I was watching the news last night and realised the above statement is true…. And I can prove it.
It will take a few paragraphs…. but, I guarantee it will be worth it!
The current ‘road toll’…..
‘Road Toll’ – a very nice term to describe people who have died unexpectedly in car accidents, usually by getting their delicate human body smashed and torn apart by sharp metal, bitumen and glass…..
So, the road toll in South Australia for this year (2023) is 31, that is 31 people
And ‘they’ took away the markers no doubt because someone was offended?
died as I described above.
Last year (2022) at the same time it was 15.
I wrote the above a few weeks ago and just decided to publish it and trawled the internet for the current totals….
That was difficult as the SAPOL web site had two different results and every where else I searched compared death rate to date, with the total for last year……
I could have gone to the media (the ‘merchants of misery’) reports but decided I couldn’t trust them more than statisticians, politicians or pollsters predicting ‘the Voice’ referendum….
So I will let you be the judge of these ‘accurate statistics’ …..
So, we are dying in horrific circumstances, being crushed and ripped apart; even incinerated, at double the rate.
Our Police (our beloved SAPOL) is full of good people going out their each day risking their lives when we need them to serve and protect us from the fantasy of the road toll and how they are ‘helping’ to reduce it.
They are just going through the PR motions:
More breath tests
More drug tests
Giving out more on the spot fines
Cameras and computers even giving us more on the spot fines
Traffic operations in country towns and ‘black spots’ to do more alcohol and drug testing and hand out more fines.
The fantasy is the glory of protecting us from the ‘fatal five’ killers on the road:
Drink and Drug Driving
Speeding
Distraction
Seat Belts
Dangerous Driving
…. And SAPOL on average hand out …… get ready for this as it doesn’t sound real but, it is recorded on the SAPOL web site at the link below….
Okay I did research…. not my thing….. and found the below statistics.
In the days between 6/7/2022 – 31/3/23, a total of 268 days, there were 425,407 expiation notices issued by person and machine.
That is about 1500 a day!!
That is at total of $119,198,366.00 of fines issued in that period.
I need to write that out in full so you know it isn’t a mistake:
“one hundred and nineteen million, one hundred and ninety eight thousand three hundred and sixty six dollars!!!!!”
(Wait for it…. that is $444,770.022 A DAY!!!)
How about that ‘ramping’ at the hospital emergency departments where all the road accident patients go screaming in the back of an ambulances with bits hanging off them, or bit missing and squirting blood…. and waiting for hours with ambos on double shifts and not break
After all, we just need more beds, more doctors, more nurses….. but, where do we get the money???
Plus,
$26,253,260.00 additional payments on top of those fines for the Victims of Crime Levy. (I bet that makes you feel good as a victim of crime when you have been waiting years for compensation?)
But, the good news the statistics reveal that SAPOL’s vigorous protection of us from the “Fatal Five’ resulted in more deaths and more fines.
The simple truth is that the infringement notices are going up in line with the the road toll – remember that is the crushing and ripping apart of human bodies and the death of someones’ loved ones..
So, this wonderful strategy of protecting us has continued with enforcement, telling people they are selfish pricks (which by the way wins an award in advertising!?) and that 3 out of 5 people killed on country roads live in the country; I just wonder what the statistics are for the number of people who live in the city that are killed on the roads in the city?
Plus as a little side issue (I’m writing a series on this one called ‘Never Pay and On the Spot Fine Again’ – to be published in the next week or so – there will be a link – here – when it is done).
SAPOL continues to increase enforcement, disregarding your presumption of innocence by taking away your license, on the spot, and then taking your car (and charging you to store it)….
And…. having on their web site that you ‘have‘ to pay the fine….
Is this all sounding a little crazy, even insane.
SAPOl is not doing the same thing over and over again….. they are doing more of the same thing, and more, and more…..
That is because by definition SAPOL and their ‘traffic strategies’ are insane as old Albert points out below:
I will tell you how to NEVER pay an on the spot fine given by a Police Officer or a robot (although it is getting pretty hard to tell the difference) EVER again….. in my next blog….
…..or maybe the one after….
I got heaps of other stuff to bitch about, like, crime and mayhem in the CBD of Adelaide!!!!!
Doing my evening thing and watching the TV in the background as I try to write something profound. I am always about to go inside, after The Chase, the first half of the News and an episode of American Pickers, when a movie comes on that I’ve seen a thousand times…. but, can’t help but watch it one more time: tonight it was ROBO-COP.
I initially thought it was the original ‘old classic’ with the great line “Dead or alive you’re coming with me….” then I realised it was a modern remake; so, even a better reason to stay up and watch it, in the shed, with a beer.
….. and, I smiled…. and, as the movie started, I thought, wrote and felt the words below:
“I thought of an old mate from the Police, Bill. We walked the beat in the 1980’s, we were in the Police Pistol Club together and each year would go away to the Australian Police and Services National Pistol Titles…. we had a fine time!? He was eventually poached from the Police back into the Airforce where he began his career of service. We all laughed as he was an officer and mostly as young coppers we didn’t have much to do with the officers other than to get yelled at. We kept in touch, as you try to do and had a few catch ups over the years and pretended it was the 1980’s again; Bill could always make us laugh and mostly when he dumped a 318 Valiant motor in a Jaguar!
We laughed a lot at Robo-Cop when it came out; and in fact all the great, now terrible movies of the 80’s, which we stole lines from and used them at work, not unlike the Brooklyn 99 classic comebacks and sayings.
I smiled when the new Robo-Cop came on, I smiled with all the above memories and got a beer from the fridge.
For a moment, I thought of calling Bill and wondered if like me, his mobile number had not changed for 20 years.
Then, in that same instance, as those who know, will know; I remember he died a few years ago from cancer.
So, I stood up, and I wrote his name on my fridge in the shed, with the other names, under the title “Say their names often”…..
A while ago I wrote about “6 Percenters” (click to read post here) which basically are the 6 percent of people who are difficult to deal with…. unfortunately they drag another 14% of weak people along with them, which creates the situation of the 20% of people who take up 80% of your time….
So, most of the time only 20% of the world are causing difficulties.
I’ve been thinking…. (Which is also another challenging situation as my mind is a very dangerous place and I never go there alone….!)
What I was thinking is surely, if only 20% of people in any situation, or more importantly organisations, are ‘troublesome’ then any whistle blower who steps forward would surely be supported by the majority; that is the 80%.
I don’t think this is the case – perhaps it never really was…?
It’s all about me; and I’m having a guess
My particular observations have obviously been about the Police… and I must say they are my personal opinions and based on …. well what I just reckon from 38 years of experience and being right in the middle of it. There is also a disclaimer that mostly this is not about individuals but more about a ‘culture” – plus it may also relate to a myriad of other organisations and groups where culture is everything, so although I base this on the Police, in looking around your office, or organisation, you may be thinking, hey, this is happening here too.
What am I talking about? culture, whistle blowers, the percentages…..?
What I am talking about is that I don’t think in organisations that have a long history and intrenched culture that they themselves, and especially the individuals within the organisation, even know they are part of a different percentage; most think, most of the time, that they are part of the majority. That is the majority of people who are NOT 6 percenters or their followers – which is about 80% of ‘us’.
In ‘culture orientated’ organisations and groups the ‘6 percenters’ have often ruled for years. They have dragged the initial 14% and then progressively over the generations this percentage has grown to much, much, much more.
I think in some modern organisations, and from my experience, the Police, have allowed the ‘6 percenter mentality’ to become the culture. The followers are not a group of weak people looking for a leader but are now the majority. The 6 percenters, are now not 6 percenters, but the leaders, the influencers, the cultural caretakers, and have been for some generations. They have progressively recruited in excess of the 14% of weak and easily led people and have been building this number over generations. So, what was 14%, is now more like 74% – which is 80% of the organisation.
Bullshit, I hear you cry as one. Well, I actually hear 80% of you cry this, as you are now the majority. The worse part of this sentence is, I think until I retired, I was well and truely in that group, if not one of its leaders – hence I think I speak from experience.
Bullshit, again I hear you cry.
Lies, more lies, and statistics
Well, lets do the only more confusing thing I can think of doing than writing the above algorithm of misaligned sentences – which is quote a few statistics.
I have a joke about statistics which my wife hates which goes like – “Three statisticians go hunting deer with bows and arrows; they see a deer and the first fires his arrow and it goes a metre in front of the deer; the second fires his arrow and it goes a metre behind the deer; the third fires his arrow and it goes a metre over the deer; all three statisticians look at each other and chant in unison “We got him, we got him!”
So what are my stats? They are taken from the independent review into “Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Predatory Behaviour in South Australia Police” report published November 2016 by the South Australian Equal Opportunity Commission (click here for a link to the entire report).
Lets start off with a few doosies:
45% had personally experienced sex discrimination while employed by SAPOL
61% agreed it was very difficult to work part time and have a career in SAPOL
only 21% who had experienced sexual discrimination had reported it
half of those who reported it said they experienced victimisation, including being ostracised, ignored, bullied, or denied training or promotion
So, about 1 in 5 are reporting – what a coincidence, about 20% by my maths…..
I am not saying the above ‘bush maths and anthropology’ has any scientific basis, but, usually if something doesn’t seem right it isn’t – if you dont believe me ask a few fraud victims! Plus, intuition saved many a cop from opening the wrong door or walking around the wrong corner – sometimes the map doesn’t match the ground – therefore the map is wrong!
Again, so? What does this all mean. I think it mainly means that it doesn’t matter how many new policies, working groups, task forces, media campaigns or big glossy posters around the office – if the culture stays the same, the 80% go on merrily thinking everything is alright – oblivious to the reality.
What does this mean if you are a whistleblower
It basically means you are in the new 20% and you are fucked. I am constantly searching the internet for a ‘good news’ whistle blower story – let me know if you find one.
Just look above at the SAPOL report and the things you face as a whistle blower – victimisation, bullying, etc etc – and these are probably just the identifiable consequences. What about the individual consequences?
I recently asked a few serving members what was the general discussion going on about the place in relation to the land mark decision against SAPOL in relation to discrimination (read full article here) and it appears that the 80% rule supreme – read the article and then read the below paraphrased responses heard around the SAPOL workplace:
“She was always a bit weak.”
“She was a shit cop anyhow.” “What a whinger.”
“We’re better off without her.”
The above were relayed to me via various sources and when I asked if anybody spoke up the answer was no – the 80% rule – the culture remains the same irrespective of posters and task forces and the Commissioner, the CEO, the boss or even the 20% trying to lead the way.
