However:
Police have also released footage showing youths of Middle Eastern appearance attacking cars at Cronulla on December 12, but have not received a single phone call to nominate those involved in the revenge attacks.Perhaps it's because they and their families have no shame.
Or perhaps it's because the media is not using the means at its disposal to distribute the video of rioting Muslims as widely as it has distributed the pictures of the Anglo-Australians.
Tim Blair also highlights more links in the chain of events with the tale of Mahmoud Eid
Meanwhile, New South Wales continues creating trouble hotspots:
Families are scared to walk the main street (of Sydney suburb Liverpool), fearing it is now "the new Cabramatta". Shopkeepers say the dealing and anti-social behaviour now rife in the suburb is ruining their livelihoods.They've done that kind of thing before.
Residents blame senior NSW police, saying they sat on their hands for years and let the problem develop.
And in Queensland, senior police and the Beattie Government move street cops around the Gold Coast like outnumbered pawns in the endplay of a chess game, trying unsuccessfully to hose down after-dark crime in Surfers Paradise and Palm Beach while neglecting everywhere else.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that two cops took a 12-minute beating waiting for back-up at Labrador. At least they did better than the Brisbane Eastside residents who waited more than half an hour for police to turn up to:
A gang of youths (who) held a family prisoner in their own home... as they tried to break in and bash a teenager who had sought safety there.One Gold Coast cop highlighted the politics involved:
The youths smashed windows and tried to kick in the back door...
"At the moment for the Southern Alliance operation targeting kids in Palm Beach (rioting teen gangs), they're using everybody and anybody in that area because it's politically driven. (Queensland Premier Peter) Beattie is being briefed weekly," said an officer.The full Gold Coast Bulletin story is reproduced below. (When is Rupert Murdoch's biggest money-making paper going to archive its stories like everyone else?)
"When the nightclub lock-outs were introduced and there was media attention on Surfers, the local bosses made a political promise that they would supply 20 staff per shift to Surfers.
"When they didn't have the numbers to do that, they started pulling people in from everywhere else.
"They all fudge the figures to make it look like there are plenty of people, but there isn't."
As for the question posed in the Bulletin's headline - Can the thin blue line hold ground? - no, it can't.
But increasing police numbers is only part of the answer. The rioting 'kids' at Palm Beach need hosing down with water cannon and giving a slap upside of their heads with no recourse to legal action against the police. And - anaethema to the Bulletin which has a party animal policy - Surfers Paradise nightclubs need shutting down at 2am like nightclubs in Los Angeles.
-- Nick
Can the thin blue line hold ground?
Gold Coast Bulletin 11Mar06
ROUTINE patrols for two police officers this week turned into a 12-minute beating while they waited for back-up delayed because of a lack of police.
The Bulletin was told the officers were left to fend for themselves for nearly a quarter of an hour when set upon in Labrador because the closest back-up was in Mudgeeraba.
Officers were sent to an incident in the northern Gold Coast suburb, but found themselves without the numbers necessary to deal with it.
The Bulletin understands they placed a call requesting back-up, unable to ensure their own safety.
The closest unit was in Mudgeeraba, which apparently responded, exceeding speed limits with lights and sirens flashing to reach their mates as quickly as possible.
Even so, it took nearly a quarter of an hour, which officers have told The Bulletin is an eternity when 'you are fighting for your life'.
Sources told The Bulletin one man, not a police officer, was taken to Gold Coast Hospital under arrest needing treatment for a deep cut to his arm as a result of the ruckus.
Senior police and police media last night said that based on the information provided to The Bulletin they could find no record of the incident, but several other sources confirmed the report to the paper.
One officer said such trouble and assaults on police were common.
Officers say the incident highlights 'chronic understaffing' that means police cannot safely look after their own, let alone the public, because of a lack of resources.
They are now on the verge of revolt, threatening to walk off the job over fears their safety and that of the public is severely compromised.
"Gold Coast police just can't cope," said one officer. "The Gold Coast is critically shortstaffed across the board at the moment and things are worse than ever.
"They are flat out maintaining the numbers, let alone increasing them.
"The city is growing at an incredible rate, but the number of police has stayed the same.
"The cops who are on the street, not stuck behind a desk, know how dangerous it is and they have had enough.
"There is talk of a strike. That's how serious it's become.
"Surfers Paradise is short so they drag police officers from across the Coast to cover, so we're short absolutely everywhere.
"It's beyond a joke. It's not just a whinge, we are talking about safety of the officers on the street and the general public.
"There is a really bad feeling in the ranks we're so stretched that it's only a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt.
"The crooks know we don't have the numbers to protect this city we are hanging on by a thread.
"Look at Nerang. The division goes from Westfield Helensvale, includes Pacific Pines, Nerang, half of Worongary and Carrara and at night, they have one crew on the road. One crew to cover such a massive area.
"If they need back-up, it takes 15 minutes for the closet crews to get there. That's a long time if you're fighting for your life.
"That is ridiculous. They (the bosses) won't do a thing about it until it is too late.
"More often than not, they get called in to Surfers to help out so the back areas are left unprotected.
"It's not a good feeling. Too right I'm bloody scared. We all are.
"It's also had a bad effect on the general public.
"People just aren't ringing any more. They aren't reporting the little things because they know we don't have the manpower to do anything about it.
"We take at least a day to even get to a break and enter if you're lucky.
"That means they learn to live with the problem, or they deal with it themselves."
Another officer also told of how senior police were 'gap filling' positions across the city by robbing suburban stations of staff, trying to fulfil political promises to have more officers in hot spots like Surfers and Palm Beach than are available.
"The city is chronically understaffed," he said.
"Nerang is half-staffed, they're struggling. Runaway Bay is half-staffed. It's chronically bad everywhere.
"On any day, a quarter of staff over a shift will call in sick.
"In the old days, you just didn't go sick. Now they don't care, they just call in. There's no support (from bosses), we've just had a gutful.
"If, say, two people call in sick at the watchhouse, two have to go there so they take them from somewhere else, like Southport, Broadbeach or Surfers.
"But if two also go sick from those other stations, there's another six off, so they'll take a crew from Mudgeeraba.
"When there's no one left at those stations, they'll pull officers from places like the Tactical Crime Squad, Traffic Branch or CIB."
Extra pressure is being put on staff resources as senior police try to fulfil obligations to the Government to hose down trouble spots highlighted in the media.
"At the moment for the Southern Alliance operation targeting kids in Palm Beach, they're using everybody and anybody in that area because it's politically driven. Beattie is being briefed weekly," said an officer.
"When the nightclub lock-outs were introduced and there was media attention on Surfers, the local bosses made a political promise that they would supply 20 staff per shift to Surfers.
"When they didn't have the numbers to do that, they started pulling people in from everywhere else.
"They all fudge the figures to make it look like there are plenty of people, but there isn't."
The nature of covering Surfers Paradise was creating a drain on the entire city, said officers.
Police there do more nightwork than any other station in Queensland and a report in the most recent Queensland Police Union Journal said the amount of nightshifts there had increased 33 per cent.
It also says Surfers is down an entire team, requiring an extra 40 officers and the Surfers Beat station in the Cavill Mall is often manned by four officers instead of 15.
Officers say no one but young inexperienced officers looking for a quick promotion want to work at Surfers.
"Even sergeants on the beat are going sick because they don't want to do it. There's no rest, they're going flat-stick all the time," said an officer about Surfers. "People only go there because they can get promoted.
"You get young sergeants there who've never really seen an angry man in their life and then you've got young officers looking at young sergeants for advice. Older guys won't go there because it's shit work."
Officers say claims that stations are fully staffed refer only to what's on paper and don't tell the real story, where numbers are depleted through sickness, holidays and secondments to other stations.
Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek said the police service was suffering because of a government culture of secrecy preventing senior officers speaking out.
"Police never want to talk about staffing," he said.
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