3 January, 2009

SOME MORE CHARMING POLICE DEEDS FROM AUSTRALIA

(Via Australian Politics)

NSW police still lying

They are doing their best to protect one of their incompetent dickless tracys. See here for what actually happened. All witnesses dispute the police story

An interim report shows a Sydney police officer "acted appropriately" when she shot a woman twice, leaving her with serious injuries. The NSW Police critical investigation team is looking into the December 21 incident, during which a 48-year-old woman was shot by the officer at Iron Street in North Parramatta at about 1.30am. A short time after the shooting, police said officers had responded to calls that a woman armed with a knife was threatening a man. When they arrived, the officers were themselves allegedly threatened by the woman, who ran at them making threats. Police failed to subdue the woman with capsicum spray and when she attacked them again a junior female officer fired a number of gunshots, police said. The 48-year-old woman was taken to Westmead Hospital.

Professional boxer Sonny Michael Angelo, 23, the man allegedly threatened by the woman, has since said the shooting was unnecessary, and that the woman was armed with a fork, not a knife. "It was not necessary. There were 10 police officers outside. Why would the police shoot at the old lady?" Mr Angelo told the Nine Network. He also contradicted police claims the woman had threatened the officers. "The lady was trying to stand up and run away and that's when I hear a shot. They shoot her two times," he said.

The woman, named by media outlets as mother-of-two Susie Bandera, was taken to Westmead Hospital with a gunshot wound to her chest. A second bullet was lodged in her spine after passing through her liver. She remains in hospital recovering from her injuries.

Preliminary findings showed the shooting was justified, Acting Deputy Commissioner Denis Clifford said in a statement on Friday. "I'm satisfied from my briefing by the officers who investigated this case that actions of police were appropriate and justified in the circumstances," Mr Clifford said. "It has since been confirmed the alleged weapon was a fork.

"It's important to note that this interim report centred only on the actions of the police officer in the discharge of her firearm. The exact circumstances of the earlier confrontation are still being investigated and will be the subject of a further report."

Source





Amazing! 'Lost kid not our problem,' say Northern Territory cops

They're just horrible buckpassing bureaucrats

A WOMAN who found a lost child at the NT's biggest shopping centre took him to the new police shopfront inside the complex - but was told it wasn't their problem. The concerned mother said she couldn't believe it when the police auxiliary at the newly opened police beat at Casuarina Square in Darwin's northern suburbs told her they were not responsible for lost children and to take him to the information booth. But she said if she had walked outside of the complex and crossed the road to the Casuarina Police Station, not even 50m away, they would have opened up their arms to him. "It is just ridiculous," she said. "You teach kids that they can turn to the police if they are in trouble and need help and here they are turning their backs on them. "I'm just glad it was me who found him - anything could've happened. It reminded me of James Bulger in London where he was taken from a mall, brutally tortured and killed."

The woman, who is also a Darwin school teacher, found the young boy standing by himself near the escalators at the Woolworths end of the centre on the Saturday before Christmas. She said after asking him where his mother was and what his name was, he freely took her hand and followed her to the police shopfront, beside the Body Shop. The information booth is directly outside the police beat, but was manned by one woman who was extremely busy with customers.

NT Police said lost children in shopping centre's were not their initial responsibility. "Initial responsibility lies with security," police said. "This also applies to events such as Royal Darwin Show, V8's, football etc - initial responsibility lies with security at events. "Once all avenues have been exhausted it may become a police matter."

"I think that they could have put their resources to better use," the mother said. "If I needed to go to the police, I'd just walk through the centre and go across to Casuarina Police Station - it's just a few steps to get your business done and then you can come back over to the shops."

The police beat was opened last month in a bid to crack down on anti-social behaviour in and around shopping centres. The boy was reunited with his distressed grandmother soon after.

Source



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