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Face coverings

Posted by: Michael Smith | 15 January, 2009 - 9:50 AM

I was pretty surprised to read this article in The Courier Mail this morning - link

The article doesn't quite quote me correctly so I thought I'd set out my thoughts in my blog today.

I joined the Victoria Police in early 1986. The Victoria Police Academy building is a huge old monastery – it has a beautiful church with a huge domed ceiling in it. In my first few weeks there a beautiful young girl, Constable Angela Taylor was brought into the chapel in a coffin. She'd succumbed to terrible wounds she'd received when vicious armed robbers blew up a car bomb outside the Russell Street police headquarters. I went on to win the Angela Taylor Memorial Prize as dux of my graduation squads at the academy.

Later in my career I was involved in transporting Stan Taylor, Peter Reed and the Minogue brothers to the Melbourne Magistrates' Court from HM Prison Pentridge for their committal on charges of murdering Angela, and trying to blow up the police communications branch D24.

I sat in the dock with the prisoners for a few weeks. I heard the evidence in the committal, that the car-bomb was detonated to take out the busy police communications branch on an Easter Thursday afternoon. The blast was designed to stymie the police response as those criminals conducted a spree of armed robberies on banks that afternoon.

Armed robberies were a fairly common occurrence at that time and there were a number of vicious gangs of criminals operating in Melbourne. Getting a call over the radio to attend a bank in response to a hold-up alarm was not uncommon and most of my mates and I received calls like that. We spoke to bank tellers and other people who had stared down the barrel of a sawn-off shottie and had seen the eyes of a criminal with a hood or ballie (balaclava) over their face.

I was in the job when the vicious armed robber Graeme Jensen was shot and killed by the armed robbery squad. The next night on October 12 1988 two young blokes I knew Constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre were shot and killed by a gang of vicious criminals. The murder of Steve and Damian was believed to be a payback for police killing the armed robber Graeme Jensen the night before. Steve and Damian were on night shift, Prahran 311 was their divvie van's call sign. They were called to an innocuous job, a “suspect vehicle” in Walsh Street Prahran. Criminals were lying in wait and they shot and killed my two copper mates, finishing one of them off with his own revolver.

Armed robbers Gary Abdallah and Jedd Houghton were later shot and killed by police and other armed robbers were tried in relation to the murder of my two police friends.

One common thread of this life experience of mine is people going into banks with their faces disguised. Imagine you are a bank teller who has experienced this – a group of people walk into the bank, long coats on, ballied up – out of the long coat a sawn-off shottie is produced and you're staring into a ¾ inch ugly looking barrel. You look up and you're staring into two beady eyes with the crook's face hidden behind a ballie.

My point yesterday is that it's experiences like that that have led to Australians being asked to remove their motorbike helmets in banks. It just makes us all feel a lot better. It's offensive not to remove your motorbike helmet and fair enough too. It would be very offensive to go into a bank ballied-up or in a rubber mask. Tellers would quite rightly go off.

So I can't understand why it's OK to go into a bank with a full-on hijab.

That's all. Nothing about the muslim faith. Just don't wear a hijab in places – like a bank – where covering your face is likely to cause offence.

And have a look at these stories from around the world about various criminals using the hijab to hide their identities in crime.

link 1 - link 2

Blog comments

come on people!before you go on and on about these women not showing their faces at passport control...have you actually witnesses that? i remember being in a que at the airport, the covered women were taken behind the curtain were their id was checked. even in shopping centres i have seen women who wear the full covering lowering this piece of cloth down - and as soon as they out of the shop they put it on. you make it sound like they trying to hide themselves for crimal reasons. they are not- it has a spiritual meaning for them.

bypassers Sunday 1 February, 2009 - 7:56 PM
Yes, the full face covering in a bank goes against modern security standards... BUT these are women and from reading the posts of other people it only confirms my suspicion that there are a lot of people who have lost the plot since 911. Australia's jails are not full of hijab wearing muslim women. Australia's pubs aren't full of hijab-wearing muslim women. If you're concerned about your safety, you've got more to worry about from your teenage binge drinker and boistrous blokes' blokes than any muslim women. Check the statistics on violent offenders in Australia. Still too much xenophobia in QLD, I suspect because of fundamental intolerance. It's really unAustralian to not give these women a fair go. Bag them for their subservience (that's fair), but you've got nothing to fear from them (that's just political).

Wassim Friday 23 January, 2009 - 11:17 AM
Keep up the good work I am behind you 100%. These people came here because they were oppressed in their home land. Now they want us to fit in with their customs when they knew on arrival we had our own.

Dave Friday 23 January, 2009 - 8:43 AM
To: Ugly Mongrel Thursday 15 January, 2009 - 11:10 PM

Gee you remind me of someone.

Can't put my finger on it but I think they have a position in the Queensland Government. Think the name starts with a..., no hang on, st... - nuh! sorry can't quite get it yet but I'll keep trying.

Dee Wednesday 21 January, 2009 - 1:38 PM
This is a tough situation... you can either demand that people who proceed into public in disguise, change *their* attitudes to adapt to *our* society and values - and risk labeling everyone wearing such an item as a potential bank-robber, or allow people to go their own way under the restrictions that their chosen religion demands.
If Australia were a Muslim nation, I could understand the greater public bowing to the demands of the religion - but it is not, and if any consolation should be made, it should be made by those who seemingly refuse to accept that we are a society based on Christian values.
I don't go to Iraq or Palestine or Iran or Saudi and say that since I am not one of them, it is OK to associate with a woman to whom I am not married. No - I obey their laws and their customs. Failure to do so here is not "racism" or "intolerance" on my part - it is pure arrogance on the part of the person that expects Australia to change to suit THEM. The attitude is rude and ignorant and, personally, I will not tolerate it because I don't have to.

Morgan Tuesday 20 January, 2009 - 5:37 PM
I worked in a retail environment for many years and had a few unpleasant experiences, including one where I feared for my life.

Michael Smith has my full support in his opinion that people should not cover their faces in locations where it might cause distress to ANYONE.

It has nothing to do with racism ... it's plain common sense.

PS: Michael NEVER suggested fines for Muslim women. That was a fabrication of the print media.

Don1 Tuesday 20 January, 2009 - 10:39 AM