![The scene of the rampage.](/web/20170120150509im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/v/o/m/0/image.related.landscape.460x307.gtvr5a.png/1484911211884.jpg)
Bourke Street: A few minutes of vile madness
This should never have happened – the initial response of a policeman investigating the Bourke Street horror.
John Silvester is a Walkley-award winning crime writer and columnist. A co-author of the best-selling books that formed the basis of the hit Australian TV series Underbelly, Silvester is also a regular guest on 3AW with his "Sly of the Underworld" segment.
This should never have happened – the initial response of a policeman investigating the Bourke Street horror.
Senior Victorian police are undergoing international "hostage rescue" training as part of an Australia wide shift in counter terrorism tactics with experts now acknowledging that attempts to negotiate peaceful outcomes in IS-inspired sieges are likely to fail.
For we have devoted so much time and energy on a television event of no consequence whatsoever.
For a bloke who has been shot at (a bullet creased his eyebrow), blown up and sentenced to 84 years' jail, former safebreaker Patrick Shiels remains remarkably cheerful.
Everyone loves a list – such as best restaurants, best tourism spots or best small forwards (1: Cyril Rioli, err, that's all) – and we at Naked City are no exception.
The first thing real estate agents (and porn movie directors for that matter) advise is you should de-clutter your prime assets to make them look more impressive and stand out.
Before drugs made every second street dealer strut around like Al Capone gangsters were home-grown, white and local. And back then police produced a super-secret annual report, which was their Football Record on crooks.
In many ways the Police Capability Plan designed to provide a ten year strategy for Victoria Police is a back to the future document.
Police will boost night patrols, blitz violence hot spots, introduce a new call-out system and support a "victims-first" approach, as part of a ten-year plan to tackle Victoria's growing crime rate.
For starters, let's plan as we do for roads and housing and put law and order policy beyond the election cycle.
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