OFF THE WIRE
Michael Duffy
smh.com.au
"Present laws can only put away an occasional blue-collar organised criminal" ... Evan Whitton. Photo: Jim Rice.
A VETERAN crime fighter is saddling up for one last campaign. Evan Whitton, an expert on the history of organised crime in Australia, wants the state government to introduce an American law that has had a devastating effect on organised criminals in the US but sits uneasily with our legal system.
Since its introduction in America in 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, or RICO, has put away dozens of senior Mafia figures and corrupt public officials, including judges.
Mr Whitton, pictured, has sent a proposal to the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, and two ministers who had supported RICO-type laws, the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, and Police Minister, Mike Gallacher.
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''As you know, ministerial life is relatively brief,'' he wrote. ''RICO offers a chance to leave a legacy to the community and to taxpayers who fund the legal system.'' RICO allows someone in a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two of a large number of specified crimes within 10 years to be convicted of being an organised criminal and given a long jail sentence. So the bosses of groups such as the Mafia and outlaw motorcycle gangs can be jailed even if they distance themselves from the crimes their organisations commit.
''Present laws can only put away an occasional low-level blue collar organised criminal,'' Mr Whitton, an award-winning former Sun-Herald journalist and author (Can of Worms, Our Corrupt Legal System), said.
RICO places far more weight on patterns of activity than does other criminal law. It also allows an individual affected by that activity to file a civil suit.
With RICO's help, said G. Robert Blakey, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, Indiana, who drafted the legislation, the Mafia in America has been reduced from 22 major families and 5000 ''made'' members to just three families and 1500 members. And four major unions that were dominated by the mob for decades are now largely clean.
In 1984 the Costigan royal commission recommended the introduction of RICO legislation to Australia. Since then the NSW Police and various politicians including Reverend Fred Nile have added their voices to the call; for a while it was an official policy of the NSW Liberal Party.
''The law has been very successful in America. In the war against organised crime, it's a very effective weapon,'' Reverend Nile said.
In March a version of RICO became state Labor Party policy, with the then premier, Kristina Keneally, saying: ''Under RICO laws, organised crime members will face serious sentences when convicted of two or more organised crime related offences, even if they are of a less serious nature.''
But the NSW Coalition is not racing to introduce the laws now it is in government.
Mr Smith said the focus was on fixing the state's ''anti-bikie'' legislation that was recently knocked down by the High Court.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/push-for-law-to-blow-organised-crime-apart-20110709-1h7q6.html#ixzz1RieeO3Ac
