POLICE CORRUPTION IN VICTORIA - AUSTRALIA

BOOK REVIEW:

Victoria Police Corruption,Vols.1 and 2,by Raymond Hoser,available from Kotabi Publications, PO Box 599, Doncaster,Vic . 3108, $A33-00 per volume, plus $A5-00 postage within Australia. tel: + 61 3 XXXXXXXX; fax:61 3 XXXXXXXX,mobile +61 412 777 211;email:adder@ smuggled.com and Website http://www.policecorruption.com.

Reviewed by Geoff Muirden.

These are the most comprehensive books on police corruption in Victoria current to this year (1999).They are among the most significant books I have ever reviewed as a professional reviewer.Viewed in context, the books document a continuing trend towards denial of civil liberties and a move towards a slave state that may culminate in the 21st century if present trends continue. In addition to the books, author Raymond Hoser has a "Police Corruption CD" version in Adobe Acrobat for $85-00 plus postage.

HORRIFYING REALITY

Raymond Hoser has a reputation for writing hard-hitting books, and he has not disappointed us in these two, which show massive corruption in the Victorian police force despite media publicity asserting that Victoria has the best and least corrupt force in Australia. That assertion cannot be upheld, based on the evidence in these books, which shows a stench of corruption arising from this State that gives it no right to proclaim itself,in the author's words, "Holier than the Vatican. " For most of the media, a book like Hoser's is "too hot to handle'.

POLICE RAID

The comment on the front of volume 1 "The book that the Victoria Police don't want you to read" was dramatically confirmed by the report in Strategy, September, 1999 page 5, that on Friday, 6 August, 1999, Victoria Police tried to seize these books at Maryborough, Victoria, even though thousands of books had already been dispensed.

KENNETTOPHOBIA

The fact that chapter 36 targets Jeff Kennett as Premier, suggesting that police turn a blind eye to certain actions of his that are illegal, such as refusing to prosecute him for a speeding fine that would land a lesser mortal in serious trouble, and Kennett returns the favour by blocking a Royal Commission into Police Corruption, along the lines of the Fitzgerald or Wood Reports may have been a partial motivation for the raid, as Jeff doesn't need adverse publicity before the election on September 18, 1999. Hoser criticises Kennett severely,and in detail, but previous administrations have nothing to be smug about, as Hoser suggests that they also did virtually nothing about police reform and Mr Bracks, in Opposition,broke a promise to go for police reform if elected.

PROFESSIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER

Controversy is no stranger to Hoser,who has already issued an earlier book detailing police corruption, The Hoser Files. (still available) and operates his own Website "Australians Against Corruption" which highlights police corruption (www.policecorruption.com) Since the earlier book corruption appears to have increased, not lessened.Indeed, his evidence supports his comment that 'corruption within the Victoria Police is not just exceptional,or against the normal circumstance, but rather it is routine and the norm', although he also adds that "I seek not to tar the honest hardworking police and other officials with the same brush of corruption ... many fair and honest people within these organizations have such ideals subjugated by the corrupt organization as a whole.'(p. 3, volume 1). lf they try and fight the corruption, like Karl Konrad, they are often victimised, dismissed, or they leave in disgust.

ENCYCLOPAEDIC SCOPE

The books are so detailed and wideranging they cover nearly every aspect of police life and volume 1 names individuals associated with corruption. In general, it seems on the basis of his information, that if police aren't involved in some kind of corruption, it's because it hasn't been invented yet.Case after case of police protecting corruption in their midst and of active collusion between police and criminals is mentioned. The role of police informer is a hazardous one, as the informers become too much aware of police corruption, and have to be suppressed.

OTHER STATES

Although he concentrates on Victorian corruption, Volume 2 has some information on corruption in other states, such as NSW and Queensland, even Federal police, suggesting that corruption is not unique to Victoria.Volume 2 also concentrates on the bent judges, bent politicians and bureaucrats who endorse police corruption.

THEMES

The scope is so vast it is better to focus on general conclusions rather than individual cases. He is not concerned only with his own experiences with police, which are horrifying enough, but that of others, which show his experiences are not unique or unusual.

BROTHERHOOD

One theme is that of the police brotherhood" an "us or them" mentality seen in the police determination to "protect their own", no matter how illegal individual police actions are.

WHITEWASH

This is seen, for example, in the whitewash jobs carried out by lipolice investigating police" in the Internal Investigations Department (IID) now renamed (with a sense of humour) the 'Ethical Standards Department'.When police investigate police the result is a whitewash as they regularly find their colleagues "not guilty", leaving the victims without a remedy. As if that was not enough, the victims are harrassed by police for complaining.

POLICE NEVER WRONG

Given this attitude of protecting their own, police seldom admit that they are responsible for any misdemeanour and suppress evidence that they are. As well as the selective harrassment paid to Hoser, one of the most disgusting episodes is when a car driven by drunken police drove through a red light and smashed into a car, wrecking it and sending the driver to hospital.

POLICE SCAPEGOATED THE DRIVER!

Far from admitting liability or offering compensation, the police then proceeded to charge the driver with responsibility for the accident!

HYPOCRISY

Well has it been said that "hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue".This tribute is frequently paid as Hoser mentions case after case where people, not just police, but also judges, government officials, Ombudsmen and various officials, "protest too much", affirming their spotless purity in tones of moral outrage that they could ever be accused of wrongdoing. By a remarkable coincidence, however, despite this pose of Christlike righteousness,it has occurred time and time again, that they are nevertheless guilty of wrongdoing.

HUMAN NATURE

Whistleblowing, teaches us a lot about the dirtiness of human nature, how low it can sink, and the use of the smear to "shoot the messenger" rather than clear up the corruption. As Hoser rightfully mentions, you will never hear someone say "I murdered the person because I was a cold-blooded killer" and "I set the bloke up and put him in jail because I am a scoundrel." In practice, there will be an 'excuse", "justifying" the unjustifiable action. It is a sign of the moral turpitude of our times that so few believe they will face the Judgement of God for their evil deeds.

VOLUME 2

Volume 2 in general details the fact that police get away with what they do because the "scum rises to the top": that at the top level, there are corrupt judges, magistrates,goverrunent officials, ombudsmen, politicians,etc. ready to sell their principles to back evil with a tissue of lies and evasions. The system encourages it. The rot starts at the top, and there is no sign of it getting better. In fact, as we head towards what may end as a slave state in the 21st century, it may he getting worse.

GRASSROOTS CITIZEN THREATENED

Part of the "moral" is that the ordinary law-abiding citizen is in as much danger of being targetted for oppression for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" as the most hardened criminal.

REMEDIES INEFFECTIVE

Hoser makes it plain that existing remedies against police abuse are either ineffective or corrupt. That includes Ombudsmen,lawyers, Legal Aid, etc.

SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Hoser constantly documents that there are "two laws": one for the citizen,rigorously and punitively enforced; another for bent police, bent magistrates and bent politicians, who can commit offences, even murder itself, and get away with it, with little or no penalty. Those with a high rank in society are likely to escape prosecution. There is one law for the poor,another for the rich.

BENT SHRINKS

There can sometimes be cases of "bent shrinks", who prostitute their calling as "promoters of mental health" by defaming whistleblowers or defending the evils in the Establishment. They make out the protester to be "mentally disturbed" or "paranoid".

FUZZOPHOBIA?

Maybe some bent shrink will declare there to be a psychiatric disorder based on disliking police- technically known as 'FUZZOPHOBIAN' and those guilty of 'fuzzophobia' can be lawfully "put away" as "terribly disturbed" and "a danger to society", just as dissidents are confined to psychiatric homes in Russia.

EVIDENCE OF MASSIVE CORRUPTION

But the evidence presented by Hoser shows there is plenty to be "paranoid" about. He offers extensive proof of the way he has personally been "shafteduin a disgusting and unconscionable fashion. But it is not just his experiences alone, but people who have suffered even more, such as Mick Skrijel (pronounced SKREEL) who suffered threats on his life, sexual assault on his daughter, his home burnt, his car and fishing boat destroyed, unjustly imprisoned for trying to expose police protection of drug importation in South Australia and personal attack for daring to expose drug running,(see chapter 12) which has now become a massive social problem. If it had been acted an at the time he exposed it, the drug problem may now have been much less. Other whistleblowers including "NAME SUPPRESSED", Conomy, Konrad, etc. confirm the general nature of the social injustice.

MACGREGOR ENDORSES BOOK

Also, volume I has an introduction by Andrew MacGregor, ex-Victoria Police, who backs up Hoser's account and who believes that police covered up the murder of his brother to protect corrupt officers in their ranks. MaeGregor's story is told in the section on pp. 533- 538, (vol. 1, and in the magazine 'Exposure', in March, 1998.

'FITTING IN' TO CORRUPTION

Shrinks who seek to make the individual "fit in" to society corrupt them when the price of "fitting in" means endorsing corruption, and those that do this should be debarred.

POLICE SHOOTINGS

There is a comprehensive section on police shootings. Why do police shoot more people in Victoria than any other State? Manybe it's not that police are more rambo" here. Perhaps it's for some of the reasons the author cites: that police who murder are regularly "cleared" of wrongdoing by "investigators" and even rewarded by 'bravery medals' although the bravery involved in many incidents, such as shooting a man dead in the toilet or naked in bed, may be in question. There seems little remedy for relatives of those shot. Hoser also suggests a political reason for seldom accepting compensation claims: the expense to the State of meeting them.

WHISTLEBLOWER RULES

Towards the end of the books (Volume 2), Raymond documents ways and means the intending whistleblower can protect himself from conniving and dishonest police and officials, including not only the use of hidden recorders, as mentioned in The Hoser Files, but a bunch of other practical remedies to fight back in the teeth of bureaucratic dishonesty. But it's never an easy job. Raymond has vindicated the truth of his closing words: "Be warned: fighting corruption does not come cheap!" Corruption destroys individuals and society and is an abomination to God and man.

SUMMARY

In summary, Raymond Hoser's books do not make comforting reading, but they do make necessary reading, if we peer beneath the skin of society and see the ugliness underneath. Graeme Campbell, former Independent MHR for Kalgoorlie, WA, who introduces volume 2, helps draw some of the conclusions. Raymond has shown Victorian police and bureaucracy "warts and all."

Truth is not always comforting, but it is what Strategy readers want. The Strategy masthead says it all: 'There is NOTHING truer - than the TRUTH and the truth will make you free. But lies will enslave you.'

The above review was reproduced with the kind permission of The Strategy - Australia's quality newspaper. It originally appeared in the October 1999 issue.