Write on: letters to the editor

March 22, 2000
Issue 

Zero tolerance policing

I have just read Norm Dixon's article "Killer cops go free" (GLW #396). I agree with Dixon that Zero Tolerance policing is a disaster, not just in New York also in Sydney. Its application to a small Arabic speaking community in Sydney's west has escalated from petty juvenile behaviour into urban violence.

Spending pages of dialogue criticising the agencies of the state for racism and excess force will not change the view of the bureaucrats who developed and implemented the policy. Domestic violence legislation and Child Protection legislation is all part of the zero tolerance strategy. Conservative policy is always brutal and impersonal because it is almost always justified by quantitative statistics.

For Norm Dixon's information the performance indicators used to measure a policeman's competency are arrest rates, the performance measures used to allocate funding and maintain a resource budget are arrest rates and crime statistics. The monster in the Zero Tolerance debate is capitalist competition.

Attempting to draw any inference to the Klu Klux Klan's "night riders" and the police slogan "We own the night" is infantile and it trivialises the whole concept of zero tolerance and the death of Diallo. Especially if you consider on p.4 of Resist (the insert opposite p.15) the Marxist feminists group are publicising "Reclaim the night". I mean to say do they wear pointy white hats as well.

Things like the death of Diallo are very ugly but I would suggest that it has little to do with racist behaviour. Diallo simply had the misfortune to be a member of the poor underclass who live on welfare and handouts in ghetto's owned by absentee landlords.

The atmosphere of distrust and fear in underclass environments like New York and Sydney is not just one sided and the levels of fear on both sides is unnecessary. Being charged with murder by the state regardless of who you are is nothing to celebrate. The verdict is often like a lottery.

I am an ex Detective (18 years) in the NSW Police. I am presently in my honours year at University of Western Sydney. I am doing my thesis on Zero Tolerance. I do not support the concept at all. It takes away the most important power police have. "The power not to arrest" and the broad discretion, which is the essence of public trust.

Michael Kennedy
Bringelly NSW
[Abridged.]

Battery hens

In the culmination to what has been an intensive campaign for the last few years, animal rights activists, workers, students and members of the community gathered outside Brisbane Parliament House in Brisbane on Friday March 3.

With a giant chicken, "Ban Battery Cages" banner and many enthusiasts waving "Honk for the Hens" and "Battery Hens live in Hell" and other placards, the group attracted attention from cars passing by and the general public . A group of 20 swelled to about 70 by the time the speakers were in effect.

The rally was called as part of a National Day of Action for Freedom for Battery Hens, supporting the move from intensive, caged egg-production to free range hens. On this day, the Ministers for Primary Industries and Agriculture were meeting in Melbourne to decide on a report composed last year and kept secret from animal rights groups until leaked to the Courier Mail on Friday. The report favoured a process of "enriching" i.e. enlarging battery cages, which outraged activists as the proposal was hopefully to phase-out cages for good, as seen in the landmark UK decision in 1998.

However, the outcome of the meeting announced later that day was that there was consensus among the ministers that a total phase out of battery cages was necessary due to public pressure. The ministers have also said they will meet with animal welfare groups for recommendations. The final meeting to set a phase-out date will be held in Brisbane in August.

It is crucial now to keep up the support so ministers will not bow to industry pressure to retain the cage. Contact Animal Liberation in your State or Territory, or CAG-e (Chook Action Group against exploitation) in Brisbane on 3255 0023.

Liz Shield
Brisbane
[Abridged.]

A matter of degrees

Those who became cops because they weren't smart enough to get a job at McDonald's shouldn't go feeling too bad about themselves, because there are those who became party politicians because they were too intellectually retarded to get jobs as cops!

I realise the above may be a bit too worldly cynical and politically incorrect for the guided socialism pages of a family paper like Green Left Weekly but, what the hell. I might as well just have some fun.

Five seriously long thought-out and deliberated letters to the NT News about serious issues but, alas, it would appear I've lost any purchase on a piece of space on that page, even for just one of the them, at the moment.

At all other times it seems all and any opinions are equal ... but at election times, when the CLP is trying to desperately hang onto a seat ... well it would appear some opinions are more equal than others. So why waste time and brain stress composing considered comment?

P.M. McVean
Darwin

McLibel

The recent program involving two unemployed workers against McDonald's made legal history. The McLibel Two, as the British press termed them, published a leaflet "What's Wrong With McDonald's". The giant US corporation adopted their usual tactics to intimidate and threatened to sue unless the leaflet was withdrawn and an apology made. When Dave Morris, an unemployed postman, and Helen Steele, a fitting surname, said that it was McDonald's who should apologise and the fight was on.

The BBC film a week ago was perfect. I first heard all about this five years ago when support was appealed for. It steadily became a flood, and the mail for the tiny Greenpeace office was being delivered by the sackful.

The head of McDonald's legal team, on $5000 a day, said it would end within three months. It ran for two and a half years. The strain on Dave and Helen was immense, it took over their lives. As the trial began, it was announced that it would be by judge alone because a jury would be unable to understand it! A year later, when Helen badly needed a two-week break, it was refused.

The American team and McDonald's top executives flew to and fro. Support became massive, involving the trades, professions, unions etc.

In Australia, a lass in Brisbane issued a newsletter regularly and I was very glad of her cooperation. McDonald's energetically instructed that there should be no comments from any of their operations here. They were in enough trouble. But as the splendid SBS has just shown, the world would know.

Norm Taylor
Henley Beach SA

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