Piers Akerman
Sunday Telegraph
March 13, 2005
THE NSW police department's pussyfooting around during the Macquarie Fields stand-off does it no credit.
It's not the fault of the men and women in the front line, it's the manner in which the whole operation was constructed from the top.
Not since 1968, when police commissioner Norman Allan presented 22-year-old car thief and kidnapper Wally Mellish with an Armalite rifle, 200 rounds of ammunition, a wedding ring and a marriage certificate as he held his girlfriend, Beryl Muddle, and her 12-week-old son hostage, have the police looked so hapless.
Commissioner Allan was a guest at the wedding and signed the marriage certificate. Two detectives went out and bought some refreshments for the newlyweds, then retired for the evening.
Mellish surrendered the following morning, and the eight-day Glenfield siege was over.
At Macquarie Fields, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney sat down and talked with 20-year-old Jesse Kelly, the man charged in relation to the pursuit of a stolen car that ended with the deaths of two young men a fortnight ago - an event that triggered four days of rioting.
This may be modern policing, but taxpayers in the immediate area and many people across the State had nothing but scorn for the police brass as the farce unfolded.
Too often, it seems, the kid-glove approach prevails today.
Just last week, a Canberra bikie gang, the Rebels, told a veterans' motorcyclist group, the Ulysses Club, that its members had to remove the insignia from their jackets if they went on to their turf in the ACT.
According to an AAP report, the Rebels demanded that members of the Ulysses Club dump the badges surrounding their logo - of an old man in a motorbike helmet.
Ulysses Club national president Rick Bedford apparently met with the Rebels and later urged his members to get rid of their badges, warning that otherwise the Rebels would "enlighten them".
"They (Rebels) object to the fact that people can join the Ulysses Club, pay a subscription fee, then go out and buy things and that put-on stuff imitates a bikie colour patch," Bedford told the ABC.
"We had a meeting with the Rebels, and they made their point to us. We've acceded to their requests and their demands in relation to that."
Hello???
We're talking about a bikie gang issuing instructions to members of the public about what sort of badges they can wear when they visit the national capital.
Where is Jon Stanhope, the chief minister of the ACT's often-clownish Legislative Assembly?
Why hasn't he been down to the Rebels bunkhouse and told them to leave town? Or is this the sort of image he thinks enhances the ACT's reputation?
Given the mindless policies that have surfaced in the ACT from time to time, it may well be that the Rebels are regarded as mainstream in the benighted territory, but such standover tactics aren't well regarded in the rest of the nation.
History is littered with the wreckage created by those who have said it's better to appease evil than confront it.
The graves of tens of millions have been dug by smug hand-wringers who believe that good intentions will prevail but strength will always fail.
Winston Churchill was warning of Adolf Hitler's rapacity before the Wehrmacht crossed the Austrian border, let alone turned its sights on Poland, Czechoslovakia and the rest of Europe.
In his Fulton address, Churchill accurately predicted what would take place in eastern Europe as Stalin's Iron Curtain descended, ushering in 40 years of darkness.
The same doomsayers whipped themselves into an orgiastic frenzy when it was suggested that civilised people should no longer turn a blind eye to Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule.
Today, as Egypt announces it will hold more credible elections, as the Palestinian Authority - relieved from Yasser Arafat's evil influence - has actually held meaningful elections, and as the citizens of other Arab nations ponder the possibility of introducing modest democratic reforms, those who claimed the outlook for democracy in the Middle East was bleak, look short-sighted indeed.
True, the fight is tough and those who fight for freedom know they can expect casualties, but the prize is worth fighting for despite the inestimable sacrifice.
In every instance, each historic victory for enlightenment and freedom began with one small step against those who broke the law, those who wanted to rule through fear.
The bikie gang telling law-abiding citizens what they can or cannot wear on the streets of Canberra is reminiscent of some of the behaviour of Hitler's Brown Shirts or Mussolini's Black Shirts, and the mugs who roll over for them are no different from Neville Chamberlain promising peace in our time.
The ignorant gang tossing Molotov cocktails in the streets of Macquarie Fields is not that different from the gangs that gathered in the beer halls of Munich to support Hitler.
There can be no excuses made on behalf of those who choose to break the law.
These people must be confronted, not pandered to and coddled until the scale of their behaviour finally warrants the most severe penalties.
akermanp@sundaytelegraph.com.au Sunday Telegraph
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