redfern over death in custody

The reported claim that 50 police were injured during rioting in Redfern over a death in custody is nothing more than a counter claim required to balance the argument that Thomas Hickey wasn't chased to his death by police.

The counter claim makes it look good for police opposed to addressing serious procedural problems within the NSW Police 'Force'.

The death of a three-year-old girl during a pursuit on Windsor Road at McGraths Hill in January 2004, is another example of police pursuits.

The Staysafe committee released a report into police pursuits in November 1994.

But The New South Wales Opposition's police spokesman, Peter Debnam, said,

"Many recommendations were yet to be implemented."

Fatal accident prompts police pursuit probe

Four people were taken into custody after anger erupted at the death of 17-year-old Aborigine Thomas Hickey, who was impaled through the neck on a fence on Saturday morning.

Mr Waites says the riot began after the death of Mr Hickey, who was impaled on a fence in the area on Saturday. "The misinformation was that they were under the belief that the police were actually involved in a pursuit where an Aboriginal youth was killed and that wasn't true," he said.

But why are police so quick to claim misinformation yet there has been no inquiry. Usually police won't say anything when there appears to have been a death in custody why the change? Obviously there are witnesses who have said that police chased the youngster to his death.

Waites says officers who were on patrol drove past the boy, who was riding his bicycle in the opposite direction. "They continued on their patrol," he said. They weren't aware that after he'd passed them, he accelerated on his pushbike and gone around a corner and lost control of it.

It wasn't till they came around the block again and people flagged them down and told them what happened [that they knew], so the suggestion that police have in some way been the cause of the death is fairly questionable."

But not if you're a witness to the police chase!

The teenager's mother, Gail Hickey, yesterday said police caused her son's death.

"I don't believe the police, I don't care what they say, I don't believe them," she said. "They did chase him at that time. I got a witness to all that. He seen everything that happened. He told me he seen my son riding the bike real fast, next minute he seen cop cars coming, chasing my son to the building there, where it happened."

Local resident Donna says people are grieving. "It all started over the coppers chasing a young boy," she said.

"It happened yesterday afternoon or last night and it's just that everybody has gone off because they believe the coppers are involved in doing away with the young fellow."

Donna says people are angry because they believe police are responsible for the teenager's death. "He was murdered," she said. "We've been down to look at the spot and everything and there's no sign, they cleaned it up that quick."

Redfern Aboriginal elder Lyall Munro says police harass local young people on a daily basis and have them running scared. "The community here is very much aware of what happened," Mr Munro said.

"This type of thing is going to happen and our young people are going to die in this way whilst ever the police are allowed to get away with it." Mr Munro says relations with police are at an all-time low.

"Community programs that we had going here ... all fell through because Aboriginal people saw what the street police done immediately after the meetings," Mr Munro said.

The president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Ray Jackson, says police could have managed the situation better.

He is a friend of the Hickey family and says a police car was driving in a street where the teenager's mother was grieving on Sunday afternoon.

"One report that I got was the police were smiling and sniggering and all this sort of thing and it was common knowledge that there was going to be a problem as soon as it got dark and that's exactly what's happened," Mr Jackson said.

Fatal accident prompts police pursuit probe

A fatal car accident in New South Wales has prompted a review of the procedures police use during high-speed pursuits. Police say a man and a young girl were killed when a speeding car crashed head-on into another car at McGrath's Hill in Sydney's north-west.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the National Deaths in Custody Program annual report for 2002

Between January and December 2002, there was a total of 69 deaths in custody in Australia. There were 50 deaths in prison custody and 19 deaths in police custody and custody-related police operations.

GIVE UP THE CHASE AND STAY SAFE!

By Sting 16 February 04

Related:

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
After the Wood Royal Commission the real gang behind the gangs at Kings Cross moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. After the killing of John Newman, who was gunned down in front of his home by a person not found and a weapon not found, but by a person who was alleged to have conspired to kill Newman for political purposes, was framed and jailed.

Fatal accident prompts police pursuit probe
A fatal car accident in New South Wales has prompted a review of the procedures police use during high-speed pursuits. Police say a man and a young girl were killed when a speeding car crashed head-on into another car at McGrath's Hill in Sydney's north-west.

Victorian author Raymond Hoser attacked
The case has been reported in some media, but severely misrepresented by the ABC who falsely implied that Hoser himself made a false claim about a magistrate Hugh Adams taking a bribe. The facts of the matter are as follows: On 21 December 1988 Policeman Ross Allen Bingley made the statement of fact that Adams had been bribed to wrongly convict Hoser of Theft and assault charges. This was tape-recorded and has been transcribed since. Hoser was innocent and exonerated on appeal.

NSW Police Force: Bent cop Cribb should be treated no different
34-year-old police inspector Shane Cribb, who shot a man shouldn't be treated differently than any other person charged with the same offence. The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling for special consideration for the cop.

One arrested in random raids: Police
A man has been arrested at a house in Punchbowl in one of 10 simultaneous raids on properties in Sydney's south-west this morning.

Random police raid terrorised residents
A police task Force randomly targeting gang warfare [and criminals green lighted by police themselves], is investigating nine murders and one disappearance, including a shooting death that sparked a dramatic random dawn raid in south-western Sydney yesterday.

Three men arrested over deadly drug feud
In a day of extraordinary developments in investigations into gangland violence [and police corruption], in southwest Sydney, armed plainclothes detectives from strike force Gain swooped on three men in the shopping area of the Star City Casino complex at about 2.30pm.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
Sydney was being controlled by around a thousand gun-toting young men and a new jail was needed to put them in, the NSW opposition said on Friday, in the wake if Sydney's drive-by shootings.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
Do New South Wales citizens have to be diverted from the truth about a drug infested gangland killing? Why did the police lie? Why did the Premier lie? What is wrong with our government and police, are they on the take? Are they on drugs? Are these people being drug tested?

NSW Opp calls for greater police powers
The New South Wales Opposition has used the latest fatal shooting in Sydney's south-west to call for police to be given powers to conduct random car searches.

Hollingsworth: Whistleblower meeting at Mensa
The speaker will be Kim Hollingsworth, another idealist woman police whistleblower who reported corruption within the service and wouldn't back down, despite suffering financial and emotional distress, as a consequence of Police victimisation of her.

First degree murder? Or Noble Cause Corruption?
A "STUDENT" who was alleged to be involved in a murder and armed robberies is being sent to university, after turning police informant, the man has been given indemnity from prosecution relating to a string of serious offences. These include a hold-up in which shopkeeper Khiem Lu was stabbed to death.

Australian drivers licence dangerous weapon
In the hands of police the Australian motor vehicle driver's licence has become, and soon becoming a very dangerous and powerful weapon that can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Licensed to drive, be intimidated, be harassed, and interfered with?
NSW Police should not be given any more power to stop drivers going about their business. These new powers are just a substitute for the recent attack on privacy, whereby police wanted to search for guns by stopping drivers randomly.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the National Deaths in Custody Program annual report for 2002 Between January and December 2002, there was a total of 69 deaths in custody in Australia. There were 50 deaths in prison custody and 19 deaths in police custody and custody-related police operations.

Police WarLords set to take over Sydney again
Police warlords are set to take over Sydney's suburbs because police are not being supervised properly.

Jailed man's conviction to be reviewed
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal will today review the conviction of a man, after claims in the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) last year that police planted weapons and faked suspects' confessions.

Rookies step up to ranks of Keystone-Cops?
Officers untrained in major criminal investigation are being posted to the state's elite body of detectives.

The inaugural Australian Police Summit
The inaugural Australian Police Summit (APS) will take place 18-19 June 2003 at the Australian Technology Park, Sydney. APS is Australia's only dedicated event focusing on all aspects of Law Enforcement and Policing.

NSW Police! Soothsayers or slayers? Strategy part 3 Permit denial
Part three: Refuse to grant a permit for another planned march because they manipulated the populist view. How? By exploiting your argument and eroding the public's confidence in peaceful demonstrations and by using the media to tell their lies, then using that as a weapon against peace.

Police violence fractures Peace movements?
The resolution also criticised New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Dick Adams for creating a threatening environment by mobilising excessive force for the protest.

No confidence in 'Force' when service is out the door
How are shopkeepers and service staff going to feel today knowing police are vulnerable to be attacked while serving customers at the counter of a police station?

Every dog has his day: Brammer resigns
The Police Integrity Commission found that Brammer, along with other senior police, had at times displayed a lack of support for the former police reform body, the Crime Management Support Unit.

MPs told of police corruption
Corruption and mismanagement are still entrenched in the NSW Police, and problems at the highest levels are "whitewashed", according to evidence given yesterday to a federal parliamentary committee.

Black Knight Moroney to give evidence?
Accusations about former high-ranking NSW policewoman Lola Scott's alleged failure to act against paedophiles have dominated a federal crime inquiry hearing in Sydney.

The NSW Police Force
The NSW Police Force has stopped production on its new movie Viking. Viking, showing in NSW Parliament House and in the suburbs of Sydney recently.

Crime victim group wants say in money allocation
A spokesperson from Justice Action Mr Brett Collins said, "Victims should be properly compensated regardless of the source and that is currently the law. The law says you don't need to find even the offender to get compensation. This is an attempt by the opposition to create a law and order issue-involving victims when there is in fact no issue!

Abolition of 800 year old double jeopardy law a crime
The 800-year-old rule prevents a person who's acquitted of a criminal charge from ever being re-tried for that offense.

When real safety is jeopardised in NSW
Perception of crime is still a problem in NSW, with a new Productivity Commission report showing the state's citizens feel less safe than most of their counterparts.

Terry Falconer: KILLED IN CUSTODY
TERRY FALCONER CASE: Terry Falconer was picked up by a uniformed policeman and two detectives on work release from Silverwater jail. Handcuffed and found two weeks later chopped up in chicken wire at Wauchope and dumped below the tide mark. Two fishermen found Falconer.

The body in the seven bags still hides its secrets Who is going to report this failure by the NSW police to solve this most important crime? When there is evidence that the perpetrator was the police who are the same people who are investigating the crime or said to be investigating the crime. The diversion here is that bikies committed the crime even though the head of Rebells bikie gang worked for the NSW police for 22 years in an elite tactical response group.

Call to Bronwyn Bishop's Federal Crime Inquiry
I call on Bronwyn Bishop to allow me to produce first evidence about police corruption and to be able to attend Parliament House Sydney without fear of conviction.

'Police Integrity Commission' Why do you lie like that?
A Police Integrity Commission inquiry which took more than a year, heard more than 50 witnesses - many of them senior police - and cost millions of dollars, has recommended that no action be taken against anyone.

Australia: politicians should watch police
In Sydney yesterday the Opposition police spokesman, Andrew Tink, urged Federal Labor MPs to allow the public hearing of the claims, which include that senior police, the PIC and the Ombudsman's office were failing to investigate legitimate complaints of misconduct, including corruption in the police promotion system.

The community questions ICAC's slagging and fobbing you off?
The ICAC, Commissions, Ombudsman, Police Integrity Commission (PIC), and numerous Tribunals etc, are all arms of government set up as an insurance police for the government's 3 or 4 year election terms. In short they'll be out of office by the time you may be lucky enough to have your matter heard.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500 crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
Evan Whitton: Either two things occurred. If you said you didn't join the police force to extort money from working girls, your papers were marked 'not suitable for plain clothes' and you were sent back to uniform.

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Australia's Political Underworld...& their enforcers
The promotion of law and order means money to big business. Profits from insurance, security fixtures, patrol services and the like can only continue to grow if the perceived threat of uncontrollable crime wave escalates. In the past few months there have been many examples of the true nature of our blood thirsty politicians and their sinister attempts to spoon-feed a not so gullible public with their repetitious rhetoric.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Warren Lanfranchi, or Sally-Anne Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').