Pic. courtesy Herald Sun
Victoria Police have been roundly and grossly unfairly criticised, as reported by ABC today, after a confidential briefing on Youth Gangs to the Justice Department policymakers in May of 2023, which the woke attendees attacked.
But this report based on FIO submissions says more about the ineptitude and professional incompetence of the woke complainers than an error of judgment by the Police.
Their primary beef was it was too graphic, showing real situations. Although all attendees were pre-warned that the content was graphic, many of the attendees did not like information that was not sugar-coated for their sensitivities.
See –
The story relates to an attempt by VicPol to give ‘alleged’ professionals involved in the youth space a better understanding and insight into the problem they are dealing with. Decisions made in ignorance are never good.
This seminar was organised at the behest of Justice Department Juvenile Division members. It was attended by ‘dozens of staff’ from the Department and some from the Premier’s Department. Other stakeholders were also invited.
The conference lasted two and a half hours and featured actual CCTV footage of incidents involving youth gangs.
All invitees were informed by email the day before that the presentation would contain very graphic material that may be unpleasant to some. The email unambiguously read,
“graphic footage that some attendees may find confronting, and people might want to “excuse themselves” if they found it distressing.”.
The numerous complaints had one theme: denouncing their exposure to reality.
Among the complaints published by the ABC were,
- Multiple staff said the warning was insufficient for what was shown,
- One staff member said to put it “bluntly”, police “should have said ‘we are about to show you someone getting stabbed to death’.”
- “Very graphic and violent footage” from a “range of serious violent incidents including stabbings and still images involving young people and adults allegedly involved both as victims and perpetrators”.
- “Unclear purpose of showing [this] video is.”
- While several people acknowledged the “traumatic experiences” officers faced and the need for policymakers to “understand the practical and operational realities” of frontline police work, they didn’t think the presentation helped achieve this. (Policy makers preferring to stay in ignorant bliss)
- One person commented they were “disturbed” by “the casual way the violent imagery was discussed”, and another said the commentary was “upsetting … flippant, and racist in several points.”
- “I question why the image of this person’s face was kept in the presentation.”
- One staff member’s notes of the presentation said, “‘n-word’… completely gratuitous”, and the photos were “all POC [people of colour], no blurred faces”, including one of a “bloody wound to face” and one of someone “in a pool of blood.
Fancy the very people responsible for Youth Justice are grumpy because they have to confront what they are supposed to be doing as their day job: rein in Youth crime.
The next step is to arrange for these same people to be confronted by the victims of their failures. They can then explain to them why the offences happened.
This response from the people responsible for much of the failure of Youth Crime strategies demonstrates that most of them were at the conference to evaluate its wokeness rather than address the issues they were confronted with and employed to address. And their complaints to dehumanise the perpetrators by blocking their faces is puerile.
An advantage of taking the feigned or otherwise shock and horror and, heaven forbid, having to listen to emails read out sent by Gang members that contained the n-word, most probably by a coloured Gang member, is that they can absolve themselves from responsibility and remain in ignorant denial of reality.
This strategy of using the ‘woke outrage’ more and more to deflect the issue is to avoid having to respond or justify their performance. Create the diversion from their responsibility and prove how good they are by highlighting woke breaches.
This exposé has uncovered how out of touch the people responsible for youth policy are and why many of them must now reconsider their career options because it is evident by their admission that they are not competent to be employed in the field of Youth policy.
If they don’t voluntarily move, the administration must remove them for their own good. If action of that sort is not taken, it exposes the State to litigation from attendees who develop some disorder.
One of the most egregious alleged failings of VicPol was to refer to a 13-year-old as an offender for life. That outrage exposes the depth of incompetence these bureaucrats have.
A 13-year-old criminal is inevitably an offender for life unless held to account for their actions. That will be the inevitable outcome caused by the policy to lift the age of criminal responsibility, where there will be no sanctions or other intervention, albeit they knew full well their actions were criminal.
This outrage is more about the attendees being challenged about bad policy to lift the age of criminal responsibility.
We are outraged that while the policymakers want to lift the age of criminal responsibility, they have put forward no strategies or policy on what to do with violent underage perpetrators, a danger to the community and themselves.
Just letting them free to run amok again, as this policy dictates, is a disastrous outcome for the community and the child.
It would be interesting to see if these policymakers will ever be held to account for their failed policy; probably not, which is why they devise outrageous policies.
Instead of the policymakers trying to out ‘woke’ each other, how about they focus on the job at hand and find out more about what happens on the front line of Policing?
When they have done that, their policy machinations may be considered authentic.
It would be very interesting to know what these bureaucrats working in the government bubble have achieved that led to a reduction in youth crime and how many of them were required to achieve that outcome.
As to their bleating, this was not a public event, and the niceties dished out by the media do not apply—this was a reality and a professional life check.
The most disparaging aspect was that Deputy Commissioner Patterson apologised, and he should not have.
VicPol had nothing to apologise about; they did their job in the best interests of juvenile miscreants and the community.
They could have been rightly criticised if they attempted to sugarcoat the briefing.
Proof that bureaucrats, public and private are running, sorry, ruining the world with their ‘Wokeness’!
I had a meeting with a ministerial advisor late afternoon. Waiting for a colleague out the front of a building housing exclusively state public ‘servants’, I was shocked to see the rabble that spewed from the building. They were dressed like hippies from Woodstock. Most appeared as if they hadn’t seen a shower, (particularly their hair), in weeks.
If we ran face recognition over the crowd, I am sure a majority would register as being at the anti-Israel and climate change demonstrations.
Is it any wonder Victoria is a basket case, financially and morally.
This is an excellent commentary by CAA.
Ignorance and reality are two main themes. It’s about the largely incompetent woke noise-makers who also evidently fail to usefully perform their duties, and even worse, fail to be accountable for their lack of achievement.
VicPol who see and experience reality at the “coal face,” tried to assist attendees to see that reality in the safety of a conference room.
In conducting the presentation VicPol has done a service to the community.
Perhaps repeat presentations [with similar warnings]to a wider public audience would be fruitful – noting the key words, “Without fear or favour”.
The comments by CAA have said it all. There will never be any type of youth crime resolution when you have read the complaints. They do not accept reality so how can they be part of the solution. Recently I was asked by a support agency to speak to a youth group on knife crime. I wisely retracted my initial acceptance for the very reasons stated above by CAA. This is the real world and there should be no apologies for identifying such things to those who are blind, as lady Justice is.
Looking at all the participants in this situation.
We have offenders, offending. Fact. Police exposing the offenders. Fact. Police have the responsibility to “act”, if an offence is being committed. Police should have, or be encouraged to have a social responsibility to be proactive in identifying issues and potential issues.” Proactive policing”.
In today’s world, the police are a mixture of academic knowledge and operational experience on the “coal face”, dealing with society issues. Apologising for a social duty of care, may meet woke political autocracy criteria, but falls short of the quiet Australians expectations.
The complaints.
Government bureaucracy that have presumably been academically qualified in their social work, have they ever been on the “coal face”, apparently not. Are they expected to take any responsibility for social outcomes of their work?
If I was to be as critical to this bureaucratic outrage as they are of the police, I could suggest that if there are no positive outcomes due to their continued protection from reality,, the possible continuance, or escalation of social disorder, could benefit such an industry?
ABC reporter, presumably also academically qualified. The reporter’s presentation appears to be of outrage towards the police for presenting historical fact.
The ABC’s outraged style is often expressed as an oppressed and oppressor simplicity, thus historical fact – truth could be seen by some as unimportant to the ABC.
Why haven’t the ABC seen the perpetrators as oppressors and the victims and their families as the oppressed?
ThomasSowell. “The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior.
How long until people start taking matters into their own hands? If we keep allowing criminals to run rampant and get off with minor consequences all while the labor left allows more unvetted criminals to come into our country and breed more criminals then at some point people are going to be arming themselves because at the moment our communities aren’t safe and perpetrators are treated like victims and rehabilitation cases rather than the criminals they are. I have a lot of love and respect for our men and women in blue but if the system keeps failing then it’s only a matter of time before people start to look towards buying guns off the black market to protect their families and households. Better a dead criminal and incarcerated parent than a dead spouse or child.
You must clearly define what the problem(s) are so you can develop legislation and policy to fix those problems. Show it guts and all. This is the real world that police are exposed to on a daily basis but these bureaucrats have little, if any, contact with, or real understanding of.
Sugar coating the problems, and looking at them through the “Rose” colored glasses, as worn by so many of these “Woke” bureaucrats, will never solve the youth problems.
These bureaucrats do not like to be shown, or reminded of the the crime wave they have unleashed on the people of Victoria.
Complaining about police helps then fill in time.
Oh for Christ’s sake!!! Can we please have the adults back in control of things?!
Another brilliant enlightening and factual article by the CAA that fearlessly informs and exposes the faults and flaws of Victoria’s judicial environment regarding the state of juvenile crime. If you can’t State the Problem you will never solve it! Sadly, while the victims of Juvenile crime suffer terribly, it is the perpetrators themselves who suffer most, as they are denied the chance of remedial action, thus perpetuating their social demise. Wake up DOJ and the woke brigade at the ABC and those others complaining about the reality that’s happening in our community. Rub their nose in it VicPol until they see it for what it is, a crime against children as much as a crime by children.