Cont

Yes I had heard the term 'plastics' but from my understanding their professionalism was a hallmark in comparison to the average state copper. It was also related to me that the AFP ranked the various state police depending on how much they could liaise without jeopardising an operation due to information being leaked to the targets. NSW was not at the top of that list.

Glare who you quote has been laying into the Victoria police under every commissioner since he bailed from the job. In 2015 he slammed them for going two up and being instructed not to wear their uniforms home due to heightened terrorism concerns. In his overblown style he said the police 'moving back to the dark ages' whatever that meant. Last year he was banging on about magistrates being too lenient and that a night court to handle the backlog was a waste of time.

This bloke is a professional whinger. Now I know that it is almost a given that retired police officers carry on about how terrible things are being run now as opposed to when they were in the job but can you understand that most of us take it for what it is, an attack of the curmudgeons, not to be taken too seriously.

SR has now at reached an hysterical stage in his bizarre, unnatural defence of a person whom o sung wu worked with and clearly knows better than SR himself does, unless of course Ashton is the relative in the force mentioned by SR. See, osw, this what you can get when you try to have a conversation with with a leftist fanatic who believes he is right and everybody else is wrong. Who gives a stuff about Ashton, anyway! And, has SR finally flipped so far out of control that he thinks he is Ashton's or Victoria Police's guardian angel? Or, do police forces have mascots? He could be a mascot.

No matter what SR’s problem is, his ravings have nothing to do with the African Gang problem virtually condoned by the Victorian government. Ashton is just a yes-man public servant, which seems to be the sort the government wants. Christine Nixon also lied about the African Gangs and their disproportionate contribution to crime and mayhem in Melbourne. What a state Victoria is - ultra left politicians, and a police force patterned on the one from The Pirates of Penzance.

Hi there TTBN...

You're right when you say the reputation of Commissioners are established by the quality and effectiveness of their leadership and the ability of clearing crime. For some inexplicable reason VICPOL seemed quite reluctant to appoint Commissioners from within, certainly in recent times.
Christian NIXON (her Dad was an exceptional copper) Simon OVERLAND (another Fed) and of course Graham ASHTON.

To be fair TTBN, it's tough for a Commissioner to take a course of action against a group of individuals, if the government are resistant to that action (the Black African Gangs). It's also very true, to deal with street offences you need a street copper. Not some suited Fed running about with a vest on, saying 'Feds'. I'm buggered if I know, I'd hate to be living anywhere near these Gangs. Who would you turn to if you were accosted by them?

Hi again; my uninformed STEELEREDUX...

A few facts about your beloved Feds. Many of their recruits join, only after they've failed to gain entry into their respective State Force's from whence they've come. None of them train at an Academy. They have a College, with a collegiate atmosphere where there are no uniforms, and bugger all discipline.

Picture if you will; a nice sunny outdoor scene, with a group of people sitting and standing on a patch of well mown lawn, with a bundle of books and texts grasped against their chest, laughing and smiling as they discuss some of the the finer points of their previous lecture? Men and women alike, happily enjoying the sunshine and each others company. A scene from Cambridge University? Melbourne Uni perhaps? Not sure - that's OK.

It's a former, 60 years old, two story, previous public servant's' hostel in Canberra. Which the Feds have taken over and turned into their College.

STEELEREDUX, I will no longer continue to criticise the Fed Police. I merely wanted you to know what Graham ASHTON'S former policing antecedents were, from the Feds. As far as I know, they've done some superb work with interdicting Drug importation in collaboration with the Customs; sorry I mean 'Border Force' personnel.

My understanding is; Border Force locate the drugs in a Container, or at Parcel Post, wherever. The Feds are brought in, they carefully replace the Drug shipment, with a fake substance. And lay await, until the Container or Parcel is claimed. The Feds have become especially adroit at this practice. The Feds, follow it, and arrest everyone knowingly concerned. Sometime they'll seek assistance from the State Force for additional armed back-up. In this area, they do good work, as in major Fraud matters against the government. Street coppers, they are not!

o sung wu,

"..(her Dad was an exceptional copper)".

He certainly was, Ross Nixon and I once collaborated on an arrest...mine!!

He was game too and lucky, on one occasion they had a house staked out, in the blue Mountains somewhere, and when the crime returned and were within the cordon, he stepped out onto the verandah and called on them to surrender, the reply was a bullet that hit the verandah post near his head. It is a mark of his and the others' professionalism that the crime were taken without being shot.

G'day there IS MISE...

What an amazing story! To be honest I didn't know Mr NIXON at all well, in fact I'd doubt if he even knew my name. We'd pass in the corridor of the old CIB building and perhaps he'd nod, but usually he was in possession of sheets of paper or something, he'd have his head down reading it, so that would be that. Nevertheless Ross NIXON enjoyed a very fine rep. among the troops both as a copper and a decent sort of boss as well.

IS MISE I never ever worked directly for him, but he had guts no doubt about it. Standing up to a gunman without brandishing you own F/A takes guts that's for sure. Like the old story, never take a knife to a gun fight? Thanks for that Mate.