TOXIC CULTURE – PART 1
This last
few weeks has exposed evidence to support everything people like me have been
saying for years. There is a rampant, toxic, entrenched culture of corruption
in the Australian police, public services, politics, and the community in
general. It infects every level of society, and festers not just in dark
places, but even when exposed to the light.
Worse, there seems to be some kind of bizarre disconnect that ensures
the problem is concealed and enabled to continue unabated where possible.
We have authorities
who are part of the problem, primary or secondary offenders committing offences
directly or making every effort to isolate and silence victims through
indifference, apathy, idleness, incompetence, negligence, insensitivity,
mockery, insults, unfounded accusations, and intimidation. It is these acts,
and the inaccessibility of legal outcomes that are too often reduced to
commodities designed to circumvent justice, that conceal and enable predators,
crime, systemic failure and injustice.
So, for
this post, let’s start by having a look at what dominated news for over a week.
A bunch of idiots who are over-privileged and over-paid to play cricket.
Something about a toxic culture where sledging and anti-social (bad) behaviour
is not only enabled, but actively encouraged. And when they are caught out,
they make every effort to conceal what they did, knowing damn well it was
wrong, then make self-serving apologies that focus on how hurt they are, like
they are the victims.
Did Warner
answer questions about what happened? Not really. Sure, he claimed he was sorry
for the betrayal of trust, but when asked to demonstrate honesty, he refused.
He claimed to support efforts to correct the toxic culture, but refused to
answer questions that might identify problems. But how did he and his mates get
there? It starts when these guys are kids. These people too often come from
places where their mummy and daddy have enough money to get them into the sport
of their choice, and from there they make every effort to make sure their kid
succeeds… by making sure others don’t.
The actual
sport doesn’t matter. The parent bullies other kids, coaches and umpires to
make sure their little darling is elevated into the top ranks, regardless of
merit, and too often more competent, gifted kids are driven out of the sport
altogether. At the top levels, their brat fails and throws tantrums that
imitate the behaviour their parents taught them, blaming others and refusing to
learn or accept they simply don’t have what it takes and are not willing to do
the work they need to succeed.
The
cricket fiasco is just the latest in a long line of easily forgotten incidents,
a social memory flaw that is inspired by a culture of narcissism and throw-away
commodities that include the lives of others. At time passes, the younger
generations are encouraged to upgrade and move on to the latest trend or
product, ignore news, rely on the internet for information rather than (key to
learning) memory, and take the quickest route to accomplish a task rather than
one that works, or checking it to make sure it’s right.
Sure,
David Warner is a dickhead. He’s a bully, a gutless thug insulated from reality
by his wealth and circumstances. He did what he does because, as any offender
will tell you, he can and nobody will stop him. And he’ll keep doing it because
there’s still no real deterrent. The fact that he and his mates tried to
conceal what they did, made excuses when they were caught, didn’t really
understand that what they did was wrong (despite knowing it was wrong enough to
conceal it), and tried to avoid penalty says it all.
But it’s
nothing new. David Warner isn’t the only tool in that shed. Before him came
Shane Warne, a total douchebag who shagged whores, bullied and threatened
others whenever he was called out on it, and infamously told his former wife to
“get over it” when his idiotic behaviour frequently splashed across the front
pages and dominated the news. And how was his behaviour discouraged? He was
given lucrative jobs in the media to flap his mouth about most anything, like
he was worth listening to. He was rewarded for being a colossal arsehat, not
just enabled, but encouraged.
And it’s
not limited to cricket. The same vile culture appears in the NRL. Sure, most of
the lads are well behaved, and a lot of them don’t have Stepford wives like the
ponces that play cricket at the top levels. But too many are given a lucrative
contract to continue playing the sport despite their bad behaviour, or a media
position like a spot on the Footy Show to be offensive and act like an unhinged
wanker at every opportunity. Sure, there are exceptions, but even one getting
away with it is too many.
Excessive drinking. Snorting illegal narcotics on the streets. Assaulting people. Sexual assaults. Domestic violence. Gambling problems. Not paying off their debts despite having big incomes. Inflicting offensive ‘religious’ (bigoted hate) beliefs and extremism on others. Getting away with it because their sporting abilities or popularity makes them a valuable commodity. These pricks get rewarded and enabled, and somehow the people that report the vile behaviour are to blame for it. Insanity.
He was
sued for $135,000 by one victim over what can only be called extreme injuries.
D’arcy claimed that he was bankrupt so could not pay his debts. Then went
overseas with some mates to holiday and party in Europe, even posting pictures
of himself doing it, in complete violation of the orders he had been given to
return to (and stay in) Australia. He suffered no penalty for any of it. He was
insulated from reality by his wealth and circumstances, rewarded for his
disgraceful behaviour, and enabled.
And,
again, it’s not just limited to sports or the here and now. Not long after one
of my daughters asked “what’s cricket”, the news on the ball-tampering ended
and was replaced with multiple incidents of Victorian Police caught brutalising
people. Now, before we get to that, let’s pause for a moment to consider that
question. “What’s cricket?” At her age, it was one of the few things my
grandparents let us watch. Whenever there were extended family gatherings, we
all played it.
That ended
as the grandkids got older and all our collective parents started focussing on
what was really important – my grandparent’s assets. The grandkids were caught
up in the defamation to undermine various family members, to ostracise and
alienate them, cut them out of Wills, but also to discredit what they might say
about the decades of physical, psychological, and (it now appears very likely)
sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents and step-parents.
Now,
decades later, it has only recently come to my attention, I no longer watch the
cricket, tennis or AFL. Those were things my grandparents watched. They remind
me of them. How they were before they got manipulated, bullied into nursing
homes, and their legacy carved up and sold off by greedy, parasitic relatives.
But it’s more than that. Those sports have devolved. They are no longer about
what they once were. In fact, there’s chatter that soon they will only be
telecast on pay-tele, Foxtel, and the AFL and NRL will quickly follow. They
have become corrupted, symptomatic of a larger canker in society.
Which
brings us to the Victorian police. Sure, the police there have been rotten and
corrupt for decades, concealed and enabled by IBAC as that so-called corruption
watchdog isolates and silences their victims, and covers-up whatever vile
activities it can (just have a look at my Timeline of Abuse and how IBAC and
the police protect their own, even decades later), but now what these bastards
did is there for all to see. Six
officers brutalising a disability pensioner fighting cancer, a man they were
asked to do a welfare check on, even recording the brutality for their own
amusement, because they could.
They
didn’t realise there was CCTV footage of the incident. They thought they could
get away with it. It was not reported by any of them, and it seems very likely
they’ve done it before, the complaints against them for their crimes dismissed
and covered-up. It’s just like a private Catholic high-school where kids are
brutalised by gangs of thugs at the school, then threatened with expulsion if
they complain because the offenders concoct a bullshit story, accusing the
victim and claiming self-defence, and witnesses are too terrified to come
forward and tell the truth.
Yet, here
we are, watching grown adults, people in positions of authority, brutalising
the people they are supposed to help and protect. Even if they are there to
make an arrest, they have no right to beat and stomp suspects. Hell, that kind
of idiotic behaviour can result in actual offenders being released and all
charges dropped, and then the offenders go out and repeat their crimes, or even
escalate. And it’s these same scumbag authorities that refuse to help victims
who dare to come forward and report crimes.
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