Russell Armstrong wouldn't know irony if it used his nostrils as a latrine

The Western Australian lower house has just voted in favour of giving the police the power to search people in Northbridge without justification. I don’t like politicians at the best of times, and this doesn’t help my opinion. Not everyone voted in favour of it, fortunately. One of these people is a Greens MP who has spoken out against the legislation because of the opportunity for abuse. Good, I think. A politician who isn’t a goat-molesting bastard.

And then this happens:

Sure, that’s how you prove you can be trusted with this sort of power, by jumping to conclusions unsupported by the evidence and trying to crush dissent with threats. Way to go, douchebag.

And finally, here’s a big “go fuck a chainsaw” to those members of the general public who are pulling out the same old “If you have nothing to hide there’s nothing to worry about” bullshit to defend the proposed laws.

Oh, well, you see, the front fell off.
Yes, I know that is completely irrelevant. But I still love saying it.
(You may be interested in thisthread. A lot of search-related questions there.)

What’s the matter, Grumman? I bet you think there’s a racist policeman somewhere in Western Australia, don’t you? Shame on you!

  1. (bolding mine)

Western Australia Police Union president Russell Armstrong, who told 6PR his office had been fielding complaints from serving officers who heard Ms Carles’ interview.
“I’m absolutely furious, my members are furious, we’ve absolutely had enough of two-bob politicians making outlandish statements,” Mr Armstrong said.
“What is she saying, police officers are racist? There is no police officer who is a racist.

  1. [A groundbreaking study by the Australian Institute of Criminology to be published today paints a disturbing picture of young Aborigines’ contact with police, The Australian reports.
    It may go some way to explaining why indigenous 10 to 17-year-olds are 28 times more likely to be in detention than non-indigenous youths.

In at least two states, Western Australia and South Australia, young Aborigines are more likely to be convicted in children’s courts than non-indigenous juveniles for the same type of offences, the report shows. No other states provided data on conviction rates.
In Western Australia, the one state that issued statistics on sentencing, young Aborigines are more than twice as likely as non-indigenous juveniles to be given a jail term after being found guilty.](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/figures-indicate-a-police-race-bias/story-e6freuzr-1225780242427)

As a force struggling to shake off a racist image, the Western Australia police hardly needed a speed camera catching two officers racing through a town centre wearing Ku Klux Klan-style hoods.

Er… you know I was joking, right?

I thought this was about Russell Brand, who looks like he probably does use his nostrils as a latrine.

whoosh.
Nice hairstyle, glee

Do you have a background story here?

Where is Northbridge? Why was it singled out for this legislation? What makes it different from everywhere else? The link in your OP doesn’t really give that information.

There are darkies there, apparently.

I googled “Northbridge WA” and came up with this:

Either the webmaster of the Australian Good Food & Travel Guide site is a really lazy bastard or Northbridge is a really shitty town.

ETA: Wikipedia says it’s a suburb of Perth (good-sized city) “known for its nightlife”, so I’m guessing the legislation was more about regulating the pub crowds than singling out Aborigines.

Yeah, i guess i should have Googled. According to its Wiki entry, it’s basically a suburb of Perth, the state’s capital city, and lies not far from Perth’s central business district.

I’ve just read a couple of other news stories about this, and i think the law is pretty damn fucked up. I’ve also developed quite a lot of respect for Greens MP Adele Carles who was the only person to vote against every clause of the legislation, and who was, for the votes on some clauses, apparently “left sitting by herself on one side of the chamber after calling for a division.” Good on her.

She’s not the only one who has a problem with the law. The WA Law Society has also been highly critical of it. They made, in somewhat more temperate language, some of the same points that Carles made:

The Labor Party proposed a bunch of amendments to the law, all of which were voted down by the Liberal Party majority. One of those amendments insisted

This was voted down! Un-fucking-believable.

One would think this would be the other way around.

Got it in one. You’ve basically got the CBD and Northbridge next to each other, with the rail hub sitting between the two. Northbridge is one of the bigger clusters of restaraunts and bars, and is one of the places people head to to drink at the end of the week.

But has there been a recent spate of violence or crime that led to this legislation? Why has Northbridge been singled out?

Yes, there has. According to police statistics, there were 382 assaults in Northbridge in 2000, and 581 this year. It is actually down from a couple of years ago, though.

Russell Armstrong wouldn’t know irony if it used his nostrils as a latrine

How would that be ironic? Has Mr Armstrong been stuffing ‘boogers’ up irony’s backside?