NEWS Joe Ofahengaue charged for alcohol related offence in a vehicle

[I bleed Maroon]

The point I was making is QLD has fast turned into a nanny state.

You can thank Can Do Campbell and his fascist attorney general for that one.

 

[McHunt]

You can thank Can Do Campbell and his fascist attorney general for that one.

Hear hear! Between Newman banning bikie gangs and Howard stealing our guns it's getting too damn hard to make an honest living out of peddling crack these days.

 

[Kooly87]

Body worn cameras are an issue in many respects and not the panacea their proponents think they are in many instances, and I’ll make but one more observation, heeding @huge’s advice on such things. Many RPU officers are the sort of people who wouldn’t show discretion anyway, even if the policy allowed them too. If I had my way, they wouldn’t even be employed by the QPS, but rather TMR...

I think this is a really interesting point and I'm curious as to how a Police Officer might view it.

The people who are charged with making our roads safer are also indirectly funded by revenue from people disobeying the law and committing motor vehicle related offences. I'm sure the majority of Police are genuinely motivated by trying to make our roads safer for all, but it does strike me as kind or paradoxical that if everyone obeyed the driving laws then the Highway Patrol would become significantly reduced and defunded, if not entirely obsolete.

Even if I was to move away from just the Police, the State Governments are almost certainly collecting far more in revenue from traffic offences than they currently expend in policing our roads and cleaning up after people's mistakes, so it does make you wonder if they really do view it as being in their best interests to enact laws and ways to enforce them that are focussed on road safety vs what revenue they might be able to generate.

 

[Huge]

Hear hear! Between Newman banning bikie gangs and Howard stealing our guns it's getting too damn hard to make an honest living out of peddling crack these days.

What, can't we get a gun licence in Australia? Can't we own guns in Australia? ****, when did that happen? I thought the Howard government BOUGHT the excess guns. I didn't realise the government stole them, you know like taking them without paying for them.

 

[McHunt]

UPDATE: Travis Meyn in the The Courier-Mail just now:

"The Broncos are privately livid with Ofahengaue" for being busted "in charge of a motor vehicle" with a blood-alcohol level of 0.136. He's due in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Feb 12, two days before the Perth Nines training camp.

The alleged offence could be considered minor given he was not driving the car at the time, after falling asleep inside it with the engine turned on.

But the Broncos are "fed up with his behaviour" following multiple police-related issues, such as driving with a suspended licence and a cheating scandal which saw him banned from Treasury Casino for a year, and then returning to the casino while banned.

The Broncos will determine any sanction after the verdict. Possible sanctions include suspending him for game one against the Cowboys.

 

[TariqT]

"The Broncos are privately livid with Ofahengaue" for being busted "in charge of a motor vehicle" with a blood-alcohol level of 0.136.

But the Broncos are "fed up with his behaviour"

Possible sanctions include suspending him for game one against the Cowboys.

Lucky they're not "SUPER ANGRY" or he'd miss two games.

Personally I've got a bit of time for Joe as a player. He showed what he can do in Origin last year before his knee got busted open. He was close to the best forward on the field that night, along with Jai Arrow. I've never been down with the criticism he sometimes gets as a player.

For all we know he could have been at an important gathering with good friends and family. Pre-season appears consistently very difficult, so it's not out of this world to "have a few" on a long weekend. I don't know the ins and outs, but I hope he puts this behind him and learns.

What it appears we might know is that he wasn't driving. Hopefully he wasn't, but I'd err on that side of things for reasons stated earlier. He's still a young fella ,with a lot on his plate, lets not forget that. I'd rather get behind him and trust the club will as well, and see him reach his potential for both himself and his family.

At the same time one week seems the minimum of what should be appropriate. If they're serious they should set an example. He's already signed. The team needs a resolute focus without these silly distractions.

 

[Wolfie]

They all need to follow the example of Glenn and Patty.

 

[Dash]

They all need to follow the example of Glenn and Patty.

By being incredibly handsome?

 

[Jason Simmons]

I think this is a really interesting point and I'm curious as to how a Police Officer might view it.

The people who are charged with making our roads safer are also indirectly funded by revenue from people disobeying the law and committing motor vehicle related offences. I'm sure the majority of Police are genuinely motivated by trying to make our roads safer for all, but it does strike me as kind or paradoxical that if everyone obeyed the driving laws then the Highway Patrol would become significantly reduced and defunded, if not entirely obsolete.

Even if I was to move away from just the Police, the State Governments are almost certainly collecting far more in revenue from traffic offences than they currently expend in policing our roads and cleaning up after people's mistakes, so it does make you wonder if they really do view it as being in their best interests to enact laws and ways to enforce them that are focussed on road safety vs what revenue they might be able to generate.

The QPS budget alone is beyond $2b a year. The ‘revenue’ raised is somewhere around $300m a year. Even if we didn’t raise a dollar in a single year for the Government, the ‘blow’ to their budget bottom lines isn’t much in the scheme of things.

The whole ‘filling Government coffers’ thing from police, is massively overblown when you actually look at how much the Government spends every year. We are a veritable drop in the sea of Government money.

My thoughts about the RPU are simply that they more than any other part of the service, interfere with the QPS relationship with the community. Partly because of their job and partly because of the attitudes of many of their members.

The QPS could do an awful lot with the money and resources it puts into road policing, TMR could do the role easily with an increase in staff and a re-jig of their powers and that negative aspect could be fobbed off elsewhere.

The only differences would be that the community would stop hating us for being ‘revenue raisers’ which would improve our relationship, and that a bunch of over-weight dudes would stop stuffing themselves into a QPS uniform that includes jodhpurs...

 

[Allo]

The QPS budget alone is beyond $2b a year. The ‘revenue’ raised is somewhere around $300m a year. Even if we didn’t raise a dollar in a single year for the Government, the ‘blow’ to their budget bottom lines isn’t much in the scheme of things.

The whole ‘filling Government coffers’ thing from police, is massively overblown when you actually look at how much the Government spends every year. We are a veritable drop in the sea of Government money.

My thoughts about the RPU are simply that they more than any other part of the service, interfere with the QPS relationship with the community. Partly because of their job and partly because of the attitudes of many of their members.

The QPS could do an awful lot with the money and resources it puts into road policing, TMR could do the role easily with an increase in staff and a re-jig of their powers and that negative aspect could be fobbed off elsewhere.

The only differences would be that the community would stop hating us for being ‘revenue raisers’ which would improve our relationship, and that a bunch of over-weight dudes would stop stuffing themselves into a QPS uniform that includes jodhpurs...

This is too sensible. Like most government entities, the people with the best ideas aren’t in the position to make them

 

[abashii]

As I recall the biggest resistance to letting TMR staff undertake traffic enforcement like operating speed cameras came from within the police union. They didn't want their members to lose things like getting OT to relax in a van on the side of the road, and probably didn't want to lose members to a different union either.

 

[Kooly87]

The QPS budget alone is beyond $2b a year. The ‘revenue’ raised is somewhere around $300m a year. Even if we didn’t raise a dollar in a single year for the Government, the ‘blow’ to their budget bottom lines isn’t much in the scheme of things.

The whole ‘filling Government coffers’ thing from police, is massively overblown when you actually look at how much the Government spends every year. We are a veritable drop in the sea of Government money.

My thoughts about the RPU are simply that they more than any other part of the service, interfere with the QPS relationship with the community. Partly because of their job and partly because of the attitudes of many of their members.

The QPS could do an awful lot with the money and resources it puts into road policing, TMR could do the role easily with an increase in staff and a re-jig of their powers and that negative aspect could be fobbed off elsewhere.

The only differences would be that the community would stop hating us for being ‘revenue raisers’ which would improve our relationship, and that a bunch of over-weight dudes would stop stuffing themselves into a QPS uniform that includes jodhpurs...

Thanks for taking the time for a very thoughtful reply. I hadn't considered how Highway Patrol might be influencing people's perceptions of the Police Force in general, but that's an excellent point. The only laws that probably 99% of people ever break are traffic infringments so that makes a lot of sense that for many people it might be damaging their relationships with Police in a broader sense and that can have all sorts of bigger impacts that manifest later on.

 

[McHunt]

The only laws that probably 99% of people ever break are traffic infringments

And indecent exposure, or is that just me?

 

[KickHaas]

And indecent exposure, or is that just me?

#metoo

 

[Jason Simmons]

As I recall the biggest resistance to letting TMR staff undertake traffic enforcement like operating speed cameras came from within the police union. They didn't want their members to lose things like getting OT to relax in a van on the side of the road, and probably didn't want to lose members to a different union either.

That is true, but our union is relatively small and unimportant in the scheme of things. A confident and determined enough Government, wouldn’t care much about the hoo-har the QPUE would raise. The fact the Government of which ever persuasion has repeatedly declined to move police out of speed camera duties and bring in civilians to do it cheaper itself, shows that it isn’t all about ‘revenue raising’.

Police doing it on OT at (in some cases) more than $120 an hour, is hardly the most cost effective way of managing it and Victoria and (I believe) NSW have already done just that, but we in Qld have not.

However I was talking about ALL traffic work, not just speed camera duties. TMR inspectors, already have most of the legislated authority and training they would require to do the majority of traffic enforcement work and they do it cheaper than sworn police do...

 

[Browny]

in the ACT the camera vans are run by civvies, bunch of douchebags as well. They still ping us going lights and sirens to a priority job and then we have to justify getting off the ticket.

Theres a reason traffic are called jury fuckers

 

[Jason Simmons]

in the ACT the camera vans are run by civvies, bunch of douchebags as well. They still ping us going lights and sirens to a priority job and then we have to justify getting off the ticket.

Theres a reason traffic are called jury fuckers

Same up here, except it’s our own pinging us...

What happens with the brief when someone pleads not guilty to one of the civvy pinged offences? I assume a sworn officer somewhere has to prepare the brief and that civvy is used as a witness?

 

[McHunt]

in the ACT the camera vans are run by civvies, bunch of douchebags as well. They still ping us going lights and sirens to a priority job and then we have to justify getting off the ticket.

Theres a reason traffic are called jury fuckers

Same up here, except it’s our own pinging us...

What happens with the brief when someone pleads not guilty to one of the civvy pinged offences? I assume a sworn officer somewhere has to prepare the brief and that civvy is used as a witness?

Let me remind you pair of cowboys that "EVERY K OVER IS A KILLER." If you came into my court flaunting the speed limit I'd have no hesitation in finding you guilty of attempted murder. Unless your name is Clive Frederick Palmer, you're not above the law.