Author:
Publication: The Australian
Date: January 12, 2004
URL: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8366826^7583,00.html
The emergence of Middle Eastern
crime groups was first observed in NSW in the mid 1990s. Before then, they
had been known largely for individual acts of antisocial behaviour and
for loose family structures involved in heroin importation and supply as
well as motor vehicle theft and conversion.
The one crime that did appear organised
before this period was insurance fraud, usually motor vehicle accidents
and arson. Because these crimes were largely victimless, they were dealt
with by insurance companies and police involvement was limited.
But from these insurance scams,
a generation of young criminals emerged to engage in more sophisticated
crimes - among them extortion, armed robbery, organised narcotics importation
and supply, gun running, organised factory and warehouse break-ins, and
car theft and conversion on a vast scale, including the exporting of stolen
luxury vehicles to Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.
It probably took 20 years for the
Chinese to become a dominant force in crime in Sydney. But Middle Eastern
crime has taken less than 10 years. So pervasive is Middle Eastern influence
on organised crime in Sydney that rival ethnic groups, with the exception
of the Asian gangs, have been squeezed out or rendered extinct. The only
other crime group to have survived intact are the bikies - although they
have now legitimised many of their operations and now make as much money
through legal means as they do illegally.
With no organised-crime experience,
no gang unit other than the South-East Asian Strike Force, the NSW Police
turned against every convention known to Western policing in dealing with
organised crime groups. In effect, the Lebanese crime gangs were handed
the keys to the city of Sydney.
The most influential of the Middle
Eastern crime groups are the Muslim males of Telopea Street, Bankstown,
in southwest Sydney. The Telopea Street Boys and their associates have
been involved in numerous murders over the past five years - many of them
unprovoked attacks on young Australian men for no other reason than the
ethnicity of the victims.
They have been involved in all manner
of crime on a scale we have never before seen or even contemplated. Ram
raids on expensive brand stores in the city are endemic. The theft of expensive
motor vehicles known as car-jacking is increasing at an alarming rate.
This crime involves gangs of Lebanese or Pacific Islander males finding
a luxury motor vehicle parked outside a restaurant or hotel and watching
until the occupants return to drive home. The car is followed, the victims
assaulted at gunpoint and the vehicle stolen. The vehicles are always worth
about $100,000 or more, and it is believed they are taken to warehouses
before being shipped interstate or overseas to the Middle East.
The extent to which Middle Eastern
crime gangs have moved into the drug market is breathtaking. They are now
the main suppliers of cocaine in Sydney and are developing markets in southeastern
Queensland and Victoria. They are leading suppliers of heroin in and around
the inner city, southwest Sydney and western Sydney.
But what sets the Middle Eastern
gangs apart from all other gangs is their propensity to use violence at
any time and for any reason. Unlike their Vietnamese counterparts, Middle
Eastern crime gangs roam the city and are not confined to Cabramatta or
Chinatown. And even more alarming is that the violence is directed mainly
against young Australian men and women. It is plain that violent attacks
on our young men and women are racial as well as criminal.
Quite often when taking statements
from young men attacked by groups of Lebanese males around Darling Harbour,
a common theme that emerges is that the violence is racially motivated:
the victims are attacked simply because they are Australian.
I wonder whether the inventors of
the racial hatred laws introduced during the golden years of multiculturalism
ever contemplated the possibility that we, the silent majority, would be
the target of racial violence and hatred. I don't remember any race-based
charges being laid in conjunction with the gang rapes of southwestern Sydney
in 2001, where race was clearly an issue and racial slurs were used to
humiliate the victims.
Unbelievably, a publicly funded
document produced by the Anti-Discrimination Board, titled The Race for
Headlines, was then circulated. It sought to not only cover up race as
a motive for the rapes but to criticise any accurate reporting on this
matter in the media as racially biased. It worries many operational police
that organisations such as the ADB, the Privacy Commission and the Council
for Civil Liberties have become unaccountable and push agendas that don't
represent the values that this great country was built on.
Many have heard of the horrific
problems in France with an unprecedented outbreak of crimes among an estimated
5 million Muslim immigrants. Middle Eastern males now make up 45,000 of
the 90,000 inmates in French prisons. There are no-go areas in Paris for
police and citizens alike. The rule of law has broken down so badly that
when police went to one of these areas recently to round up three Islamic
terrorists, they went in armoured vehicles, with heavy weaponry and more
than 1,000 armed officers - just to arrest a few suspects.
Why did they need such numbers?
Because the threat of terrorist reprisal was minimal compared to the anticipated
revolt by thousands of Middle Eastern and North African residents, who
have no respect for the rule of law in France and consider intrusions by
police and other authorities a declaration of war.
The problems in Paris's Muslim communities
are being replicated in Sydney at an alarming rate. Paris has seen an explosion
of rapes committed by Middle Eastern males against French women in the
past 15 years. The rapes are almost identical to those in Sydney. The rapes
are committed not only for sexual gratification: there are also deep racial
undertones, along with threats of violence and retribution.
What is more alarming is the identical
reaction among some sections of the media and criminologists in France:
they downplay the race factor and even gang up on those who try to draw
attention to the widening gulf between Middle Eastern youths and the rest
of French society.
That is what we are seeing in Australia.
The usual suspects come out of their institutions and libraries to downplay
and even cover up the growing problem of Middle Eastern crime. Why? Because
these same social engineers have attempted to redefine our society. They
have experimented with all manner of institutions - from prisons to mental
institutions and, recently, policing.
Some of the problems we now see
with policing are the result of former NSW police commissioner Peter Ryan's
dream of restructuring and retraining the force. The police academy was
changed from a training college into a university teaching social sciences
and very little else. Constantly, I'd see young police officers emerge
from the academy with a view that as police officers they were counsellors,
psychologists, marriage guidance experts, social workers and advocates
for social change, but with almost no skills in street policing. Their
training endangered not only them but also their workmates and the community.
Never mind that policing is about
enforcing the rule of law. It's never been about analysing each offender
for the root causes of crime. The police enforce the law and protect the
community regardless of race, colour or religion. What we have seen in
southwest Sydney is ethnic communities being policed selectively. The implications
for this are frightening when you look at Paris. The French practised selective
policing of a particular community, which is subsequently now out of control.
In February 2001, when I appeared
before an inquiry into Cabramatta's crime problem, I gave evidence which
at the time attracted the usual claque of ratbags from the ABC and their
associates at The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as Sydney's Radio 2UE
broadcaster Mike Carlton. I said that Sydney is going to be torn apart
by gang warfare the likes of which we have never seen. Last year I was
finally proved right, but I take no comfort from that. However, the criticism
I received was unprecedented. I was a nutter, a liar, a racist, a disgruntled
detective.
Of course, the critics still refuse
to concede that we have a problem. They are still clinging to the multicultural
theme. To highlight the problems with Middle Eastern communities in Sydney
is to tear down the multicultural facade.
The amount of money spent on the
multicultural industry beggars belief. It is a lucrative position for many.
Governments pour huge money into anything that includes the word multicultural.
Indeed, the police department, like other government departments, spends
vast amounts on multicultural issues, jobs, education packages, legal advice,
public relations and the rest. Having expended large amounts of money on
multiculturalism, they are hardly likely to criticise it. Those that feed
off multiculturalism are almost certainly not likely to question it.
That groups of Middle Eastern males
can roam a city and assault, rob and intimidate at will can no longer be
denied or excused. You need only to look at Paris and other European countries
that have had mass immigration from Middle Eastern countries to see the
sort of problems we can look forward to in years to come. My prediction
is that within 10 years Middle Eastern crime groups will have spread and
their influence will extend across Australia as they seek to expand their
enterprises. There will be no-go areas in southwest Sydney just like there
are in Paris.
Only recently I have seen quotes
from senior police and retired police who claim that race is not the issue
in organised crime. Those statements are stupid and dangerous. Organised
crime groups, with the exception of the bikies, are almost always ethnically
based - any experienced detective will tell you that. Barring one or two
local beach gangs, the days of Anglo-Saxon gangs are all but over.
I also predict that there will be
a dramatic rise in gang shootings as rival gangs compete for turf and business.
This will be done with almost complete disregard for police attention,
as they are aware that the NSW Police Service has to be rebuilt from the
ground floor. In the past three years we have seen the phenomenon of drive-by
shootings, Los Angeles style. Not only are the increasing incidents a serious
cause of concern, but even more so is the use of automatic weapons that
spray hundreds of rounds at their targets. This is virtually unprecedented
in Australia.
Indeed, the issue has become so
serious that some of these Middle Eastern youth who are engaged in organised
crime, and who have no regard for our values and way of life, may go a
step further and engage in terrorist acts against Australia. The ingredients
are there already. It is but a small step from urban terrorism to religious
and political terrorism, as we have seen with groups such as the Irish
Republican Army, with organised crime often being confused with terrorism.
I don't want to paint a story of
doom and gloom. But, as a former policeman, I've seen the destruction that
gangs can wreak on innocent citizens who want nothing more than to live
in peace. I just hope we can trust the people in government and the police
to ensure that we don't lose the values and the rights we have received
from past generations.
Tim Priest was a Sydney detective
until 2002. A longer version of this article appears in the January-February
issue of Quadrant.
