Crisisflows

6 Exercises for Maximum Mobility By: David Steinberg, outsideonline.com

Why a Bay Area gym has ­become a destination for the world’s top athletes

Every Australian Journalist should know and understand this law.

One of my journos pointed to an article that said Journo's tend to self censor due to an inadequate knowledge of copyright law and fair use. Article here.

Whilst the article focuses on the US experience, the same can be said for Australia and I have noted that Australian journalists are often extremely shy of lifting relevant images, quotes and copy for fear of the copyright cops.

But if you are reporting news, the rules are very different, despite what the Copyright Council might have you believe.

If you are a journo, read it, know it, understand it. 

Ouch.. but fair enough. More of this stuff and maybe the patent wars will end?

So this is the statement from NSW police as they react to the sad death of Thomas Kelly, an 18 yo who died after being punched in the cross.

"I'm going to cut straight to the chase and not muck around - it's the abuse and availability of alcohol... and that is the problem," he said to applause from the crowd.

"Drugs are certainly an issue in Kings Cross, they have been historically," he added.

"I think more the problem is the combination of drugs and alcohol. Drugs is not the problem in Kings Cross ... alcohol's the problem." (source)

However being a citizen that understands that a moral panic is probably not the best time to make policy, I have a few questions for the police.

a) What evidence is there that the person who attacked Thomas Kelly was under the influence of alcohol? Was there evidence that the attacker was drinking in Kings Cross?

b)What evidence is there that violent crime is increasing in the Kings Cross region (Actual statistics would help here) ? The ones I found show a drop in the last 10 years.

c)If there is evidence of violent crime increasing in the Kings Cross region, what have the police done to increase their patrolling/presence in the Kings Cross area as they identified a need?

The death of anyone is a tragedy, and I abhor violence, especially from drunken idiots who think fighting is fun. 

But we must look at evidence, not anecdotal scaremongering and scapegoating when the real problem is the culture of violence within certain groups of people, not alcohol itself.

So I ask Barry O'Farrell and NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Murdoch to answer these question.