Crime in the neighborhood

Today was a public holiday here. Unfortunately its tranquility was disturbed by a stabbing near where I live and whose aftermath I witnessed.

Here is The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now report and accompanying photograph.

A bloodied man who staggered into a Norwood bottle shop after being stabbed eight times in the chest and stomach remains in hospital in a critical condition.

About 2.50pm today, the 34-year-old stumbled into the Norwood Hotel drive-through bottleshop – covered in blood and begging for help.

He was then rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

More than a dozen police cars arrived at the scene within minutes. A Kensington Gardens man, 38, was arrested in relation to the alleged attack.

Police also spoke at length to two women before taking them away without arrest.

It is understood the two men were travelling together in a Mitsubishi Verada when they were involved in an argument.

The victim then got out of the car and began walking along The Parade. He was allegedly then repeatedly stabbed with a knife in a second altercation with the same man outside the Norwood Hotel.

Hotel management declined to comment this afternoon.

"We just came down here for a quiet coffee and didn't expect to see anything like this,'' bystander Jessica Matern said.

"It's pretty scary for something like this to happen in an area like this."

Detective Chief Inspector John Gerlach said police would continue to investigate the incident to determine the motive and if other people were involved.

"It's a very serious incident and would have been terrifying for the people involved," he said.

"At the moment I'm not sure how many individual persons were connected other than the four allegedly involved, if anyone else was involved it certainly is serious and would have been terrible."

The stabbing, which occurred in broad daylight on what should have been a sleepy public holiday, follows a shooting on Sunday morning in Gouger St.

In that attack, a man was wounded in the leg and a bystander injured by shattering glass.

The ABC reported the story more briefly though the 7pm TV News did lead with it.

More allegations of corruption and intimidation

"Standover" is the page one headline on Miles Kemp's report in today's Advertiser

ADELAIDE'S crime gangs are using personal information leaked from the public service to harass people involved in court trials and their families.Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Tony Harrison said it had been difficult to prosecute gang members because victims, witnesses or their family members had been the subject of intimidation or threats of violence.
Mr Harrison, who recently briefed MPs on the issue, said the gangs avoided prosecution by using tactics that included:
A CODE of silence among members;
INTIMIDATION and violence;
INSULATION of principal players in a crime;
CORRUPTION of the justicesystem;
EXPLOITATION of the operations of the justice system.
Notes from the briefing have been obtained by The Advertiser.
Mr Harrison said the corruption referred to were instances where department records had been accessed.
He said gangs in the past had gained access to personal records of people kept by government department databases through an intermediary person who may have been a friend or relative.

.....

Mr Harrison said police needed measures contained in the anti-gang Bill passed last night by the Upper House of Parliament, which would provide greater protection for people prosecuting serious organised crime, for example, "avoiding the stalking or intimidating of judicial officers or witnesses involved in prosecuting serious organised crime".
Mr Harrison said it was now "very, very difficult" to take gang extortion matters to trial because of intimidation.
"Invariably, somebody receives a threat . . . and invariably they decide not to proceed," he said.
Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Isobel Redmond said the Opposition was strongly supportive of the Bill, which she said would make threats or reprisals against those involved in criminal investigations and proceedings punishable by up to seven years' jail.
But she said Mr Harrison's comments also showed the need for an independent commission against corruption in South Australia.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said the issues raised by Mr Harrison were being dealt with by legislation that had passed through parliament, was going through parliament, or being developed as part of the Government's criminal justice reforms.

For more on the legislation which has just been passed see here and here.

The shootings in the city at the weekend and other events indicate that matters are getting out of hand so I intend to refrain from comment for the time being to give the laws a chance to take effect, though IMO there are some interesting comments on the ABC News story (the second of the two links above).

One law for the ...?

Two contrasting stories.

1. In this week's Bulletin Rodney Adler writes of his time in prison.

Apropos of this, yesterday The Australian reported:

The Bulletin's editor-in-chief, John Lehmann, said the magazine had offered Adler the standard contributor rate for his tale but that Adler had asked for a payment to be made to a Jewish charity instead.

"Adler understands that many Australians, especially those who lost money in the collapse of the HIH insurance group, remain angry with him for his role in the corporate disaster," Lehmann told The Australian. "He knows he will probably never recover his credibility. But his article is not an attempt to appease or justify his actions. Rather, it seeks to build on our understanding of what prison life is like for inmates and their families."

Adler was sentenced on April 14, 2005, after pleading guilty to four charges arising from his conduct as a director of HIH. The insurer collapsed in March 2001, with debts of $5.3 billion.

2. Today ABC News reports:

New law and order measures have taken effect today in South Australia, including laws to stop convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks from selling his story after he is freed from jail this month.

SA Premier Mike Rann says Hicks is free to tell his story but cannot make money from it. Mr Rann says it should be remembered that Hicks pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism when he faced trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"Court documents show that he received training on guerilla warfare, weapons, kidnapping and assassination and I don't regard those activities as those of a good citizen," Mr Rann said.

SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson warns that Hicks can be deprived of any money he accepts for telling his story.

"We're happy for David Hicks to tell his story but we will prevent him making a profit out of it," Mr Atkinson said. "And if a profit is made we'll take that money and put it into the victims of crime fund."

Am I alone in seeing an inconsistency or two here?

Update later 6 December

I've just noticed the news.com.au version of the David Hicks story, which has airbrushed out all references to Mr Rann. Perhaps the Premier has sniffed the breeze of the comments on the ABC website, which are mostly critical of the Australian authorities.