THE TIP OF THE BRIMSTONE - PART 1
Terrorism has become a real concern in modern society. Whenever we hear
the word we think of extremists, the kind of nutjobs that claim ties to
religion, insisting some malignant entity has told them to commit sadistic acts
of cowardice to force on others (conveniently) the kind of sick ideologies in which they
themselves believe. But stop and think about the word and you realise that
terrorism is nothing new. Terrorism is the use of extreme fear to force others
to bend knee to the rule of those inflicting it, so that those using it can
gain and maintain power.
Our governments are very good at pointing the finger at others and
expressing outrage as foreign societies and political rivals use terror and inflict
Human Rights violations to force their rule on the most vulnerable, the
disadvantaged, the weak and oppressed. Our governments will even spend billions
of dollars fighting against these vile behaviours, and justify the deaths and
continued suffering of innocents in campaigns of Commissions and war waged to
overthrow brutal tyrants. It is considered a noble, righteous action, but the
excuses, even the act itself, is hypocritical in the face of reality.
Western society is plagued by a festering canker, our communities
founded on stagnant, decaying ideologies that are infected by an entrenched
culture of corruption. Terrorism is a daily way of life for far too many people
in our own countries, and our government’s bureaucratic process ensures that
these horrors rarely make the media. It is our very laws, policies and
procedures that are used to circumvent justice by reducing legal outcomes to
commodities the most disadvantaged cannot access let alone afford, and allow
too many police, public servants and so-called political representatives to
isolate and silence victims while concealing and enabling predators, crime,
systemic failure, and injustice.
Don’t kid yourself – child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse are
acts of terror. They have been inflicted on victims every day for countless
decades. Even if a victim manages to escape the direct attentions of abusers,
they continue to live in terror, the psychological (and too often physical
injuries) forever impacting upon their lives. The fact that these vile
practices continue unabated despite scores, hundreds, thousands of acts of
extreme violence, deaths, inquests and recommendations, speaks volumes of just how
far this rampant, entrenched culture of corruption goes.
In mid-2016, I received the official response from the police in
Victoria for the Timeline of Abuse I was permitted to submit back in March. I
had been instructed by a member of the Victorian police in Victoria (we’ll call
him ‘Bollard One’) to submit it – with as much detail as possible – to a
Constable in the Queensland police force, who would submit it to (we’ll call
him) ‘Bollard Two’, an officer who had previously failed to ask me to do so
three years earlier. He, in turn, would forward it on to a specialist in [DELETED], where it would
reviewed and assessed. This was the process for offences committed in
another State.
After six weeks, I received the official response. It arrived on a
Monday. I had a sick feeling that something wasn’t right all that day. I didn’t
get the email until Wednesday. Our computer was having problems and we had to
reboot the whole thing and then reload the programs. It still has problems,
particularly loading content from the Internet, like emails. Sometimes it takes
a while before we can open them, even if the account is open and we can see
there is mail there, we cannot open it. It’s weird.
What’s weirder is the official response. While ‘Bollard Two’ indicated
that nobody doubted that I had spoken truthfully, the response would be
absolutely nothing. No action. Apparently, after many months on my part seeking
answers elsewhere, Statute laws and the chance of a conviction mean they have
no interest in pursuing the matter. There will be no investigation. They would
not even bother speaking to those I had named, claiming any accusations made by
others would simply be denied. The matter is closed. There is not even an
official record of my report that can be accessed. Again, I was advised to stop
talking about it or trying to get help.
Unfortunately, and after a thorough review of the
documentation you forwarded, there will be no further investigation into this
matter by myself. The information was reviewed by a Sergeant from [DELETED], who then consulted the Detective Sergeant at the [DELETED] Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team. I was
unaware that you had already been down this path. I am aware that you
have pursued these matters via many means and I am sorry that I am unable to
assist you further. I agree fully with the comments made by [we’ll call
her ‘Bollard Three’] sent you on the [DELETED], in particular, the likelihood of the
matters going before a court.
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Once again, I contacted a legal firm for advice. I’ve tried this several
times over the years. A week later a girl called to organise a phone
conversation with a lawyer, apologising for the delay. They had suffered a
problem retrieving my message from their website email contact access. The
following day, a different girl called and made the same apologies and wanted
to organise a phone call with a lawyer. She had no record of anyone previously
arranging this and I hadn’t bothered to ask the first girl what her name was.
When the lawyer called, he wasn’t interested in the details of the
abuse, or looking at any of the evidence or the Timeline of Abuse I’d
submitted. He wanted to know if I knew how much money my parents had. Then
asked who else I’d told and what they’d said. Then he told me nobody can sue
the government for failures in the public service and there was nothing more I
could do. He advised me to stop talking about it or trying to get help.
I found myself in that very, very dark, lonely place I had occupied so
many years ago. What was the point of going on? There’s only one way left to
end the injustice. The next day, one of my wife’s work colleagues committed
suicide. A few weeks later, a woman on a domestic violence and child abuse
forum did the same after months of being trolled by the same individuals,
unable to deal with the failures and aggression of Family Services. For some
reason, the pages referencing her have been removed and are now no longer
available.
In my case, the officer that reviewed my Timeline of Abuse – ‘Bollard
Two’ - had spoken to me almost a year earlier. The conversation lasted three
minutes. She hadn’t bothered to listen to my account of the abuse, or ask for
any statement or evidence. Her manner was rude and aggressive, then she
dismissed me and hung up. Given the content of that Timeline, I doubt she even
read it.
You see, ‘Bollard Two’ works in the very same police station as one of
the people involved in the abuse and other immoral and criminal acts that I recorded
in that Timeline of Abuse once did. He and another of the abusers were friends
of another officer there, one who became a Chief Prosecutor in that town. That
particular station also has, according to several sources on the Internet, a
high incidence of misconduct and corruption, and even had the highest record in
the entire State of Victoria.
I have exhausted every avenue of possible help available to reveal those
crimes. Like many victims, I am not trained in the intricacies of the law and
have no real understanding of the bureaucratic process. I simply needed help to
report crimes and systemic failure, but the police, Child Safety Services, the
Ombudsman, Hetty Johnston and Bravehearts, Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Abuse, Crime and Misconduct Commission, Victorian Police
Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, IBAC, politicians, and even Rosie Batty in her new
position have no interest in exposing and addressing these failures and this
entrenched culture of corruption in the very agencies that are supposed to help
victims get help and justice.
When these people refuse to heed warnings, and actively silence victims
and whistle-blowers, there is an absence of social justice and corruption
festers and thrives because it need not hide in the shadows. When the accused
are afforded the presumption of innocence but the victims are not, the victim
is automatically assumed to be a liar, undermining any possibility of equality
of justice. When the burden of proof is placed on the victim alone, with no
investigation by authorities, and the bar is continually reset until that
evidence fails, there is no possibility of even considering the facts let alone
obtaining justice, at all.
Therefore, since nobody in a position of authority has shown any
interest in doing their jobs and what is right, a sterilised copy of that
Timeline of Abuse has been shared here for anyone who wishes to read it. The
names of individuals involved have been changed for legal reasons: a victim is
not allowed to identify their abusers and others who have failed to render
assistance because doing so is considered a breach of their privacy rights and
slanderous, liable and defamatory despite the incidents usually being cold,
hard – often confronting – fact.
This is the horror in which the victims of child abuse, domestic
violence and other crimes must suffer. They are not allowed to speak of what
was inflicted upon them as their rights were (and continue to be) denied while
those that violated them continue to live their lives, hiding in plain sight,
never held to account for what they did and often continuing with, profiting
from, and escalating, their crimes. Worse, the victims not only endure a life
sentence – with all the psychological, emotional, physical and financial
hardships that come with it – but are forced, by the law, to be complicit in
any future crimes their abusers commit because they must remain silent.
Over the years, I have witnessed too much ignorance, bigotry, hypocrisy
and projection that too many predators inflict on others. Many of them even
claim they are Christians. If you read some of the responses to posts on
Facebook, then you know what I mean. Cyber-bullying. Narcissistic,
self-absorbed, sociopathic cowardice at its best. Disgusting creatures who mock
victims of rape, domestic violence, child abuse and paedophilia, blame the
victim, and accuse all victims of lying for the assumption of false testimony
to gain financially.
The only thing I can say to those trolls is that not everyone thinks
like them. When they claim someone is a liar for having the courage to speak of
what they have ‘allegedly’ suffered – because they never came forward earlier –
that troll demonstrates idiocy that makes good people wonder how said troll
survives the day. How do we know a victim never came forward earlier? How do we
know how the trauma affected their self-esteem? What would we know of the
psychological hold an abuser has on their victim?
It’s very easy, too easy, to dismiss a complaint, an ‘allegation’ as a
lie. It’s too easy to hypocritically apply a presumption of innocence to the
accused while assuming the victim is a liar. It’s too easy for scumbags to
respond with comments like “you talk crap” and “get over it”. Those were the
attitudes of authorities within the Catholic Church. Look how that turned out.
Those are the attitudes of too many authorities within the police and public
service, and even the media, and in decades to come we will say the same: look
how that turned out.
It’s not enough for public figures in positions of authority to make the
right, opportunistic, politically motivated sounds yet maintain the status quo
and continue to force victims to remain silent. The tired old argument that the
job of helping victims is hard, traumatic and thankless is unacceptable. We get
that. Nobody disputes that. The good ones are not the problem. But step back.
Think about it. The life of a victim of child abuse, domestic violence and
other crimes isn’t easy either. In fact, it’s harder.
A victim doesn’t get paid for their suffering. They do not have an
opportunity to expose what was inflicted upon them and others. They do not get
to clock off at five. They do not get to walk away from what they have suffered
if it gets too hard, unless it involves an action leading to their death. They
have a hard life, twenty-four seven, with no remuneration and, far too often,
some arsehole who is supposed to help doing the exact opposite, then justifying
their inaction or covering-up their failure through laws, policies and
procedures specifically designed to circumvent justice by isolating and
silencing victims while concealing and enabling predators, crime, systemic
failure and injustice.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-07/childrens-commissioner-issues-domestic-violence-report/7005832
The excuse of ‘not enough evidence to warrant an investigation’ is
self-serving. Victims, especially children, are not schooled in the intricacies
of the law. Most predators do not allow their victims to document the abuse,
then admit it was them that inflicted it. How can a victim gather all the
evidence when they may be unaware of other victims and how would that evidence
even be admissible? Suppression of information, forcing victims to remain
silent, prevents other victims from hearing of abusers and coming forward with
supporting evidence. The current ‘take no action’ response protects predators
and should have always been replaced with ‘take no chances’.
Here’s an opportunity to see what abuse does to victims, and how a lack
of action conceals and enables predators. How predators escalate when the
authorities and laws, policies and procedures that circumvent justice force
victims to remain silent. How victims sometimes become predators themselves,
their personalities over-written by that of the abuser. How those who force
others to remain silent are complicit, and how society fails when bad people
are able to force good people to do nothing.
Read through all of the Timeline of Abuse pages included on this Blog,
and when you are done, ask yourself how the authorities could have allowed
these immoral behaviours to not only go unchecked, but to continue and escalate
the way they did. Then ask yourself if the things detailed are crimes and worth
investigating. Then ask yourself two more questions: what kind of society
allows victims to be denied justice, and what kind of legacy do we want to
leave for future generations.
My grandfather wanted to build something wonderful, leaving all his
grandchildren land within a few kilometres of one another so we could be close
and work together as friends as well as relatives. He wanted us all to have a
future where we were not lost, impoverished and unproductive. Unfortunately, he
refused to listen to those who were loyal enough to warn him of problems
including predation, and even punished them and then rewarded the people who
caused harm and wanted to corrupt – and ultimately destroyed – his legacy. In
reality, his actual legacy was the exact opposite of what he intended.
This is the same legacy we see the Australian government establishing,
and it is reflected in the governments of other Western societies. The
ideologies of freedom, equality, justice, liberty, meritocracy and
accountability are hypocrisy because the reality is the absence of these, where
victims and whistle-blowers are too often silenced and predators rewarded by
concealing and enabling crimes and systemic failure. What we do know, is that
the only way that those who are part of the problem can ever be part of the
solution is if they step down so better people can fix their mess.
The only way to end the entrenched culture of corruption in the
cyclical, self-perpetuating, and unnavigable bureaucracy, is by applying the
same recommendations the government run Royal Commissions into Unions and
Churches have tabled. Foremost among these is an end to the practice of
‘internal investigation’, a conflict of interest that inevitably leads to
cover-ups to protect those involved. If you doubt this assertion, have a look
at the facts, close your mouth, engage your brain, and the reality becomes all
too apparent.
As a functional society based on equality and justice, we need to have
Independent Oversight, external and impartial agencies to represent the most
disadvantaged, consider all the evidence, make sure justice is served and
victims get the help they need, make recommendations to correct and prevent
systemic failures, and limited authority to ensure those are implemented. If
the injustice and corruption in the Churches and government have taught us
anything, it is nothing to do with equality and justice, it is that while those
who are silent may be said to condone, those who force others to remain silent
are complicit.
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