NEWS: The Age 05 Mar 02: Drug squad needs 'putting down': ombudsman

I don't know.. police selling drugs on our streets?
Umm..

This is coming from a criminology student, who has infact studied the policing unit (lectured by Dr. Steve James, who IMO is the coolest d00dor at uni melb) the police ombudsman has virtually no power, or at least the power to change anything, in changing police operational practices. First of all he actually reports to the assistant police commissioner, thus he is not a self-governing independant government official, but is infact subordinate to police. Secondly he makes endlest recomendations, which are simply ignored by police administration. The ombudsman acts like a PR filter for police, making the public think that the police are accountable, when in fact all the accountability mechanism for police actions are in some way flawed and easily circumvented by crooked police. In essence they can act however they want with little fear of reprisal. The drugs squad has more bent cops, than any other unit. In fact Sen. Sergeant Kevin Hicks had a nice little racket, where his bent people would steal drugs (mainly eccies) from the St. Kilda compound and sell them to well known Melbourne drug lords. The fact that files went missing from drug squad HQ comes of no suprise to me, in fact they have a great relationship with melbs underworld, busting their competition in return for fat kick backs--> every main drug syndicate works in conjunction with corrupt police, it is a nice symbiotic relationship one could not exist without the other. Disgusting... what police accountibility? It simply does not exist!
(oh yeah and when they get convicted do they go to jail? Oh no all they do is get kicked out of the force, and if they've been really bad a couple of months in the jug)

It is always so much more complicated then it seems. I used to things that drugs were bad and that other only thought drugs were good.
This is a simple example of how many people are intricatly connected in a web of endless satisfaction for the ego. When it comes down to it, most of us are out there to save our own necks and the necks of those closest to us, independent of what any external all powerful law that implies and dictates universal wisdom to the masses. Unfortunatly the masses have such diverse opinions that it seems an all encompassing set of laws and an application of those laws would destroy all of our freedoms.
ie - Your not even allowed to think for taking drugs, for statistics could show that people having this though will end up taking drugs.
In regard to all this Police are still human. All those failing conditions of the human are prevalent in all men/women.
Just my 2c.
Cheers

I wonder if this is all just an administrator error and a media beat up? Listening to some of the more *cough* realistic news sources there is certainly that possibility.