No kidding.. do you recall the 4 Corners story. There was a page of things that went wrong.

1. The government orders a badly specc’ed boat.

2. The boat builder cut corners and there was no quality control. The boat is dangerous.

3. The government (local) was totally inexperienced to work in those waters but was sent out any way.

4. The senior public official doesn’t give a shit about anything or anyone and goes out for the evening despite knowing there was a storm coming on.

It was a cascading set of bad events that finally led to the drowning of those innocent people.

I really don’t know how you could read racism into it except perhaps with the arsehole that was heading the office there and even then I don’t think his racist views would have motivated him to see dead people on his watch, as it wouldn’t look good for his resume.

I think you’re reading far too much into it.

I agree. Social class for example adds another layer of complexity.

Also, the TSI people in the case I mention were Commonwealth employees who were on duty plus some passengers. They were not a bunch of drunks out on a frolic.

Yes, I know they were Commonwealth employees on a patrol boat. And I certainly don’t condone the terrible response.

I’m saying that it’s more complex than just racism, although I’d say it plays a part. I do wonder if the response would have been as pathetic for a bunch of white fishermen.

But it’s also about Australia’s image – failing to help an international yachtsman might harm our overseas image! (Never mind the poor innocent Torres Strait Islanders).

How would that suggest anything at all though- especially racism, mel.

Different equipment use, different personnel etc. could even suggest that the response time in the TSI is faster but you could still have “racism”.

Also, the TSI people in the case I mention were Commonwealth employees who were on duty plus some passengers. They were not a bunch of drunks out on a frolic.

Mel, ABC story was a hysterical beat up about generalized racism when it was really a story about pathological prick, a criminally negligent boat builder, an inept government spec for boat building and quality control.

They sorely attempted to show generalized racism but there was none. It was a great example that reliance on government can shorten one’s life.

I would like to see stats comparing emergency response times for a wealthy white adventurer in international waters compared with a TSI in Oz waters.

Also, the TSI people in the case I mention were Commonwealth employees who were on duty plus some passengers. They were not a bunch of drunks out on a frolic.

Take the example of the white nurse who was living in a remote community and was raped by a gang of local men. It took ages for anyone to respond to her. The local police were incompetent and ignored her screams while she was being raped, her (white) employers were incompetent and took days to fly her out, and no one really took her plight seriously.

So I’d say racism plays a part in some of this, but there’s other issues too. I suspect authorities in these places may secretly think, What can we even do for these people, why do we bother? It’s hopeless, why care about them? However, that just exacerbates the problem rather than fixing it.

Your somehow suggesting “poor”/black boat owners don’t get the same treatment as rich boat owners. That’s patently not the case.

One other thing.. most prisoner transportation very much depends on the level of assessed or actual propensity to violence. You wouldn’t see Murdoch in such a situation as I would guess his potential to be violent is far less.

Then when you add race and culture to that, it just exacerbates the divide between “guards” and “prisoners”. It’s much easier to remind yourself that the prisoner is a human being if the prisoner is someone like you, with whom you can more easily identify. By contrast, If the person does not speak English well, or looks different to you, or behaves differently to you, I suspect it is easier to treat them without compassion. And if you are managing a rough place where you’re not respected and people don’t respect the law, it’s a vicious cycle, and you tend to despise the people you are policing.

I’m not excusing this behaviour, I’m just trying to think through why these things happen, and to think what the best way of dealing with it is. I think in Zimbardo’s experiment, it was shown that the way in which leadership allows the guards to behave is really important. It is also important to deal with the moments of intense boredom that arise (the worse abuse always happened in the middle of the night).

Really? So you’ve never seen the perp walk? It’s a great NYC institution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnpTJCxjsw

But I very much doubt Murdoch would be stealing a chocolate frog as he has better things to do.

Here’s an example of a perp getting decent treatment and even tucked in for the drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ5SUrBrOVA

What worries me is that news like this only makes it to the paper when it is a few standard deviations toward f*ing unacceptable. Police racism is endemic, and not just in woop woop. Just ask the coloured kids living in Redfern or Flemington.