Sydney’s ‘thought crime’ raids
by yarra Friday, May 16 2008, 12:39pm
national /
injustice/law /
commentary
Remember the ‘new sweeping terrorist laws’ the previous conservative Howard government instituted? New draconian laws the current (useless) Rudd government is happy to leave in place. The conservatives felt obliged to emulate America and introduce police state laws though the nation had not suffered any direct terrorist attacks. Civil liberties groups and other concerned citizens protested vehemently regarding intrusions on personal liberties, privacy, and the new draconian/intrusive powers accorded law enforcement agencies, which could easily be abused! Well, it didn’t take too long for that abuse to occur. A joint federal and state police ‘strikeforce’ conducted two pre-dawn raids in Sydney yesterday. The police were heavily armed and vested, no doubt the result of watching too many American DVDs!
The situation clearly did not warrant such a huge show of force, which police admitted; however, fully armed and vested officers enjoy a good romp and an opportunity to play Rambo in real life – whether the circumstances warrant it or not.
The ‘crimes’ that provoked these raids were abstract in nature, ‘thought crimes,’ as was foolishly/openly admitted by police, "These are a couple of blokes who may have been thinking about doing something. We wanted to satisfy ourselves that nothing is going to happen, stated a senior officer. We also wanted to send a bit of a message to them." Straight from the horse’s, I mean, pig’s mouth! [My emphasis]
Lawyers would be lining up to prosecute police over these fantasy based, ‘thought crime’ raids. Police may be forced to produce their new ‘clairvoyance squad’ in court, in order to justify raids based on mind reading! We can hardly wait for developments.
What has happened to this country? The current and previous governments are without doubt the worst in Australia’s history. If intervention has ever been warranted from government it is NOW! The Federal Police chief, Mick ‘drunken dropkick’ Keelty, is a known incompetent; few police chiefs are able to boast wasting $7.5 million attempting to frame a dark skinned Indian Doctor (Haneef) on terrorism charges. [A feeble inquiry is currently in progress into that highly compromising affair.]
Heavily armed police raids based on teacup reading, tarot cards and other thought discerning measures pose a huge public safety risk. Of course real terrorists, if any actually exist outside the strange imaginings of our police, would now be alerted and may choose to booby-trap forced entries to their premises. Perhaps the traditional friendly visit and a word of warning from police would have sufficed in the circumstances!
Police should consider themselves fortunate that raids were not conducted on citizens that refuse to be intimidated. Regardless of whatever protection police imagine they have under these new draconian laws, be assured a good lawyer would have a field day with these ‘thought crime’ raids.
Perhaps the worst outcome for police is the loss of public confidence. The appalling basis – imagined fantasies/thought crimes -- upon which these raids were initiated promises to be very costly indeed.
Mystery surrounds early morning anti-terror raids
Jason Morrison
16/05/2008 12:03:00 PM.
Dozens of heavily armed police have conducted pre-dawn counter terrorism raids on two Sydney homes, seizing files and a computer for forensic investigation.
Not long after 2am this morning, dozens of officers from the state protection group lined up outside a housing department block in Washington Avenue, at Riverwood.
With their guns drawn and wearing bullet-proof vests, they broke the door down and raided one of the units.
At the same time, across town at Glebe a similar scene - a similar raid.
Agents from the federal police were there as well.
Documents and a computer were seized, but there were no arrests.
Clearly though, they had been expecting trouble, with so many police involved.
This raid was linked to an investigation which police are calling Strikeforce Tantallon’, but police won’t tell LIVENEWS.com.au what or who they were searching for, saying only that they were conducting a counter-terrorism operation.
© 2008 Macquarie National News
See also:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/16/1210765174146.html
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