POLICE CHIEF HITS OUT AT ETHNIC GANG VIOLENCE

Ethnically-based gangs involved in drug trafficking are responsible for
much of the increasingly violent crime in Australia, the Federal Police
Commissioner, Mr Mick Palmer, has warned.

In an interview with the Heraldon the eve of his retirement, Mr Palmer said
the changing nature of violent crime, especially the use of handguns, was a
cause for "real concern".

"I mean, there is no question that the use of knives and guns has become
far more frequent in recent years."

Asked why Sydney was seeing more handgun crime, he said: "I think
essentially it is related to drug trafficking.

"It's related to some of the ethnicity of some of the people involved in
the trade and the fact that the use of knives and guns is a more familiar
part of the criminal side of those cultures than has been the case in
Australia. I think that's a reality.

"Whilst their numbers are small, the damage they can do is quite large."

While Mr Palmer acknowledged that the homicide figures had not changed
markedly, he said: "The level of violence used in many crimes, including
home violations and property crime, I think has increased.

"And the nature of some of the killings we now see occurring in all large
jurisdictions, in large cities around the country, is distinctly different
to that which you would have seen a few years ago."

His remarks are likely to re-ignite the debate on ethnic crime in Sydney
and puts pressure on the State Government, already under attack from the
Opposition over recent Sydney shootings.

Recently, the Police Minister, Mr Whelan, was forced to deny there was a
crime wave despite a spate of handgun murders, including that of a
16-year-old boy who was shot at a bus stop.

Last week, the Police Commissioner, Mr Ryan, said his efforts were being
undermined by an inability to label accurately the particular ethnic groups
and offenders involved in gang warfare - claims he first raised after the
shooting attack on Lakemba police station in November 1998.

Mr Ryan's comments were criticised by ethnic group leaders as creating
prejudice and race stereotypes.

Mr Palmer said he believed that the recent level of violence was
"distinctly different to that which we would see a few years ago".

And he said there was no point in denying that ethnically based gangs -
mainly Asian and Lebanese criminal groups - were responsible for much of
the problem.

"If you are going to be effective in dealing with that, you identify it for
what it is," he said.

Mr Palmer, who has been commissioner for nearly seven years and retires
this week, argued that the legal system needed to be changed to cope with
the gangs and tip the scales back in favour of the community.

He said it was now proving difficult for police to deal with people who
showed no respect for the law.

Governments should consider a review of the right to silence, a reversal of
the onus of proof and the admissibility of some indirect or hearsay
evidence in some cases.

Mr Palmer said that co-operation with overseas agencies and other States,
particularly NSW, had improved dramatically in recent years.

A good example was the Joint Asian Crime Group, based in Sydney, which was
tackling heroin trafficking and other serious crimes.

"I think they have had some very notable successes that were unlikely to
have been achieved had we continued to operate separately," he said.