Dangerous days in Kings Cross

Ex politician Michael Duffy today writes in the SMH about the dark days of police corruption in the Cross. On the eve of the latest Underbelly series, The Golden Mile, Duffy tells the harrowing story of two detectives who blew the whistle on local detectives who lived the life of the long lunch while extorting money from drug dealers, including the known pedophile Dolly Dunn. They neglected police work to such an extent that Kings Cross became a virtual free-for-all.

The whistleblowers were hounded out of their jobs and the country, in fear of their lives or of being framed. These bad old days of Kings Cross are exposed in books by the two whistleblowers: Watching the Detectives by Deborah Locke, and Dirty Work by Glen McNamara. Two more for the Kings Cross collection.

I find it interesting that, in the face of this cornucopia of books and TV shows about 'the bad old days' of the Cross, some current locals keep insisting "it's getting worse" as they call for more measures to stop young people partying.