Post#203 Policing in Western Australia - A Pom's-eye View (Officer 'A' - The Crime Factory)

I recently read The Crime Factory, a memoir by an English police officer who, among other tribulations, succumbed to the lure of the Great South Land. In 2007, the Western Australian government decided to take a short cut in recruiting police by seeking 400 trained officers from the United Kingdom. The author, who uses the nom-de-plume "Officer A", was unhappy with his situation in the Surrey constabulary and saw the greener grass.

Here is a quote from Officer A's interview with the delegation sent to the UK to rope in these suckers:

"I do have a few questions, as it goes. How will Australian police officers react to UK officers coming in to work on their patch? If the situation was reversed, I think there might be some resentment from some UK officers." [Officer A said]

"There will be no problem," Fordham said. "Western Australia is a multicultural place with people and police from many different backgrounds. We need more cops. They will just be happy to see a new face."

When I read those words I could see that the author was laying the ground for a rude shock for the reader. The next chapter which deals with his experiences in WA is called "Welcome to Hell". He describes policing in WA as being like Britain in the 1970's without the bon homie. The first incident he describes is him holding a drugged-up, knife-wielding thug at bay.  This lasts twenty minutes until back-up arrive and, after Tasering the thug, the responding officers ask him, "Why didn't you shoot the cunt?" (That's "Welcome to WA!", Pom.)

I noted two things from the progress of Officer A, beginning with his British experiences. Most notable was his relentless pouring of alcoholic beverage down his neck. This won't make you unpopular in any British or Australian police community. It's also like a lot of other group behaviours; an arena in which no mercy is shown to those who can't master the beast. The heavy-drinking culture is an obstacle course in which a person who starts to lose their edge is pounced on and pulled down by the other contenders. The very person who urges you over to the pub will be snugged up in the office later as you finish the session...telling the boys what a toss-pot you are and how you're losing your grip. Officer A reckons he had a nervous breakdown after returning to the UK but I detect the foundations of it and its incipience well before that in his story. He doesn't recognise the beginnings of his troubles because complete abstinence from alcohol is beyond his imagination as a lifestyle for himself. The journey to WA is a classic example of a last resort by someone whose circumstances are becoming intolerable.

He is surprised by the rather cold welcome from the senior officer who tells assembled British recruits to not push "new ideas". The attitude displayed doesn't seem like happiness to see new faces. Subsequently, as a former detective, he finds patrol work unsatisfying and takes an opportunity to join a task force set up by another imported UK officer. Using his status as a fellow Pom and former detective he wangles a spot on the team. This behaviour is calculated to make you unpopular. It's called being pushy, jumping the queue, having tickets on yourself, not paying your dues first and anything else you can think of that covers the concept. He then makes a series of amazing gaffes in his relations with his colleagues. The worst arises from a raid on the clubhouse of a motorcycle gang. A couple of the cops on the operation souvenir a sign from above the bar in the clubhouse. Officer A decides to report them to the management. This is a very foolish move. This is dobbing. Of course, the Powers That Be ignore him. Then the mad bastard leaks the matter to the media to force them to do something. This really is the end of his career in the WA Police. I can't understand why he ever thought he could inform and continue. He subsequently is harassed by Australian cops who've obviously taken a venomous dislike to him. He fears that a prowler on his property is an agent of the police, that the police are bugging his house. Someone calls his wife and asks to speak to a well-known Australian criminal who has fallen into disgrace for being an informant. Officer A doesn't help his own cause; not that it was amenable to help by now. In one instance he flashes his backside at a "sundowner" drinking session and this incident and the following exchange of insults with other cops present haunts him all the way back to his return to Britain. What might have been covered up for a mate is made into a major issue in his case; the personnel reports on him from WA are damning. The WA police do everything they can to wreck his reputation. What is most peculiar is that he never seems to get it. He wouldn't have dobbed in the UK, so why did he think he could do it in WA? He really should have taken notuice of the warning to fit in and not try to reform the place.

Western Australia has a well-earned reputation as "The Police State", which many people feel should be our licence-plate slogan rather than the original "State of Excitement" (1970's, copying Oregon), the execrable "Home of the America's Cup" (1980's, all our own work, unfortunately), or the current "The Golden State" (copying California). The police have played a significant role in the politics and social life of the state without going out of their way to draw attention to the fact. You find out about it when you touch a tripwire, such as the relationship between police and the criminal community.

The WA police have contained within their ranks some of the most courageous, decent and determined law officers that anyone could imagine. They've also played host to thugs, bullies and criminals as bad as the worst on the other side of the blue line. Keeping the evil element in check is hard work and a constant battle. Corruption, like rust, never sleeps. If anyone was going to sort this out it wasn't going to be a blow-in with a boozing problem and a lack of social insight.

Post#202 Even More West African Email Scamming! (feelove / Kosy aka beautykosy & joyhenrry)

Here are a couple more messages from the relentless "guy men" of West Africa. I found these in the message box for my account at Spicypage, which I only use now as a trap for these characters.

I post these so that anyone searching these names or email addresses may find this blog and receive the message that these are scams and that nothing useful comes of believing them. Difficult as it is to believe, some people do. Western Australian Police are now contacting people who send money overseas by Western Union and have discovered some poor wretches in WA are out tens of thousands of dollars from just this sort of chicanery.

User: feelove [Meant to be free love I suspect, but happily apt as this is a come-on for a scam.]
Subject: Hello
Date: April 26, 2013

Hello,
How are you today?
I wish you the best of season
My name is Kosy,
i will like us to become friends
to discuss important issues.
write me with my email
beautykosy@yahoo.com
Hope to hear from you
take care,

Kosy


User: joyhenrry
Subject: Hi
Date: November 30, 2012

(joyhenrry1975@yahoo.com )

hi dear,

how are you today i hope all is well with you at there? well i saw your profile here on this site and it gives me joy and also it was well understanding to me and this have makes me to pick an interest on you, well can well be a friend? if you care then you can send me a mail on my email address here again (joyhenrry1975@yahoo.com) so that i can send you my foto and tell you more about myself.

Post#201 Recycled Sewage for Drinking Water in Perth

Several years ago I was discussing the folly of using drinkable water for irrigating lawns, particularly those on the road reserves in Perth. Sprinklers on these road verges are often to be observed watering the grass and a large part of the adjacent road surfaces during the early hours of Summer mornings. They can also, despite constant vicious complaints from myriads of citizens, be caught at it in Spring, |Autumn and Winter.

One comment that I made was this: "Some years from now, when we're all drinking our own and each other's recycled piss, we'll wonder why it was so important to grow grass along the roadside."

Well folks, the time has come. Here is a story which tells it all:

" Recycled water to be on tap after plan approved by Barnett Government

 Source: The Sunday Times  - By  KARA VICKERY

HOUSEHOLDS across Perth will soon be drinking recycled waste water.

WA will be the first state to drink recycled water when up to 35 billion litres of treated sewage is pumped into our underground supply each year under a plan to be ticked off by the Barnett Government.

The Sunday Times can reveal the Water Corporation will recommend within weeks that treated waste from showers, washing machines and toilets be re-used to drought-proof the state.

Treated sewage has been quietly injected into Perth's aquifers during a trial that ended in December. WaterCorp will advise the Government the testing was a success with just one emergency shutdown.

However, the state Government will refuse West Australians a say in the proposal, after a public revolt stopped a similar plan in Queensland.

WaterCorp manager for water source planning Nick Turner said a large-scale project could be up and running within two years that could help drought-proof the state.

The authority's recommendation will come as part of a final report into a three-year trial in which about 2.5 billion litres of wastewater from a Craigie treatment plant was treated to Australian drinking standards and then injected into an isolated aquifer in Leederville.

Despite the trial finishing in December, the plant has continued to recharge the aquifer with treated sewage.

Under the Water Corporation plan, the same technology would be used to treat 25 per cent of wastewater from the Beenyup Wastewater Treatment plant that would then be injected into the aquifer and eventually end up in Perth homes. Currently, water from Beenyup is discharged into the ocean.

"The results are all good, we've demonstrated that it's sustainable, that we can operate it, the regulations are in place and the public are supportive," Mr Turner said. "We do not anticipate needing to do any more trialling. Our recommendation will be to proceed with expansion, but it's their call."

WaterCorp has previously said recycled water could supply 35 billion litres a year, enough for 140,000 households. In comparison, the Kwinana desalination plant produces about 45 billion litres a year.

Mr Turner said the report was yet to receive input from the Health Department and Department of Environment and Conservation, but it was expected to be ready to go to the Government within weeks.

He said there could be no 100 per cent guarantee, but he said the plant was designed to shut off immediately if water purity was compromised.

A statement released by the corporation on March 30 last year revealed water that did not meet drinking standards was recharged into the aquifer during a "minor hiccup". The statement said 300kL of water with a pH value of between 8.5 and 9 was allowed through, despite a guideline for the trial of 8.5.

Citizens Against Drinking Sewage spokeswoman Rosemary Morley, who successfully lobbied against a plan to introduce treated water into dams in the Queensland town of Toowoomba in 2006, said there were no guarantees. But Ms Morley said the WA plan was different to one voted down in Queensland by a referendum. "

Of course, Those Who Know Best did not put it to a public vote. They knew what the outcome would be and didn't want the mug public interfering. As for the proposition that the State will be "drought-proofed" - what extravagant nonsense that is! Recycling sewage will put the supply at risk for certain but it will never make a significant response to the projected increased demand. As long as the government allows the untramelled growth of swimming pool installations, spa baths, reticulated lawns, the sale of water-hungry dishwashers and all other means of squandering water, the threat of deterioration of water supply and quality will continue.