The NSW Police Minister, David Campbell, and two of his staff spent $40,000 on a 12-day, five-star, surf-and-turf romp across the United States, splashing out on steakhouses in Hollywood and oyster bars in New York. 

Their official engagements included briefings by the New York Police Department on Tasers, gangs, terrorism, identity theft and radicalisation; meetings with the FBI in Washington; and a visit to the Davis Training Facility in California. 

But there was free time, too, including a weekend in New York. On Sunday, February 3 - also Super Bowl day in Arizona - one of the party visited the Museum of Modern Art and charged his bruschetta and coffee to taxpayers.

That evening they dined not far from the hotel at Ben Benson's Steak House, which was described by the magazine New York as an eatery that has "long fed hordes of hungry, beef-eating businessmen and the people who love them". 

Mr Campbell said he travelled to the US to visit front-line police and see "cutting edge crime fighting tactics" first hand. 

Surf & Turf Police Jaunt Costs $40,000 

“cutting edge crime fighting tactics” eh? 

But why bother going all the way to the US when one of his own elite units was bunging-on a highly sophisticated display just down the road …. for free …..? 

Counter-terrorism police yesterday raided the homes of two Sydney men with allegedly extremist Islamic views to "send a message" they were being closely watched and dissuade them from any plans to engage in a terrorist act. 

Documents and computers were seized from the homes in Glebe and Riverwood in the pre-dawn raids by NSW and federal police, part of a joint operation targeting two men who have been monitored by authorities for several years. 

"These are a couple of blokes who may have been thinking about doing something," one source said. "We wanted to satisfy ourselves that nothing is going to happen. We also wanted to send a bit of a message to them." 

Terrorism Raid 'Message' 

“may have been thinking about doing something” ….. mmmmmnnn …. 

Campbell’s ‘crime stoppers’ have certainly been busy protecting our ‘way of life’ …. 

The decision by a Sydney library to dump an exhibition about Palestinian refugees after a visit by counter-terrorism police the night before it opened has been criticised as an act of censorship. 

Leichhardt municipal library was to launch the Al-Nakba pictorial exhibition last Friday. A local community group, Friends of Hebron, had developed the display of photos, poems and articles over eight months. 

"We set up the exhibition at the library on Thursday night and the librarian … approved the exhibition, and said that it could be seen by children and other people who into the library," said Carole Lawson, a Friends of Hebron member. 

But that night, shortly before the library closed at 8pm, officers from the police counter-terrorism operations arrived at the library. 

A police spokesman said the officers were from the operations' community contact unit and had come only to "say hi" to Friends of Hebron members. "They went to introduce themselves just to let them know who they are and what they are about. [Speaking with community groups] is part of their charter," he said. "When they got there the librarian was the only one there … they just had a quick chat to the librarian." 

But Ms Lawson said: "They wanted to put the fear of god into the library staff and wanted the staff to feel threatened." 

just gotta luuv those “community relations” visits ….. 

Exhibition Axed After Police Visit 

meanwhile, other elements of Mr Campbell’s crime-fighting machine were also busy making sure that “nothing was going to happen” …. 

A senior constable says he took a breath test on behalf of a teenager with a blood-alcohol reading of .2 per cent because he felt sorry for him, not because he was the son of a police officer who worked at his station. 

Mark Christie, from Orange, told the Police Integrity Commission that he carefully turned his back to a CCTV camera and blew into a breath analysis machine to protect Adam Clunes, 19, from a drink-driving charge. 

Constable Kate Lancer arrested Mr Clunes at a roadside breathalyser and took him to the station for the second test. She knew the teenager, she had worked with his father and knew of his father's displeasure about the earlier tickets. She contacted Senior Constable Clunes about the arrest. 

When asked whether Senior Constable Clunes told her "we have got to do something, Katie, he will lose his licence", she said yes, although did not know what he meant.  

Senior Constable Clunes denied protecting his son, saying he simply told a colleague to "do what you've got to do". It did cross his mind that a colleague may have taken the test at the station on his son's behalf. 

gives new meaning to the term “crime fighting capers” …..