You could almost feel sorry for NSW Police. Like their brother cops in the U.S., they've been granted all this military grade equipment, but our thin blue line lacks even the excuse of an armed citizenry to use it against.
This could give a lesser police justice system pause for reflection on the origins of policing and their application in the modern world. Ask themselves questions like who is targeted by police? Why is there a focus on the crimes of disadvantage, but a systemic failure to investigate and prosecute corporate crime? Why are there armed police officers roaming public transport to inspect tickets, whilst so many reported cases of people doing serious harm to children go without follow up because there aren't enough child protection officers - and why for that matter is the starting salary of a probationary constable $80,733, a figure that can rapidly increase through overtime, whilst a new child protection caseworker is paid $79,032 and receives no overtime pay, even work though days can frequently last 12 hours or more.
But those are merely the niggles of a woke social justice warrior who has no idea what being a cop entrails. NSW Police say to hell with all that - it's not fair to give them all this tactical gear, create these cool strike forces, and not let them play with it! They didn't train with this weaponry for 18 minutes to run early intervention programs. They could be investigating cases of family violence, making sure AVOs actually protected the people at risk by making sure the perpetrators stayed away. But that's no fun. Unfortunately, the organised crime and gangs police cite as justification for rolling out the big guns are a little thin on the ground. What to do?
Raptor Squad have a history of coming up with excuses to show up waving their things about, displaying their might and cracking a few heads, like kicking down the door at a peaceful party on the receiving end of a noise complaint to beat attendees and destroy furniture in their search for the offending stereo equipment. But that gets them in trouble from noisy whiners complaining about "police brutality" and "the rule of law", so they've decided to go with credible sounding made up threats to give them an excuse to flex some muscle for the awed public and justify their budget and weaponry.
And so last week we saw TERROR ON THE STREETS OF DRUMMOYNE, Strike Force Raptor storming the streets of the quiet and well heeled harbourside suburb searching for the hired goons of high profile drug importing rings who'd been terrorising Drummoyne locals.
This terror was news to the people who live there:
"Another local commented that police had asked if they had been approached by anyone with suspected links to organised crime, but the only “cartel” they’d seen was a group of boat owners coordinating where to park their trailers."
I've always found Drummoyne a pretty quiet sort of place. Last time I was there, I found it criminal a deli was trying to charge $15.95 for 100g of very pedestrian soppressa, but I left the shop without making a purchase and without being threatened, not even for being too stingy to appreciate good soppressa.
Nevertheless, Drummoyne was locked down as heavily armed Raptor Squad members and K9s roamed the streets for over two hours, bailing up locals and searching cars and garages.
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| There's old paint in this garage the owner was planning to just chuck in the rubbish during his next clear out, instead of disposing of it properly. There's no end to the lawlessness |
“Residents have made complaints to us about being harassed by those [two] residents and their associates, who stopped them and asked them what they are doing in those streets, and we just can’t have that ongoing behaviour.
“We need residents to feel safe and secure and be able to walk up and down their street without being harassed by these individuals.”
And they'd never see the irony.
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