Here I am starting a post for this lovely dry, somewhat cool Thursday won’t get it finished though as mum will be here soon to pick me up. I have an appointment at Belmont hospital for physio to the left side of my neck and head due to all the pain I have been having. Physio through the hospital is free hence the reason I am going though the hospital.

Tim said he should be able to pick his bike up this afternoon, he gets home from work around 1.40pm so I will drive him back to Toronto to get the bike and then go straight to the school to get Leo who I will let spend another night here if he wants too but he goes back to his mum’s place tomorrow after school as he has been her since Monday night.

For all who are interested I have no idea where Natasha has been staying this week, she tells me nothing but looks like Blain will be living with his dad Monday to Friday and staying with his mum from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. So if this is the case I can see him having to change schools yet again as his dad lives around 40 minutes from here and it is a bit much to expect him or Kelli to drive all that way five days a week.

I pegged all the washing on the line and it feels like it is going to rain, so what to do, should I leave it on the line or throw it in the dryer. I will chance it and hope for the best.

Yesterday well last night to be exact we booked and paid for another cruise this one is to Papua New Guinea and again we are going with my parents their cabin has been booked too and is next to ours. We were talking about it on Sunday over lunch at my parents place and I said I hadn’t been able to find a cruise to Papua New Guinea but after lunch I had another look online and found one so made enquiries about the cruise and now it is booked and paid for. More about this at a later date.

I started this at 10.30am and it is now 4pm and I am now getting around to finishing it partly because I forgot about it when I got home from physio, anyway the physio went well the guy massaged my neck and shoulders as he said I was really tight and could do with a good massage I can tell you he hurt like hell. The guy was ok I wasn’t overly wrapped in him but I didn’t disliked him either. I have been given some exercises and told to go back in two weeks time.

All the washing dried on the line which is good no rain but it is still pretty cool/cold here.

Since the earliest days of the New South Wales Police Force there has been deaths of those who chose to serve starting way back in 1803, with the death of Constable Joseph Luker of the Sydney Foot Police his death was the first recorded death of a member of the Police in Australia. While patrolling on foot at night in Back Row East, Sydney Town (now Phillip Street Sydney), the Constable was attacked and killed. His body was found the following morning with the guard of his cutlass embedded in his skull. Four offenders later faced court, where three were acquitted (including two fellow Constables) and one was sentenced to death (later commuted when three attempts to hang him failed).

However, the first death of a member of the new Police Force formed in 1862 occurred when Constable William Havilland was accidentally shot at Orange whilst returning from Eugowra Rocks, where he had been guarding the gold escort which had earlier been bailed up by bushrangers.

Because of the problems with bushrangers Special Constables John Carroll, Patrick Kennagh, Eneas McDonnell and John Phegan were secretly sworn in as part of a covert operation to capture bushrangers who had shot and killed Constable Miles O’Grady at Nerrigundah in 1866. The four Special Constables were ambushed at night at Jinden (near Braidwood) and killed. Their deaths represent the largest loss of Police lives in a single incident of this type in Australia. Later that year, the Campbell Commission of Inquiry into the State of Crime in the Braidwood District was established. This was the first Royal Commission type inquiry into the NSW Police.

In 1945, the Force also saw the death of Constable Eric Bailey who was shot at Blaney. Constable Bailey was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant Third Class and awarded the George Cross – remaining the only Australian Police officer to be awarded the then highest award for civilian bravery under the Imperial Honours then in force.

In 1963 Constable First Class Cyril Howe was shot and killed at Oaklands after his pistol jammed. He was able to write his attacker’s name in his official notebook before his death. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant Third Class and awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Gallantry. His death lead to the adoption of the Smith & Wesson .38 calibre revolver as the standard Police sidearm in NSW.

Senior Constables Peter Addison and Robert Spears were shot and killed at Crescent Head in 1995. As a result of these deaths, the Glock self-loading pistol was adopted as the standard sidearm for Police. Bullet resistant vests were also generally made available to operational Police.

These are just a few examples of those who have died in the line of duty, as mentioned in earlier posts the New South Wales Police Force have an honour roll of those who have paid the ultimate sacrificed in the execution of their duty.

This official NSW Police Honour Roll records the name, rank, date and a precis of each death which has been accepted as duty-related by the various Commissioners (and Inspectors General) of Police of the day.

Also included on the Honour Roll is the first recorded death on duty of a serving member of any Australian Police jurisdiction.

Unfortunately due to the nature of policing, this Honour Roll will never be complete

The complete list of officers can be found here:

http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/about_us/proud_traditions

I counted the names and there were 245 on the roll

May they rest in peace – lest we forget.

Do you ever feel like crying?

Do you ever wonder why things have to be so hard, so complicated and so bloody frustrating?

Do you ever wonder why someone cannot see things from someone else’s point of view?

How hard is it to have respect for someone else, and their wishes and feelings?

Lately as in the last week or so I have felt like crying a lot and I am often feeling frustrated and feel like screaming. Natasha doesn’t see things from anyone else’s point of view, she things she does but when I was talking to her this morning and when her dad was talking to her yesterday afternoon it didn’t sound like she could get what he was saying or he get what she was saying.

She would rather fork out money to stay in a motel other than coming home, her dad has asked her to come home but she won’t she says she doesn’t want to come back only to end up fighting with her dad yet again and leaving in a mood saying she won’t ever come back. I don’t get that yes her and Tim fight they are so much alike but I feel like she is being stubborn and because she can’t have everything here her way she would rather not be here.

She really doesn’t get that this is our home and we have the right to have stuff in it, she keeps going on about how much stuff we have in the house and how we need to get rid of stuff because she doesn’t do clutter and mess. When she starts going on about the house I get upset and doesn’t get why.

I know she would be happier in her own house but at the same time she chose to give up her house and move back in here, I do not think she thought it through before she moved home, I told her it is not like she didn’t know what this house was like before she moved home. When she moved home she was talking about being here for years she didn’t even make it through one year before it all fell apart.

In other news Tim still doesn’t have his bike back so I am using Jessica’s car yet again and tonight I have said that Leo can stay here so I don’t have to get up early to go and pick him up from his mum’s to take him to school. This afternoon I have to take him bowling after school then home here for the night Tim should be home around 4.30pm so I don’t mind having him here for the night.

Yesterday was my dad’s birthday he turned 74 and we all went over for lunch well by all I mean me and Tim, Dave and his kids, Sandra and her girls, neither Jeannie or Sue turned up but it was also Sue’s granddaughter Isabel’s birthday so she was at her daughters place for her granddaughter’s birthday.

Friday was my baby sister’s birthday she was 39, like how the hell did she get that old seems like only yesterday she was a baby that I took into my bedroom with me while I listened to very loud music as well as taking her to shops and such with me and now she is 39.

We have two more birthdays this month Sue then Dave and then we are done for the month.

I reckon pretty much everyone has heard of the Artful Dodger, a character in Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, but how many of you have heard of Jack Sheppard many people believe he was the inspiration for the Artful Dodger, don’t know if he was or not because hell I wasn’t alive back then but anyway I have be inspired to tell you a little about him.

He was born on the 4^th March 1702 into a poor family, he scored an apprenticeship as a carpenter and by 1722 after 5 years of apprenticeship he was an accomplished craftsman and it is believed he had only a year left of his training when he embarked on a life of crime.

He was only a small man said to be about 5’4” tall and of slight built which was one of the reason he was able to escape so easy from prisons and shackles. He is said to have a quick smile, charm and a personality that made him popular in the taverns of Drury Lane, this is where he fell in with bad company and where it is said he met a prostitute called Elizabeth Lyon better known as Edgworth Bess.

The first recorded crime he committed was petty shoplifting in 1723 he was, however, arrested and imprisoned five times between 1723-24 but escaped four of those times which made him notorious and popular especially amongst the poor.

His first escape was in 1723 from a new prison in Clerkenwell where he was sent after being detained in St Anne’s Roundhouse where he was being held for pick-pocketing and where when she visited him Bess was recognised and also arrested. They spent a night there but the next morning he filed of his restraints made a hole in the wall and removed an iron bar and wooden bar from the window, then tying bedding together the pair lowered themselves on to the ground. They then climbed over a 22 foot-high wall to make good their escape, wow what a feat remember Jack wasn’t a big man and Bess was quite a large woman.

The following year after being convicted of burglary Jack found himself under sentence of death and was in Newgate prison in those days there was a hatch with a large iron spikes opening into a dark passage that led to the condemned cell. Jake filed away one of the spikes so that it would easily break off and in the evening when Bess and another prostitute came to see him they distracted the guard while he removed the spiked climbed through and made his escape with the help of the women.

He was not free for long though, he may have found it easy to escape but he also found it just as easy to get caught.

His last escape was thought to be is most famous escape, again it was an escape from Newgate prison it was sometime between the hours of 4pm and 1am on the 15^th October 1724, he managed to slip off his handcuffs and picked the padlock securing his chain to the floor. It is believed that after forcing several locks he was able to scale a wall and reach the roof using his blanket from his cell he slide down the roof onto a neighbouring roof. He climbed into the house and escaped through the front door still wearing leg irons, he managed to convince shoemaker to remove his leg irons but he was caught again two weeks later.

On the 16^th November 1724 he was hung at the gallows at Tyburn it is believed he had planned one more escape but his pen knife that he intended to cut the ropes was found by a prison guard shortly before he was taken from his prison for the last time.

A joyous procession passed through the streets of London, the occasion was as much a celebration of his life and there is reported to have been up to 200,000 people. The procession halted at the City of Oxford tavern so Jack could have a pint before his death.

His slight build had aided his escapes but it went against him with his death he was condemned to a slow death by strangulation, he had planned for his friends to take his body and try to revive him but as it turned out the crowd pressed forward to stop his body from being removed thus preventing any attempt at reviving his body. His badly mauled remains were recovered and buried in the churchyard of St Martin’s in the Fields later that evening.

Were did I leave everyone, let me check oh year 1987, so let’s move on from there shell we. Between 1988-89 saw the Police Legacy formed to care for the families of deceased officers, it also so the introduction of the ICAC (independent commission against corruption) its role was to investigate complaints against police officers.

In 1889 Newcastle my town had an earthquake and the police were heavily involved in the rescue operations.

Around 1990-91 the wall of remembrance was consecrated in Goulburn, at the same time leather jackets were issued to officers as part of the uniform.

Between 94-96 the Wood Royal Commission into police conduct happened, the result of this was the introduction of the Police Integrity Commission with the appointment of Peter Ryan form the UK as commissioner of police.

It was in 1997 that the whole police service was restructured this saw 80 local area commands as the focal point of policing within 11 geographic regions with specialist and corporate commands.

Moving onto the new century saw the New South Wales Police Force being highly praised for the security arrangements at the Sydney Olympic Games.

We also saw the first female assistant commissioner although that was in Victoria not NSW but thought I would mention it anyway. She joined the police force in 1972 and was the daughter of a former assistant commissioner.

2002 saw the New South Wales Police Force become know simply as The Force. This same year saw Disaster Victim Identification Specialists go to Bali after the Bali bombing and in 2005 they went to Thailand after the tsunami.

In 2003 the headquarters of the Police Department was moved to Charles Street in Parramatta.

In 2004 we had the Redfern Riots and the following year the Macquarie Fields and Cronulla Riots, which brought focus to multicultural issues and public focus policing whatever that means.

Six years ago in 2010 the New South Wales Police Force saw the introduction of the Community Awareness of Policing Program a first for law enforcement agencies in Australia. It provides leaders of the communities a unique insight into policing polices.

As of 2011, there was 19,518 personal consisting of 15,617 police officers and 3,901 civilian personal servicing around 7.25 million people.

This will be the last post about the history of the New South Wales Force but I have one planned about those officers who have lost their lives while serving.

Hello everyone, how are you all on this very warm somewhat hot afternoon, hot enough for me to have the air con going for a bit to cool the house down.

What a weekend I have had Friday we had Leo for the night then we had him all day Saturday and again Saturday night and right up till around 1pm Sunday afternoon. Why you wonder well I will tell you his mum (Jessica) was a bridesmaid at a wedding on Saturday, Friday night she had a hens do with the bride and other bridesmaids and Saturday was the wedding and of course she got blind drunk at the wedding but as her dad said most people do get drunk to some level at a wedding and since Jessica isn’t much of a drinker getting blind drunk once in a blue mood is ok.

Now on Saturday night Natasha and Tim got into an argument over how he feels that this new man (Steve) n her life is rude by the way he spends all his time when here sitting in the car instead of coming inside and speaking to us.

Also on Thursday night Blain had a friend sleep over and when I asked Natasha where he would sleep she said in the lounge room, and when Tim asked her she said in the lounge room but later Thursday night Tim saw she had set up his room for the boys to sleep in and Tim said no not happening and shut and locked his door. I understand why he didn’t want a child he doesn’t know in his room and I told Natasha she should have asked Tim if it would be possible without just assuming it would be alright. It is the assuming that she can do things that really annoys Tim and Natasha cannot get that.

I feel that the reason she decided to let the boys sleep in Tim’s room was because her new man had problems when he returned to his home and they came back here and I think she thought let the boys sleep in Tim’s office and her and Steve would sleep in her room but Tim has said he doesn’t want Steve to stay over here.

We don’t know Steve and Tim is fed up with people we don’t really know staying here, Natasha says that her and Steve are not a couple they are just friends with benefits, whatever, this is our house it is her father’s income that pays the rent and 90% of the bills she does contribute a bit but not a great deal and that is ok with both me and Tim but she can’t get that this is our house and we have the right to make rules and say who can and cannot sleep here.

When Tim and Natasha were arguing I could see both sides and because when Natasha was speaking I wasn’t interrupting and jumping to Tim’s defence he thought I was siding with her, not the case I was just listening and thinking the best way to say what I wanted to say. Natasha got so angry that she stormed out saying she had to leave and walk off her anger which she did then she came home and got her car and her and Blain left for a while she did come home after she knew her dad would be in bed. This all happened as I mentioned Saturday night.

Yesterday (Sunday) she rang the Department of Housing emergency accommodation line and they have put her and Blain up in a motel in Charlestown about 5-10 minutes from us for last night and again tonight to give her and her dad some time to calm down, actually she rang them Saturday night when she was driving around but they could only put her up in a motel 90minutes from here and she didn’t have enough fuel in her car to drive that far which is why she came home.

Natasha and Tim are so alike, she is a smaller female version of Tim this I think is why they clash so much and really cannot live together, I told Tim that and reminded him that me and Kathy-Lee cannot live together it happens some people cannot live together.

I know Natasha was going to speak to the Department of Housing again this morning but have no idea how that went as I have not seen her all day except for a few minutes this morning when she was here to get Blain’s school bag.

In other news Tim’s motorbike is still at the mechanics not sure when that will be fixed but I am driving Jessica’s car she has her work car and all she does of a morning is drop Leo off here and go to work then go to Tafe then go back to work and she can take the work car to Tafe as she goes straight from work to Tafe and straight from Tafe back to work. I do like driving her car it is a 4wd and larger then my car but doesn’t feel large feels smaller I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense but that is how it feels for me.

Every man and his dog has heard of Jack the Ripper but how many of you have heard of the Blackout Ripper aka Gordon Cummins during London Blitz in the Second World War over a period of only 6 days in London he killed four women he was nicknamed the Blackout Ripper due to his comparison to Jack the Ripper, his attacks took place at night during the blackouts.

He was a Royal Air force Serviceman where he was often called “The Count” because he claimed to have noble heritage which of course was a lie he was in fact just an average man from York born in 1914, married to a theatre producer’s secretary.

He was caught when after being interrupted during an attack he left behind a RAF issued gas mask that was traced back to him, he was sentenced to death and hung on the 25^th June 1942.

From the start of that conflict, the streets and buildings of London were kept dark as a precaution against aerial bombing by the Luftwaffe. Street lamps were not lit; the windows of houses, shops, offices and factories were painted over, shuttered or screened off with thick curtains. Showing even a chink of light could lead to an appearance in court and a heavy fine. As bombs fell upon the capital, Londoners took refuge in cellars, underground train stations and public air raid shelters. In a period of six days in February 1942, in the midst of a darkened, blitzed city, Cummins who was 28 at the time murdered four women and attacked two others. Three of his victims were mutilated after death. The newspapers dubbed him “The Blackout Ripper”.

On the morning of Sunday 9th February, the body of teacher Evelyn Hamilton (aged 40 or 42), was discovered in an air raid shelter in Montagu Place in the Marylebone district. She had been strangled, her handbag (containing £80) was missing. There were no signs of sexual assault; her body was not mutilated. The killer had either placed her in the shelter after death or launched his attack when he found himself alone with her within its walls.

On Monday 10th February, Evelyn Oatley (aged 35) was found dead in her Wardour Street flat (apartment) in the Soho district. Oatley had turned to prostitution and was using an assumed name – “Nita Ward”. The actual cause of death was strangulation. Her throat had been cut; she was naked and her body had been sexually mutilated with a tin opener. That implement was found close by – covered in Oatley’s blood; it provided fingerprints. An examination of the body yielded the fact that the killer was left-handed.

On the next day, Tuesday 11th February, another prostitute, Margaret Florence Lowe (aged 42 or 43, also known as “Pearl”), was murdered in her flat in Gosfield Street. She had been strangled with a silk stocking and mutilated with both a knife and a razor blade. Her body was not discovered until three days later. The pathologist Bernard Spilsbury stated, after examining this victim’s body, that the murderer was “a savage sexual maniac”. The similarities between the killings and mutilations convinced the police that the same killer was responsible.

On Wednesday 12th February, Mrs Doris Jouannet (aged, depending upon different sources, 32 or 40 – also known as “Doris Robson”) was murdered in a 2 room ground floor flat in the Paddington district that she shared with her husband (a hotel manager). Jouannet was known to be in the habit of picking up servicemen in Leicester Square. She had been strangled (with a scarf) and her naked body sexually mutilated.

Greta Hayward was attacked on Friday 14th February, near Piccadilly Circus. A delivery boy on his rounds interrupted her assailant and Hayward was able to escape. When he fled he left his RAF-issue gas mask behind at the scene which as I mention was how he was identified.

Even as the police were working on that lead, he struck again. A prostitute called Catherine Mulcahy (also known as “Kathleen King”) was attacked in her flat located near Paddington Rail Station. She resisted Cummins so effectively that he abandoned his murderous intentions, gave her an extra £5 and left quickly.

On 16th February, the police arrested Gordon Frederick Cummins in the St. John’s Wood district. His fingerprints matched those on the bloody tin opener and a search of his quarters turned up several items that belonged to his victims.

On 27th April, Gordon Cummins was tried for the murder of Evelyn Oatley at the Old Bailey (before Mr Justice Asquith). He was charged with only one murder – presumably so that the authorities could immediately charge him with any of the other 3 homicides in the unlikely event of an acquittal in the Oatley case. The Prosecution was handled by Mr G.B. McClure; Cummins was represented by Mr J. Flowers. The trial lasted only a single day and the jury took a mere 35 minutes to find Cummins guilty of the murder of Evelyn Oatley. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

Yeah we are at another post about the history of the New South Wales Police Force, we will start at 1945 when special constables were introduced to regulate parking in Sydney these officers were called Brown Bombers and later Grey Ghosts due to the colour of their uniforms. At the times the positions were reserved for disabled ex-servicemen.

I remember the Brown Bombers we had around Newcastle when I was a child.

1946 saw the Aviation Unit being formed the planes were fixed-wing ex-military planes, but the unit was disbanded in 1950 only to be reformed in 1979 and is now the Aviation Support Branch and they use helicopters not planes now.

1946 also saw a change in the uniform, with the introduction of the open tunic and tie, this was also the year that the Australian Police Journal was first published for the police under the auspices of various commissioners of police. The following year saw the Stock Squad formed.

The current insignia of the New South Wales Police was adopted way back in 1959, however, it wasn’t displayed on the uniform until 1972. The Latin moto “Culpam poena premit comes” translates as “Punishment swiftly follows crime” this is the moto of the New South Wales Police Force.

The uniform changed again in 1961 when the long-sleeve shirt and tie was adopted without the tunic as the summer uniform.

1962 saw the century of the police force with 6139 members, 5336 policemen and 58 policewomen, there was also 175 police cadets, 5 police trackers, 4 police matrons, 109 special police parking officers, 30 special constables and 422 administration officers.

In 1964 members of the New South Wales Police Force were sent to Cyprus as part of a peace keeping force with the United Nations, members of the force continued in this role till 1974. Later on officers were sent to with the UN to Cambodia, Yugoslavia and East Timor, two members of the NSW while on UN duties have been killed.

The Vietnam war saw many police officers conscripted as part of the National Service, the war and conscription eventually saw the community and the police clash with the anti war movement at the time.

The first female commission officer in the force was in 1972, her name was Beth Hanley it was also this year that saw yet another change in the uniform with the insignia being shown on the shoulder flash of the uniform and the chequered cap being introduced, this still remains the service dress uniform of today.

A bomb blast outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney resulted in the death of one constable and two council employees, this was in 1978 when the regional conference of the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting was being held at the hotel.

The office of the Ombudsman was created in 1979 to oversee the investigation of complaints against the police force., the following year saw the first honorary police chaplains appointed, Father Jim Boland had been acting as an unofficially chaplain since 1972 and was later appointed to the first full time chaplain in 1986, he is now a regional police chaplain.

1980 also saw the first Aboriginal Liaison unit was formed about bloody time for far too long the aboriginal people were considered third class citizens. This lead to the creation of the Aboriginal Community Liaisons officers within the New South Wales Police Force.

In June 1987, the NSW Police Force (which had carriage of operations) and the NSW Police Department (which had carriage of policy and administration) were amalgamated. Today the NSW Police Force has 19,516 employees: 15,633 police officers and 3,883 civilian staff. We operate under the Police Act 1990 and the Police Regulations 2008.

Ok I have bored you all enough for today, so I will end this here.

Do you ever want to go and correct someone’s mistakes in their blog post such as when someone uses the small i instead of the capital I it just bugs the hell out of me. 

I haven’t checked my emails since Wednesday and had like 500 to sort through, I didn’t have the time and good enough internet to check the emails while away so they built up but I have gone through them and now I am writing a post for the day.

We had Leo here last night, we had only been home about an hour when Jessica rang wanting to know if we would have Leo I told her to ask her dad and he said yes if it was ok with me and I said yes if it was ok with him so he stayed last night.

Yesterday evening Tim found the tent he had in the shed and set it up to see what it looked like and how big it was and Leo was so excited about it and wanted to sleep in it last night but we said no that wasn’t happening, however next time we go away in the caravan we might take the tent with us and Leo and his mum can sleep in the tent and we will set it up next to the caravan Leo is so excited about that and wants to know when can we go away again. Papa told him it would be a month or so before we can go away again.

I am still in a lot of pain with my neck and head and the pain relief are making me so bloody tired that I have been having a nap during the day. The headache this morning is terrible again.

Oh yeah Tim told me last night he started work at 9am this morning and I was sitting here checking my emails and notice the time it was 8.55am and said to Tim what time did you say you started work he said 8.57, I replied well it is 8.55 now, bloody hell he says and it was a mad rush to get a shirt and his wallet and rush out to get in the car to go to work, it is a 15 minute drive to work from here so safe to say he was going to be late.

I have no idea what time Jessica will be here to get Leo but it is now 10.30am and no sign of her, I know I will have him tomorrow all day and Thursday all day and I think Friday all day as Jessica will be at Tafe and that is ok, although I think I might see if his Aunty Kathy will come out and watch him Friday morning although I will also have Blain on each day this week as he comes back from his fathers today sometime.