Plaques, part II

Bugger, I forgot to add a salient point about that plaque story.

When we were wandering around Newtown last week, I noticed that posters had been stuck up in a number of places calling for the TJ plaque to be put up. Someone had walked around and written comments on most of them, along the lines of "It wasn't a Police chase, this is rubbish". I didn't take a photo, so I am relying on my crap memory for this.

I thought it interesting that someone would take the time and make the effort to walk around Newtown and write on all those posters. Someone clearly thinks there is more to this story than we're hearing from the media.

Plaques - what a pain

I heard about this bloody awful battle regarding Dunkirk recently - except it's not what you think.

Dunkirk memorial unveiled after 10 year battle

A memorial honouring the role of the Thames boatmen who bravely helped with the Dunkirk evacuations is to be unveiled tomorrow after a former merchant seaman won a battle against politically correct bureaucrats.

Another plaque battle is happening at the moment in Newtown and Redfern regarding the installation of a plaque for TJ Hickey. Hickey did a runner when he saw the Police, managed to impale himself on a fence and died the next day.

But the talks, involving three agencies, have stumbled over five words. The plaque, donated to the Hickey family by Aboriginal students from the University of Technology, Sydney, says in part: ''T.J. Hickey, Aged 17, Was Impaled Upon The Metal Fence Above Arising From A Police Pursuit.''

So far, so good.

T.J.'s father, Ian West, who learnt of his son's crash from a television report in the common room at Bathurst jail, where he was a prisoner, said he was still burning with a sense of injustice because his family believed the youth died being chased by police. Mr West never said goodbye to the son who was 13 when he last saw him.

TJ was 17 when he died. His father last saw him at age 13 - we're not told why exactly. It could be because the father was in prison, or because he'd done a runner from the family. What I find interesting is that the father is so intent on putting up a plaque for a son that he didn't see for four years. Did they not see each other because the father shot through and didn't want to see the kid, or because the father was in prison and the family didn't want to visit him?

Whatever the case, this whole thing seems as political as hell to me, and I hope that the death of TJ isn't being used to further someone's pet cause.

Taking orders literally?

I wonder if this undercover cop was told that his mission was to "fuck the protest movement"?

Tonight, a woman came forward to add to accusations that Kennedy in his undercover role had sexual relationships with women in the protest movement. Her allegations raise important questions for his senior police handlers about his conduct while operating undercover.

Giving details about how Kennedy gained her trust and slept with her many times over the course of a year, Anna, 26, said she felt "violated" by the actions of the police officer.

She now questions whether the British police have allowed a string of undercover agents to use sex as a "tactic" to disrupt and glean information about environmental campaigns

Coppers

I read a recommendation on Inspector Gadget this week about a pommy show called Coppers. I've watched 4 out of 5 episodes so far - it's excellent. Far removed from your usual reality cop shows. The first episode is a corker for anyone interested in how the underclass is progressing these days. The travails of two very stupid crims made up most of the episode. It's awful, but it just has to be watched. Here's the bloke - a heroin addict who after 15 months in prison, re-offends on his first day out. This is him at age 32 (I think).

He'd been arrested over 50 times - here he is around 23.

The same effects were evident on his partner, the other crim. She was 30 going on 45, an addict and a prostitute.

One hilarious scene is where the bloke goes nuts because his partner - the prostitute - had shacked up with another bloke when he was in prison. He was quite happy to get her to have sex with other men for money, but not for pleasure.

The worst bit was the interviews with the grandfather of the female crim - listening to him describe how she started using heroin at about 15, and then went downhill from there. Interestingly, no sign is ever seen of her mother or father - just her grandfather, who clearly looks after her and loves her. It was just terrible watching what she put him through.

Each episode is about 45 minutes. Spend a bit of time and have a look at them.

As for the big question - what the fuck do we do with these people? The show doesn't pretend to have any answers, and neither do the coppers involved. I'll take the wisest course and stay well away from trying to answer it as well. Just watch the shows, and be horrified and amazed and appalled.