Father arrested in front of his child and disappeared for 22 hours for jaywalking

[Pirate]

This is fucking disgusting. I find it very, very worrying that our government can make people disappear. This is something that you'd expect from a 3rd world dictatorship. Howard has to go.

A FATHER of three wept yesterday as he revealed how crossing the road ahead of an APEC motorcade led to his violent arrest in front of his young son and a traumatic 22 hours in jail. Greg McLeay was released on bail yesterday after his wife, Sophie, and children spent a sleepless Friday night worrying about him. "Because of APEC I was not allowed to speak to him - even the lawyer couldn't," Mrs McLeay said. "The children are traumatised. We spent the night sleeping together on the sofa. How does walking to yum cha with your 11-year-old son end up with 22-hours in jail and no access to a lawyer?" Footage available on ninemsn showed Mr McLeay, a 52-year-old accountant from Sydney's North Shore, speaking to police in Pitt Street before four officers pushed him to the ground.

Source

[scathing]

Nice to see the billions of dollars we pissed up against a wall for security at APEC reaped returns.

[scathing]

Also, this kind of immediate action in detaining a potential terrorist of middle-class beancounter appearance makes me proud to be an Austrian.

[MasterFarter]

They fail to stop the Chaser guys then this travesty

That boy will now completely distrust Police. What happens if he is in a bad spot and needs police help?

My office building is over the other side of the city to the APEC zone but on Wednesday all these signs appeared outside (Kent St) notifying that this was now an APEC exclusion zone. I have work associates who stepped outside the door to have a smoke, who were told to move on or go back to their office.

Federal Liberal are pricks
NSW Labour are pricks
The Police are pricks

I hope all of the above a visited with piles

[pinchy]

Thats only his side to the story... I'm a little skeptical.

from the same article:

Police prosecutor Sergeant Jason France asked that bail be refused under section 31 of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act, [referring to a separate assault charge Mr McLeay had outstanding.

so he was refused bail not for "jaywalking", but for a previous assault charge.

[lostreality]

http://ninglun.wordpress.com/2007/09...pec-clampdown/

[sagit]

Originally Posted by MasterFarter They fail to stop the Chaser guys then this travesty That boy will now completely distrust Police. What happens if he is in a bad spot and needs police help? ...

already happening:

"George stayed with Mr Carter and watched the arrest.

"I was really upset when I saw them take my dad. I'm going to throw away all my police videos now and go and buy Ocean's Thirteen," he said.
"

[AnyName]

Is this the Australian version of Fox News? Two pages of hand wringing from the "victim's" family with one sentence from the other side. The appeal about "the children" and "who can they trust" was an excellent touch.

And Oceans 13?!?!? The mind warbles**

** Kelly Bundy, Married with Children

[onetonnesam]

Originally Posted by Pirate ... This is something that you'd expect from a 3rd world dictatorship. Howard has to go.Source

With the increasing divide between the haves and have-nots, Australia isn't really too far from a third world country.

Totally agree on the Howard point though. That cunt really needs to retire.

[Sinergy]

Originally Posted by lostreality http://ninglun.wordpress.com/2007/09...pec-clampdown/

Blogs are fun and all, but....and this might come as a shock...but they tend to lean towards the "truth" that best suits their ideology.

[Spectra]

Originally Posted by onetonnesam Totally agree on the Howard point though. That cunt really needs to retire.

No! God no, not now. If he retires now, it's as the undefeated statesman of >11 years. If he can just hang around until the next election, he'll retire as the asshole whose lies Australians finally woke up to and handed him his electoral ass on a platter. I know which one I'm hanging out for.

As far as this particular story goes, if what's written is even half true (and I suspect it may be embellished a tad), it's certainly a very disturbing situation. Personally, I'll reserve judgement until I've heard a bit more from both sides...

[fuzz!]

Originally Posted by Sinergy Blogs are fun and all, but....and this might come as a shock...but they tend to lean towards the "truth" that best suits their ideology.

indeed, just like all commercial tv, radio and print media.

[dirtysanchez]

Originally Posted by Pirate This is fucking disgusting. I find it very, very worrying that our government can make people disappear. This is something that you'd expect from a 3rd world dictatorship. Howard has to go.

Whilst it is disgusting, take it up with Iemma not Howard.

The NSW govt runs the security for the event.

[dogwomble]

Originally Posted by pinchy Thats only his side to the story... I'm a little skeptical. from the same article: so he was refused bail not for "jaywalking", but for a previous assault charge.

Well, true ... however they don't go into much detail over what the assault charge was, so it's difficult/impossible to know whether it was a serious offence or not. There's nothing to even say that the police knew about the assault charge at the time they initially acted, it just mentions that it's a separate incident - which I can only assume is unrelated because otherwise it would have got more than a simple half-sentence comment in the article.

If the two matters are unrelated, then this is a serious overstep of the mark by the police judging it by it's face value. If he was simply crossing the road to avoid the exclusion zone, which is how I read the article, then he is guilty of nothing more than trying to do the right thing given the situation. Assuming that is the case, I'd be pretty pissed off at them too! And I can say that with justification, given that I was once pulled up in the middle of Canberra City by undercover cops because someone alleged that someone matching my description was trying to flogg off stolen cameras ... after a 15 minute ordeal and the embarrassment of having just about everything short of a stripsearch done they were finally convinced that it was either mistaken identity or they had been fed bullshit.

[scathing]

Wombly, I thought you liked men in uniforms?