Gotta say Alf was becoming a bit hot and bothered about the cops, and the courts, after a special police unit’s botching of two high-profile investigations.
The unit in question was the Organised and Financial Crime Agency and as TV3 reported (here), it is the outfit that –
* Led the troubled inquiry into internet millionaire Kim Dotcom; and
* Ran an undercover gang operation that’s been slammed by a judge.
Mind you, we should be more than a bit bothered, too, that Police Minister Anne Tolley says she has no concerns about the botched investigations.
Really?
Even when a High Court justice found an undercover operation into a gang in Nelson abused court process, with a fake warrant and false charges?
Yep.
Ms Tolley sees nothing amiss and –
… still supports the OFCANZ unit, despite how it’s bungled both the Dotcom case and the Red Devils investigation.
“I have no doubts that OFCANZ are doing their best to fulfil their duties.”
Alf has no doubts they were doing their best to fulfil their duties, too.
The question is whether their best is good enough.
Alf will be hinting to The Boss that maybe he should be Minister of Police.
But whoa.
Today he is greatly cheered by a report (here) that the cops have started keeping tabs on anti-royals who might disrupt Prince Charles’ visit here next month.
Obviously these are under-cover operations, as they should be, because a bunch of stroppy republicans say they haven’t heard a peep from the cops, even though they openly saying they would like to flour-bomb him.
The leader of a moderate republican group, Lewis Holden, says he’s been put on a threat-assessment list – and thinks police have him confused with someone else.
Meanwhile, republicans Kerry Bevin and Jack Gielen, who have burnt flags in the past and say they would love to bomb Prince Charles with flour, and worse, are surprised they haven’t been contacted about the visit.
“They’ve spoken to me in the past and I have said to them … ‘It’d be a good idea if [Charles] never came back after this’,” Bevin said.
This Bevan bloke sounds like a tosser, because he says he is offended by the privilege associated with royals.
If anyone is entitled to a bit of privilege, mate, it’s gotta be the royals.
It’s all to do with bloodlines and stuff.
It is a measure of Bevan’s extraordinary intolerance and lack of perspective that he says –
“If it goes on much longer there will be violence in this country and in Australia.”
With attitudes like that, publicly declared, why do the cops have to talk with the bugger?
As security expert Dr Paul G. Buchanan points out, it is normal for police to plan ahead and “tell some of the loudmouths to shut up”.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the time that dissipates the problem, if there was a threat in the first place.”
He said the more serious the perceived threat, the less likely police would contact people of interest directly.
Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit from November 10-16.
Alf hopes to meet his future King and take the opportunity to mention the small matter of knighthoods for deserving loyalists.
Republicans, of course, would have their heads removed by a bloody big axe if things were done as they used to be.
Alf Grumble 