Sunday, September 14, 2008

4 Corners Monday Night - The Guard's Story - detention centre guards speak out

The Guards' Story
Guards from Australia's toughest detention centres speak out about the horrors behind the wire - and the pain they've carried outside.

More.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bugger I sent you an email and it bounced.

I will be watching, they did a good job on one previous 4 corners.

Im currently flat out starting up my business for the next month (its looking good).
i KNOW A NUMBER OF BLOKES AND LADIES DAMAGED BY acm (THE COMPANY THAT RAN THE CENTRES), and it badly affected my mentl health as well. I "lost" 3 days once towards the end, they just dissapeared with no memory at all.

ACM executives should still be prosecuted.
(the frollickingmole)

Anonymous said...

Listen if you're going to prosecute anyone, prosecute the lawyers, NGO's and refugee advocates who've made it legally obligatory to process these people's 'refugee' claims in Australia.

With prevailing political correctness and legal hand-tying it is virtually impossible for anyone in Australia to deal effectively with the murderous, parasitic, barbarian vampire cultures prevailing in much of the less-developed world, whose dregs sought to bypass our proper immigration system. (I will give detailed examples of such debased 'cultures' if requested).

That some decent deserving people did come to Australia through these means does not justify the injustice and cruelty of the queue-jumping method. The blood is entirely on the hands of the do-gooder bleeding-hearts who encouraged the illegal 'migration' channel to continue, thus lumpimg good people and wicked together, instead of proper vetting at their place of origin.

The weasel-words of the abc promo show it is just another hit job of lefty agitprop - another part of the problem rather than the solution.

kae said...

Bruce,
murderous, parasitic, barbarian vampire cultures
that's an excellent description.

Incompatible with our current western values, however, I think they are being eroded by the rights of the individual, and they'll be in for a shock should the majority become one of those murderous, parasitic, barbarian vampire cultures.

G'day!

kae said...

Hi frollicking, I wasn't sure how to contact you.
My email is on my thingy here at blogger, if you email I'll email you back.

I miss old Blair's Lair!

Anonymous said...

As I married into 'another culture' to some extent, this is my bitter personal experience, Kae.

I think it's the other way around, that tribalism always beats individualism, which is why humans have developed and mostly stuck to the tribal strategy over millenia. Modernity has no chance in the long term - that's my belief.

kae said...

Oops, didn't make that very clear.
The western values are being eroded by the those who are all for individual rights, which in time will end civilisation and we'll be back to the tribalism, which is just what a minority want, the tribalism.

Tribalism worked in the seventh century, it was the only way to survive.

That's why so many aboriginal schemes to help are doomed to fail, it's tribalism. It's also why there's so much trouble in many African nations.

Skeeter said...

I look forward to Mole's input because his experience in detention centres must make him the Blairite expert on these matters.
But I agree with Bruce on who should be blamed.
I don't hold much hope for an objective report coming from the ABC.
I have some limited experience of conditions in Woomera, and once went perilously close to spending a night in a cell there. I had landed one of Her Majesty's jet fighters at Woomera on my way to WA, and was met on the tarmac by a walloper. In those days, even serving officers needed a special ASIO clearance before being turned loose on the base. My ASIO paperwork had been lost and I waved goodbye to my squadron friends as they all headed for the mess and I was escorted towards the cells.
Fortunately, the lost paperwork turned up just in time and I joined my mates for a few coldies.
In the 1950s, the officers' sleeping accommodation at Woomera was about one star compared to modern detention centre standards, which look more like 3 stars. Air-conditioning was unheard of in those days.
When illegal immigrants started to complain about the harsh conditions of the hell-hole in the desert, we old ex-RAAFies could not help but make comparisons with what we had to put up with.
Much was made of the trauma of being surrounded by razor-wire. The first time I saw razor-wire was about 30 years before the boat people became a problem. It was used to surround the Qantas compound at Mascot, so I spent many years behind wire, and had to pass in and out through a security gate whenever I went to work. Razor-wire doesn't hurt you unless you are trying to break through it.

kae said...

Watching the programme now.

How can these people claim that they'll be good citizens.

Life is cheap where they come from, they don't care about anyone, not even their own.

kae said...

Showing film of Cornelia Rau being taken out of the detention centre.

People are going to be outraged.

What do people who have nothing to do with illegal immigrants, or mentally ill people, or the drug addled, who can be belligerent and violent, what do they expect those in charge to do when things need to be done.

You cannot reason with some people and you cannot wait all day sweet talking someone who is belligerent or violent. The line is drawn.

There's going to be an outcry, and the people on the receiving end will be the guards; the same as it is when the police need to take action and someone is hurt.

kae said...

A point made early in the programme was that the guards weren't trained in dealing with people with mental problems - the point was made that it would take years... I'd like to think that the guards are not psychologists.

And I can understand perfectly why people would change their minds about how some people should be treated, especially when you are trying to be kind and understanding and help, and you may be attacked in one way or another.

Anonymous said...

Heres a few assaults which I personaly had happen to me.
Spat at
Bitten
Punched
Balls grabbed
Urine thrown at me
Belt buckle (thank you Kelvin Klein you bastard) to the side of the head
Srtuck with stones

Admittedly I had a reputation as a shit magnet, but those experiences werent out of the ordinary for the vast majority of the officers who worked the centres for longer than a few years.

The programme could have been better, there wasnt much point in the Rau bit. The oficers dont seem any worse than what I served with. I cant stress enough the bit at the beginning about the prison gaurds being allowed into the centres as a huge mistake. Many of them were beligerent dickheads with no idea of how to manage the centres (nearly every "softcock" management, was prisons, and without being able to lock down and seperate were stuffed.

It brought back one little memory of Curtan riots for me. We saw sparks coming off the fencing in areas and took quite a while to work out it was slingshots firing bolts and bearings at us....

Keep in mind at many centres half the officers were women as well (in Port it was something like 75%), One of the ladies on my crew lost her babyduring one riot when she was struk by a large chunk of cement.

Not happy memories, Im going to have a crap couple of days sleep after that show.

thefrollickingmole.

Anonymous said...

That's a true horror story, Mole.

I've looked after violent autistic adults, the worst ones have a 2:1 staff-client ratio, and separation is a prereq, before anyone can even go in - we don't have eyes in back of our heads.

Mind you even then the legally mandated 'rights of the disabled' require us to take some risks so workers occasionally get seriously hurt, go on leave, and sue sue sue.