Pubdate: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: GPO Box 3771, Sydney NSW 2001 Fax: 61-(0)2-9282 3492 Website: http://www.smh.com.au/ Forum: http://forums.fairfax.com.au/ Author: Neil Mercer POLICE CHIEF HITS OUT AT ETHNIC GANG VIOLENCE Ethnically-based gangs involved in drug trafficking are responsible for much of the increasingly violent crime in Australia, the Federal Police Commissioner, Mr Mick Palmer, has warned. In an interview with the Heraldon the eve of his retirement, Mr Palmer said the changing nature of violent crime, especially the use of handguns, was a cause for "real concern". "I mean, there is no question that the use of knives and guns has become far more frequent in recent years." Asked why Sydney was seeing more handgun crime, he said: "I think essentially it is related to drug trafficking. "It's related to some of the ethnicity of some of the people involved in the trade and the fact that the use of knives and guns is a more familiar part of the criminal side of those cultures than has been the case in Australia. I think that's a reality. "Whilst their numbers are small, the damage they can do is quite large." While Mr Palmer acknowledged that the homicide figures had not changed markedly, he said: "The level of violence used in many crimes, including home violations and property crime, I think has increased. "And the nature of some of the killings we now see occurring in all large jurisdictions, in large cities around the country, is distinctly different to that which you would have seen a few years ago." His remarks are likely to re-ignite the debate on ethnic crime in Sydney and puts pressure on the State Government, already under attack from the Opposition over recent Sydney shootings. Recently, the Police Minister, Mr Whelan, was forced to deny there was a crime wave despite a spate of handgun murders, including that of a 16-year-old boy who was shot at a bus stop. Last week, the Police Commissioner, Mr Ryan, said his efforts were being undermined by an inability to label accurately the particular ethnic groups and offenders involved in gang warfare - claims he first raised after the shooting attack on Lakemba police station in November 1998. Mr Ryan's comments were criticised by ethnic group leaders as creating prejudice and race stereotypes. Mr Palmer said he believed that the recent level of violence was "distinctly different to that which we would see a few years ago". And he said there was no point in denying that ethnically based gangs - mainly Asian and Lebanese criminal groups - were responsible for much of the problem. "If you are going to be effective in dealing with that, you identify it for what it is," he said. Mr Palmer, who has been commissioner for nearly seven years and retires this week, argued that the legal system needed to be changed to cope with the gangs and tip the scales back in favour of the community. He said it was now proving difficult for police to deal with people who showed no respect for the law. Governments should consider a review of the right to silence, a reversal of the onus of proof and the admissibility of some indirect or hearsay evidence in some cases. Mr Palmer said that co-operation with overseas agencies and other States, particularly NSW, had improved dramatically in recent years. A good example was the Joint Asian Crime Group, based in Sydney, which was tackling heroin trafficking and other serious crimes. "I think they have had some very notable successes that were unlikely to have been achieved had we continued to operate separately," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart