Posted on 01/19/2006 2:24:27 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
THE head of Strike Force Enoggera, set up to investigate the Cronulla race riot, has been stood aside following claims police failed to arrest those responsible for revenge attacks.
The sidelining of acting Detective Superintendent Dennis Bray, announced today by NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney, comes after public anger at the failure by police to release video footage of a man being bashed by a gang of Middle-Eastern youths.
Mr Moroney said he was unhappy Supt Bray had not released the footage earlier, and a replacement commander would take the helm of Enoggera.
"Clearly, there was material there that he could have been releasing and should have been releasing to the general community," Mr Moroney told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"Effective forthwith, Detective Superintendent Ken Mackay ... will assume command of Strike Force Enoggera.
"Dennis will return to his ... position as detective chief inspector at Blacktown."
Mr Moroney said he wanted the community to help identify the thugs in the video, and promised to make public any more video and audio evidence available.
"If there was evidence available to us, we should have been taking the general community into our confidence, as we did with other elements of the Cronulla riot," he said.
"What I've instructed is that there be a complete audit of all of our holdings, our audio material ... (and) it's to be released to the general community."
Mr Moroney said he would meet NSW Premier Morris Iemma today to discuss "a range of issues".
He said Det Supt Mackay was a "very tenacious" and experienced detective who would do a good job as commander of Strike Force Enoggera.
Mr Moroney defended the police decision not to break up a group of about 100 youths of Middle-Eastern appearance who gathered in a south-western Sydney park the night after the Cronulla riot to plan revenge attacks in beachside suburbs.
"At Punchbowl Park on the night of Monday the 12th, that's the day after the Cronulla riot, two of our police vehicles ... observed a number of people," he said.
"There was dialogue between those officers and the commander (and) the commander took an operational decision for those four police officers not to advance on the crowd.
"He's one of my most experienced commanders and I'm sure what would have been foremost in his mind was the safety and wellbeing of those (officers)."
The group gathered in the park numbered "probably less than 100", he said.
Asked if he would ask Mr Iemma today for more resources for Strike Force Enoggera, Mr Moroney replied: "You may well be right there."
Mr Moroney again rejected opposition allegations that police had taken a softly-softly approach towards Middle-Eastern gangs on the orders of the Labor government.
"Any proposition that would ever be put to me like that, I'd be straight down the road to the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption)," he said.
He said people of Middle-Eastern backgrounds had been charged in connection with a range of recent police task forces investigating organised crime, including the Task Force Gain probe into gang crime in south-western Sydney.
"We've never backed away from people of any ethnicity at all," Mr Moroney said.
"... after public anger at the failure by police to release video footage of a man being bashed by a gang of Middle-Eastern youths."
It sounds as if your social betters would have preferred not to get the hoi polloi all riled up again, but got the exact opposite, lol.
Exactly! The PC police (in this case, literally) will not get away with it!
Is this being technically correct, in that actual orders to that effect were never issued, but lack of support made it de facto policy?
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