Perth is an amazing city. Western Australia (WA) is a rich, raw and stunning place. Our resources and farming probably make us the richest state in Australia.
Sadly WA is also one of the highest states in crime.
How the hell can that be?
The politicians and the police blame drugs, especially the rise in use of Ice ( Meth Amphetamine ). Looking around i am sure this is definitely a contributing fact. Ice is one of the most evil drugs seen so far. It is truly a dispicable drug but not all crimes are committed by people ” off their face ” on Ice. So what else could be the cause?
I grew up in an era of relative freedom in Perth. We were allowed as kids and young adults to run around bushland, play on sand hills, we could ride a bicycle without a helmet, we could walk the streets at night just hanging out, you could drink in the parks for such events as Australia Day, sit on the back of a ute, kids in a car could just use a normal seatbelt and the most evil drug i heard of, was LSD, an hallucinagen. In these times if the police picked up a kid for doing something stupid, on lots of occasions the cop gave us a kick up the ass or took you home to your parents who gave you a hiding, grounded you or such like.
Today in that same city most bushland is fenced off, sand hills are a a no go zone, kids on the streets at night are a cause for deep police suspicion, do not even consider booze in a park for a national day, the backs of utes are strictly for materials, kids must sit in a special capsule in the car and we now have Ice. If a child is picked up by the police charges are the first thought by the police.
We now live in what would have been descibed as a police state back when i was a kid. Politicians have agreed to harsher and harsher penalties whilst also removing more and more of our civil liberties. This in turn has empowered the police in ways we never thought would be possible just a couple of decades ago.
Just look at the uniform of police today. It is paramilitary like. Gone are the blue dress pants, light bue dress shirt police cap. They did not even carry guns way back. No longer do they look like a friendly policeman they look like a soldier. A gun toting, mace packing, armour vested suburban street warrior.
So i ask, is there really more crime or are we victims of less police tolerence, more direct action against the citizens and a deep desire, by those in power, to put tighter and tighter controls on the populous?
Maybe it is time for people to speak out against this repression of liberties. To speak out against the police fitting themselves out more like soldiers. To speak out about, the desire, by the powers that be, to charge anybody and everybody for even the smallest misdemeanor.
We are thinking, rational & intellegent humans. We do not need to have every one of our actions and interactions controlled, like we are in the novel, 1984.
Find ways to make your displeasure known to our politicians. Let friends know of your fears for our loss of freedoms. Let your children know of the rights we are all loosing.
We must not allow the powers that be, to remove our rights, and arm our police, like an army,in the guise of protecting us from some fantasy-like terrorist or from our scary next door neighbour.
We must protect our freedoms at all costs.
