Where are our " G Men " ?

There was something familiar about a funeral in Sydney yesterday.    The deceased was laid to rest in a gold plated coffin, borne to the funeral in traditional bikie style on a Harley Davidson sidecar - and the cortege was followed by a huge array of Lone Wolf members decked out in their " colours ".   Legend has it that this ostentatious coffin was paid for with thick bundles of cash money.

The deceased - Neal Todorovski was shot in the head in a street in Sans Souci and this seems connected to almost daily incidents where gunfire sprays houses across a wide swathe of western Sydney.  It is said that there is a bikie war in progress to divide up the lucrative returns from the drug trade - and establish just who will be the boss of bosses within the criminal fraternity.

What is so familiar is the notion that we have seen all of this before - at the movies !

Hollywood grew rich depicting the life and times of characters like Al Capone and John Dillinger in the " roaring twenties ", when America embraced prohibition and the streets were filled with mobsters toting " Tommy guns ".   Events like the " Valentine's day massacre " consumed headlines and the public became fascinated following swaggering gangsters having their day in court - supported by highly paid lawyers and gun toting goons.

Those familiar with this genre will remember that the gangster era spawned the creation of super crime fighting agencies - the " G Men " so beloved of countless television series.   People like Elliot Ness and his " Untouchables " battled these criminals - with both guns and ingenuity.

It seems a reasonable question to ask - where are the G Men of Australia ?    We have the Federal police force, but this seems to be strangely missing when it comes to closing down the bikie gangs that are terrorising the public across state lines.  " The Feds " seem to be leaving all the action to state police forces - and what seems to be missing is the seal of authority that allowed the American FBI to become the prime agency fighting crime - across all divisions.

Nobody - except perhaps a comedian - would seriously suggest that our Federal police force is anything but a pale shadow of the might and power of the FBI, and yet that is what we obviously need to carry the fight to this well organised enemy - which is constantly growing in strength and becoming more violent.

The time has come for the Federal and state governments to get together and devolve power to create a Federal entity that can do the job.   Either reinforce the existing Federal police with new powers and much more money - or create something new - along the lines of the FBI.

National crime empires are simply too big to be contained by state police forces !