dechucka
I share your concern that the racists and bigots twist this sort of thing to there own ends but that doesn't mean there isn't a real issue.
In terms of evidence you would have to agree that the police have not arrested those that smashed cars, buttaulted and threatened innocent people and branished illegal weapsons (Monday the 12th of December) other than the Brighton flag burner? There is also the anecodotal evidence of Priest (of the political right persuasion) and Kennedy (of the political left).
If there isn't a 'softly softly' approach would you agree that policing of ethnic gangs such as the telepoea street boys as been pretty ineffective since Ryan's changes in the police force and the Wood Royal Commision?
Australia since the landing of the first fleet has always had gangs form on ethnic lines - Irish, Italian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Lebanese (to name a few).
In the 80s the South East Asian Crime Squad was formed to combat the emerging crime trend. The problem is that some people believe - "The existence of racially based crime squads presupposes that crime is more prevalent among the targeted migrant communities, or that crimes committed among these communities are unique and specific to them existence of these squads add fuel to the racist fire but I do think the the gathering and processing of intelligence along with the policing of these gangs would require specific skills (language being one) and tactics. Task Force Gain was formed to tackle crime in Sydney's south west (described as the "Middle Eastern" crime squad Hansard). The SE Asian Crime Squad still runs....why the PC name for Task Force Gain and why isn't it a more permanent fixture?
