Tuesday, 2 November, 2004

Alexander: Cops calling other cops 'snakes'

Disquiet within the police over the resources put into traffic duties is showing itself in a particularly ugly fashion, with instances of crime-fighting police dubbing their traffic-patrolling colleagues 'snakes', United Future law and order spokesman Marc Alexander revealed today.

"That shows a level of disquiet that we all know is already within the police over the 'revenue-collecting over crime-fighting' emphasis that holds sway today," he said, after challenging Police Minister George Hawkins in Parliament this afternoon.

"Not only does the public hugely disapprove of cash-cow traffic policing, but there is clear evidence that there are plenty of good cops out there who don't like this direction either," Mr Alexander said.

"When we start to hear of police referring to their colleagues on traffic duty as 'snakes', we're starting to see the impact of misguided police management."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>