Friends tell me the opening was PACKED. This pic was first to sell @ $650. That's a lot of money to pay for "graffiti" or "vandalism"!
This blog began as an online newspaper about Kings Cross, Sydney. It now focuses on the deep problems of drug prohibition - which are so intrinsic to Kings Cross anyway - and exposes the many flaws in the prohibitionist argument, and the pseudo-science that governments fund to prop up their unjust and ineffective laws. Comments are welcome, but please be polite! Content on this site reflects only the views of the writer and are not necessarily those of the editor or any other organisation.
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Herald 27 December
A SYDNEY man had his mobile confiscated by police and was threatened with arrest after he filmed officers at work, in an incident civil liberties advocates say is becoming a frighteningly common occurrence.
Nick Hac, of Springfield Avenue, Kings Cross, says officers snatched his BlackBerry and searched through his email, photos and videos, before deleting a video he filmed of them conducting a drug operation about 10pm last Friday.
The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, said it was unclear whether police were within their rights in this instance because "police have all sorts of extensive powers, depending on the nature of the situation".
Mr Murphy said he received about 45 complaints a year from people who said they were harassed by police after they took pictures of them on the job.
Mr Hac, 27, told the Herald he was walking home with friends when, about 100 metres from his apartment, he saw eight police officers and a sniffer dog rush past him carrying a camera.
He said he was threatened with arrest when he asked what they were doing. Believing he was within his rights to photograph incidents occurring on a public street, he took out his BlackBerry and started filming.
"One of the officers noticed I'd filmed them and aggressively came towards me … they said, 'Give me your device' and I said I'm terribly sorry - I would have apologised 100 times - and they said 'You're not allowed to film us' because there were other officers from different areas of the police," Mr Hac said.
An officer snatched Mr Hac's mobile from his hand, despite him repeatedly saying he did not consent to them searching it.
He said the officers did not know how to delete video from the device so one of his friends, who was watching from a few metres away, had to assist them.
"They looked into my inbox, which is where my SMS and email were … they looked through my photos," he said.
Mr Murphy said a decade ago police could not even demand identification, but recent laws such as the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 gave them "extraordinary powers".
Mr Hac said he went to the police station to file a complaint yesterday afternoon and was assured the police involved would be spoken to and all Kings Cross officers would be told that citizens had the right to film them doing their job.
Herald
28 December 2008
Shot dead over bikie drug war
Dylan Welch Police Reporter
December 28, 2008
MURDERED Kings Cross security manager Todd O'Connor was part of an inner-city drug syndicate and the hundreds of thousands of dollars police found in his apartment after his death was probably profit from that ring, the Supreme Court has heard.
The claim was made in a criminal assets confiscation hearing about $635,100 discovered by police in O'Connor's ransacked apartment days after he was shot dead in Tempe on October 5.
O'Connor, a 41-year-old with a long history in Kings Cross, was shot in the back of the head on South Street by two men.
It has since been reported that O'Connor - a security manager and long-time associate of a nightclub promoter and alleged criminal identity - was murdered as a result of a drug distribution war between rival outlaw motorcycle clubs.
The Crime Commission now alleges that O'Connor and another man were involved in a drug syndicate, according to a judgment delivered by Justice Ian Harrison late last month.
The commission's assistant director of financial investigations, Jonathan Spark, said he arrived at that conclusion based on evidence provided by the NSW Police Force, the Australian Federal Police and information from a Crime Commission informant.
"Part of that information included an allegation that [the other man] and [O'Connor] were involved in the manufacture and supply of prohibited drugs," the judgment said.
The money was discovered in O'Connor's luxury apartment in The Domain Building in Woollomooloo by detectives attached to Strike Force Colbee, formed to investigate his death. The flat had been ransacked and a safe was missing but a duffle bag containing the money had been overlooked.
Police have since said O'Connor may have been lured to his death by two young men seen driving a grey 2002 model Nissan Pulsar sedan with a small rear spoiler on the Princes Highway and Short Street.
Anyone with information about O'Connor's murder can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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