Since when has News Limited been propaganda machine for law enforcement agencies in this country? At least since this morning, it seems. The Brisbane Courier-Mail, The Sydney Daily Telegraph, The Melbourne Herald Sun, the Adelaide Advertiser and The Townsville Bulletin have all given over their front pages to what is essentially an unpaid advertisement for the police forces.
These papers all carry a story that announces that police commissioners around Australia have decided that on the weekend of December 11-12 they will unleash a full-scale attack on street violence. There will be thousands of coppers in riot gear with weapons, police dogs, undercover police and hundreds of officers roaming the streets for 48 hours. This is designed, apparently, to stop drunken street violence.
What is disturbing about these front-page splashes is that the image they project is of an aggressive police force whose members will resort to acts of violence themselves if the need arises. The atmospherics created by this propaganda exercise are not subtle — the use of the phrase “reclaiming our streets” by News Limited and police media units today is clearly designed to let the community know that on December 11-12 our downtown areas will be battlefields.
The message that emanates from Operation Unite, as the joint December 11-12 exercise is called, is that we need to meet violence with violence. The language used by newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun in particular on the issue of street violence is already aggressive and provocative. It is designed to engender revenge. A report in this morning’s Herald Sun, for example, refers to the three young men jailed yesterday for serious assaults “gutless thugs”. And the same newspaper has on its front page, a photo of a police officer equipped with all manner of weaponry and looking as though he is about to have a shoot out with the Taliban.
Operation Unite is essentially a variant on what might be termed “zero tolerance” or “quality of life” policing. It was used extensively in the US in the 1990s, most notably in New York where mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioner Howard Bratton set about making Manhattan’s streets safer.
But this style of operation also leads inevitably to police brutality. In New York, complaints about police brutality skyrocketed after the introduction of aggressive operations along the lines of the proposed Operation Unite. This is because police chiefs, working hand in glove with selected media outlets, provide front-line officers with the message that they should do what it takes to clean up the streets.
The problem, of course, with Operation Unite is that it is a quick fix and will do nothing to reduce street violence. It is a one-hit wonder in which some people will be charged with offences, other people will suffer physical and psychological damage as a result of overly aggressive police actions, and News Limited will have a field day running mug shots of police officers holding arrested individuals in a headlock.
Meanwhile, the root causes of street violence, which are myriad, remain unaddressed. In fact, come to think of it, if News Limited is so concerned about street violence then perhaps it may like to examine its own reporting of the issue and consider running stories that address the root causes of this form of social ill.
Another example of over the top comments and comparisons to generate (if youre lucky) a heated debate. I doubt that will happen as the police force has got it right. The people ( me ) are sick and tired of the agressive activities these people confront us with, either directly or indirectly. We ( me ) are also in fear ( yes fear is the right word ) of entering or remaining in the CBD after dusk simply due to the possible ramifications to self or friends.
The only thing l agree with you on is that a single event over a single weekend will not have the lasting effect l and others like me desire….. it should be resourced to be a permanent activity.
Stop the rot infesting our city. Those who feel it is their right to get paraletic, throw up, urinate, abuse, challenge, physically assult without regard should and l hope WILL BE CHARGED and taken off our streets.
I look forward to once again, safely walking our city streets and enjoying the sights, sounds and pleasures offered to all.
Greg, not sure whether to laugh or cry at this….so you’re saying that you shouldn’t call 3 blokes who belted the sh*t out of a defenceless doctor gutless thugs? What should we be calling them then?
Just on the other pearls in this article, I disagree with police taking ‘vengenance’ on the streets statement, this is not Charles Bronson in Death Wish…it’s about police presence …had some friends in from New York and they couldn’t understand the lack of police presence on the streets as a deterrent. everywhere you go in NY there’s cops, doen’t mean they’re taking to people with night-sticks, does mean that people think twice about glassing or belting someone else…
Are you saying that the violence as reported is a beat-up (excuse the pun), that it doesn’t happen?
I understand this is not a new thing, there’s been violence for a long time, doesn’t mean though that we can’t try to stop it.
Are Pete and Ronmplatt saying that police violence never happens? I’d hate to be a drunk Lebanese or Aboriginal male in my early 20s walking around the streets of our cities when this “crackdown” occurs.
I walk around Sydney all the time at night and while I have seen scary drunken violence I have also seen scary, overbearing violent police officers. Giving those officers more powers and carte blanche to do what they want with them is NOT going to solve the problem.
Just giving more and more powers to police will not solve the problem – and I shudder to think what our society will end up looking like if we keep down this path.
Good article.
Amy, not at all, been subject to a bit of that myself…however there’s a lot more street violence than police violence …and this gives no one carte blanche to act outside the law, as a matter of fact the whole idea would be to act within the law…both the cops and the punters…what we’re all after is safer cities..
Is the Victorian Police Commissioner a complete fool. Telling everybody you going to crack down on a particular date will result in the majority of these idiots behaving themselves in that particular period. As a consequence the Commissioner will be involved in self-congratulation at the reduction in alcohol fuelled violence. He could have the same effect by telling us with a booze buses are going to be on Saturday night and as a consequence drink-driving convictions will “improve” dramatically. The more sensible option would be put the 800 cops on the beat without publicity and arrest a significant number of these morons and charge them with appropriate offences. This would have a significant deterrent effect because they wouldn’t know when apprehension was likely. Of course this would make the police have to work harder in relation to prosecutions so the soft option is to tell everybody you are coming, and trumpet your success. Then everybody is happy.
The cops involved are on a feelgood publicity exercise, and the idiots and hoons will stay home at that night, safe in the knowledge that they can misbehave on any other weekend without any significant chance of apprehension.