Dear o sung wu,

Thank you, but I will admit to being unsure if your debar was referring to the legal context or the pugilistic. Given the topic I am assuming the later.

For those unfamiliar with the period we are talking about this is a brief summary which appeared in a book review:

“During the period between 1987 and 1989 there was a rapid increase in the number of people who were victims of police shootings. The shootings were also relatively localised in that four of the eleven men who were killed lived or had family ties in Flemington, a working class suburb of inner Melbourne. Indeed Gary Abdallah, Graeme Jensen and Jedd Houghton were killed within six months of each other. Some of the killings need to be understood in the context of the deaths of two police in Walsh Street South Yarra on 12 October 1988. These two police were ambushed and killed about thirteen hours after police had shot and killed Graeme Jensen.”

“Gary Abdallah was killed by detectives on 9 April 1989. He was an associate of Jensen and a friend of Jedd Houghton. Gary was arrested m his car and then taken back to his flat. He was shot at seven times from a range of six feet. The two officers involved in Abdallah's shooting refused to give evidence at the coronial inquest. Prior to Gary's death there had been rumours that he would be killed as a payback for the Walsh Street murders. As a result of these rumours Gary Abdallah went with his solicitor to the St Kilda Road police station where he was told that his fears were "ridiculous". In addition at the time Abdallah was arrested and shot he was reporting three times a week to Coburg police as part of his bail conditions. Inevitably the question arises as to whether the death of Gary Abdallah was a planned execution.”

Cont...

“The book raises many issues including the broad question of accountability and the role of coronial inquiries. In most cases police involved in the deaths declined to give evidence at the coronial inquiries including the two Armed Holdup Squad members who shot Graeme Jensen and the two Special Operations Squad members who killed Jedd Houghton.”

It is not difficult to make the case that had these incidents and the lack of accountability been allowed to continue and escalate more young officers may well have lost their lives. I for one am glad a new commissioner recognised the same and instituted a much needed cultural change.

Roger Rogerson seemed more of a lone wolf actor in your neck of the woods? A serial killer with a badge as they said. About the same period too from memory.

Good evening STEELEREDUX...

Yup the 'Dodger' was a legendary figure around the CIB in my time, and we've worked together, on a number of jobs, back in the day. A charismatic figure, and well respected, and got on with everybody. That is until he hit a hurdle in Dangar Place, Chippendale in inner-city Sydney. Where it was alleged he did murder one Warren LANFRANCHI a mug drugie, and petty standover man, by using a 'throw down' as his 'reasonable belief'.

LANFRANCHI's girlfriend was a beautiful looking girl (in the flesh) by the name of Sallie-Anne HUCKSTEPP. A drug user and an up-market call-girl, till she came tumbling down and had to pander her body on the streets at Kings Cross. Her Flat where she lived, with another call-girl, was so beautifully furnished, with exquisite taste, and ever so clean. It amazed me it really did. Anyway, she too was ultimately killed and found in a small decorative lake in Centennial Park, allegedly murdered by one Ned SMITH a tough but likeable heavy, well entrenched in the Sydney Crime Scene.

I knew Ned SMITH particularly well, his story would be well worth publishing, in my opinion.

The Dodger was a brilliant detective, to such an extent he was awarded the Commissioner's Commandation for his excellence. But become involved in corrupt activities, lost his job and career, and eventually ended up 'doing the lot' in Sydney's Long Bay Gaol where he'll now die.

The police don't "murder" anyone, they simply carry out executions as per the "law", so say some.

Once talking to an old chap, now in his 90's, a Christian church goer theses days, but still a bigoted racists. He worked for many years as a Prison Officer at Sydney's Long Bay Jail. He said, he liked nothing better than to find "a Darkie hanging in his cell in the morning". I got the impression from this old chap that the death was not always suicide.

Pauliar,

Gun ownership in New Zealand is almost as lax as in the US yet the murder rate is a fraction of that in the US. The correlation is not as clear as you make it out.

SM, you must be on drugs, I never mentioned New Zealand. Anyway, America has 50 states and 50 different sets of gun laws, New Zealand has one set. In 43 US states owning assault weapons is legal, owning of such weapons is illegal in all of New Zealand. On your recent pilgrimage to Christchurch, if you had tried to purchase a semiautomatic shotgun similar to the one used by the Christchurch killer Brenton Tarrant, and freely available in the US, you would be have been denied. To say; "Gun ownership in New Zealand is almost as lax as in the US" is in your word balderdash!

BTW; Are you still claiming Labor can't form a majority government. Can I suggest the name Shonky The Shocker! You're so good with predictions, you should give up your day job at the undertakers, and take up Fortune-telling.