Latest news with #lawAndOrder
Telegraph
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The LA riots could destroy Donald Trump's presidency
We're only a few days into the anti-riot crackdowns in Los Angeles by various armed government enforcers and already there are lives at stake. No, not the lives of the hundreds of protestors out on the streets across America's second-largest city, but the political lives – or at least longevity – of some of the highest-profile personalities to emerge during president Trump's second turn in the White House. There's Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, already weakened by her disastrous performance during last year's wildfire chaos and now even more compromised by the optics of incompetence as her city erupts yet again. And, of course, California governor Gavin Newsom, whose unbridled presidential ambitions could take a fatal hit if his state does not return to law and order – and fast. The riots are a test for Kristi Noem, the US secretary of Homeland Security, aka 'ICE Barbie' – who made waves when she toured a Salvadoran mega prison in March sporting a $50,000 Rolex. Her hardline anti-migrant stance has made her a close Trump confidant – but can it stand up to the ire of the masses she helped mobilise by her often cruel migrant deportation sprees? But the most consequential political life at stake here is that of Donald Trump himself – whose ultra-adversarial, bully-like tactics have yet to be tested as they are right now in California. There has never been anything quite like the anti-ICE protests during either of Trump's terms. The Women's Marches and BLM protests of his first administration may have, at times, turned rowdy and chaotic – but their violence was never directed at the White House like it is right now. This moment is different. Very different. For one thing, the conflict in Los Angeles is a direct response to Trump's hardline policies – in this case the illegal migrant crackdown – and are being mounted by those personally impacted, rather than virtue-signalling college kids motivated by 'privilege guilt.' The riots also come after 18 months of anti-Israel protests that have been some of the most violent protests in modern US history. America's radical Left has not only perfected aggressive adversarialism since Hamas' October 7 attacks – it's normalised it. And now it has even further weaponised this disregard for civility on what could be a far larger scale. Back in 2020, the National Guard were deployed to merely help support local law enforcement efforts when the BLM riots turned critical, and the Left was practically apoplectic. This time, the National Guard are Trump's main characters – and the Marines could be the White House's next course of action. This is a level of pushback practically without precedent – risky and uncertain amid an atmosphere of anti-Trumpism whose long-anticipated #resistance has finally materialised. Now unleashed, the California protesters could prove the ultimate – and most unanticipated – foils to a Trump White House whose run of nearly unchallenged luck looks like it is coming to an end. For many illegal migrants facing deportation, the spectre of arrest or even death rivals the potential violence awaiting in their home nations. These are people with literally nothing to lose – and thanks to Joe Biden there are millions of them existing along America's fringes. These are not the college-educated agitators who fuelled BLM in 2020 and 'Save Gaza' more recently – with middle class families and aspirational futures at stake. Fuelled by governor Newsom's surprising anti-Trump resolve – on Sunday he dared Trump's henchmen to arrest him – the protests could very well continue deep into the week, or even weeks; arrests, injuries or even deaths be damned. Trump has staked his legacy and the future of Maga on an uncompromising commitment to his ideals – and an end to illegal migration has been at the top since he branded Mexicans as 'rapists' on the very first day of his very first campaign a decade ago. Now those Mexicans are brandishing their nation's flag as they finally seek retribution. The past weekend's violence was practically inevitable – even if no one clearly saw it coming. With America already up in flames over Gaza – and the left always salivating at the prospect of an even more spectacular intersectional cause célèbre – the mayhem could easily spread beyond California in the coming days. The #resistance has finally arrived and it's far bloodier than anyone could have anticipated. It may still be early in Trump 2.0, but the Los Angeles riots could easily emerge as its most defining moment.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
With a 'direct ear' to the treasurer, have police outranked paramedics as the SA government's top priority?
"Having the direct ear of the treasurer certainly is an advantage for me as a chief executive and it's my job to make sure I exploit that." One day after the South Australian government handed down a budget with law and order as its centrepiece, SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens smiled as he summed up the fortuitous position he finds himself in, just nine months out from the next state election. "It's one of those few occasions where we have a senior cabinet minister as the minister for police," he told reporters. "I'm grateful for that level of focus that the government is putting on law and order and policing in South Australia." Mr Stevens was referring to Stephen Mullighan — a long-serving Labor cabinet minister who happens to not only be police minister, but treasurer too. Having a cabinet boss who is also in charge of government spending gives Mr Stevens a unique opportunity to wield influence, and the latest state budget could be seen as a case in point. Hundreds of millions of dollars for more police officers, firearms and infrastructure formed part of what Mr Mullighan described as "the largest boost to police funding in the state's history". As ABC News previously noted, there was no mistaking the budget message the government was trying to send, with photos of police officers splashed across the budget papers and projected onto screens around the budget lock-up room. But turn the clock back three years, and the government was keen to spruik a different kind of frontline worker, whose presence was keenly felt at the last state election, and whose absence from the latest budget front-page raises questions about the government's priorities going forward. "Labor will fix the ramping crisis." It was an election mandate that brought the party to government in March 2022, and which has since become an annoying itch for MPs forced to defend the government's progress. When the Malinauskas government handed down its first budget in June 2022, a photo of a nurse, paramedic and doctor graced the front-page — a nod to the $2.4 billion in health spending budgeted that year. But in 2025, ramping remains high. Ambulances spent 3,700 hours waiting outside emergency departments in April, a decrease on the month before but still much higher than the worst month under the previous government. Despite the government's latest budget tipping an additional $1.9 billion into the health system over the next five years — $1.7 billion of which is just to address increasing demand — health unions were not too pleased. "This budget is strong on crime but soft on health," Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation CEO Elizabeth Dabars said. "We know that they've put additional investment into health, but the reality is that the demands in the system on nurses and midwives are far too great to endure." Paramedics were equally scathing. "It is inconceivable that we are nine months out from the next election, and the government that promised our community that it would fix the ramping crisis, has not budgeted for any additional ambulance resourcing, or to address ramping and response times," Ambulance Employees Association general secretary Paul Ekkelboom said. "The best this government can do is reframe the narrative away from ramping, and abandon on its commitments to the people of South Australia." But Premier Peter Malinauskas said health remained one of the government's top priorities, and budgeted spending on health eclipsed spending on police. "Let's take nurses for instance: We committed at the last election that we would employ an extra 300 nurses. We've smashed those numbers out of the park by the tune of many, many hundreds," he told ABC News Stateline. "Similarly with doctors, we said we'd employ an extra 100 doctors into our system over the life of our time in government. Last year alone, we increased it by over 300 over and above attrition." When questioned on his progress on "fixing the ramping crisis", Mr Malinauskas pointed to ambulance response times. "They're rolling up to triple-0 calls on time and that is the difference between life and death," he said. "We have made inroads (in fixing the ramping crisis), notwithstanding the fact that clearly, we still would like to see ramping improve. "As those new beds come online that we've invested in so heavily and quite dramatically — and there are hundreds coming online over the next couple of years — we hope it improves." So, if health is still a priority for the government, what has prompted it to deliver a budget so heavily focused on law and order — especially when overall crime rates have dropped across the state? According to Mr Malinauskas, SA Police has a "genuine need" for more resources. "They've seen demand grow not in crime in the traditional sense and how we might think of it, but more through the burden of increasing demands around domestic violence responses … also with call-outs to mental health cases," he said. "We've seen that demand grow and we've also got a growing population. "We haven't had that big uplift in police numbers in our state now for quite a long period of time." "Tough on crime" policies are considered politically popular, but Mr Malinauskas denied crime would become an election focus for his government. "I'd much rather have elections focused on other matters — education for instance, rather than crime — but that doesn't mean there isn't a need that we have a responsibility to address." But that is also the case for the health system, which continues to struggle through ambulance ramping and bed block. Without a "direct ear" to the treasurer, it is yet to be seen whether doctors, nurses and paramedics will receive the same level of attention from Labor in the months leading up to March 2026, as they did ahead of the last state election.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Why law and order has become the focus of the 2025 state budget
If you asked South Australians what they'd like to see in this year's state budget, it's likely their answer would touch on housing or cost-of-living relief. Both have been persistent issues over recent years and, despite taking centre stage in prior budgets, affordability is still a widespread problem in SA. The cost of housing — for both renters and buyers — continues to soar. But the key theme of this year's budget, to be handed down by Treasurer Stephen Mullighan on Thursday, is shaping up quite differently. For what will be Labor's last budget before next year's state election, Mr Mullighan will shift the focus to law and order. The government's change in priorities hasn't happened overnight. Over recent months, moves have been underway to elevate issues involving police and the broader legal system. In December, police in SA won their biggest pay rise in 30 years — with salaries increasing up to 17.9 per cent within a single year. The following month, Premier Peter Malinauskas tapped Mr Mullighan, one of his most senior ministers, to add the police portfolio to his responsibilities. Mr Malinauskas set the scene for budget week on Monday, spending the night with workers at the police communications centre. Pre-budget announcements this week have included $6.8 million for new police firearms, and the same amount for high-tech security scanners at prisons. Then on Wednesday, Mr Malinauskas and Mr Mullighan stood alongside Police Commissioner Grant Stevens to announce $17.8 million to double the number of motorcycle officers. With polling day now less than 10 months away, the budget will give a glimpse into the government's direction as it enters campaign mode. As the Premier is keen to stress, ensuring community safety is a key responsibility of government. It's also played a major role in deciding political fortunes interstate. Reducing youth crime rates, including with an "adult crime adult time" policy, was an integral part of the LNP's campaign in the lead-up to the Queensland election last year. Youth crime has been an issue in Victoria too, where the government came under significant pressure to tighten youth bail laws. The NT government last year lowered the age of criminal responsibility in the Territory from 12 to 10 — reversing a move of the previous Labor government. Crime has not been the political liability in South Australia that it has elsewhere — and Mr Stevens has denied that there is a "youth crime crisis" in this state. But issues of community safety, including youth crime in Port Augusta, have generated publicity and fed into repeated opposition claims that there is a crisis. It is one area that has the potential to become a vulnerability for the government in the lead-up to the election — and a problem they'd rather get ahead of. A law and order budget will be well-received by sections of the community who believe there's a crime problem in SA. But the government must be careful not to leave the impression that it has moved on from issues of housing, cost-of-living and health before they have been fixed. A recent "Wicked Problems Report" from Flinders University surveyed more than 30,000 Australians to determine the issues that matter most to them. Cost-of-living topped the list of concerns for South Australians, followed by housing unaffordability. A lower number, 27 per cent, listed crime and safety as one of their major concerns. Such diversity of views makes selling a budget a tricky exercise — even for a popular government. The state government will be keen on Thursday to draw attention to funding commitments and "sweetener" measures that will help household bottom lines. But budgets are largely made up of existing funding commitments, which don't win the government any new brownie points. In recent years, Labor has poured billions of dollars of extra funding into the state's health system. The budget must also cover the $3.2 billion new Women's and Children's Hospital and SA's 50/50 share of the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington Project — the two biggest infrastructure projects in the state's history. The Whyalla rescue package and drought assistance measures are unforeseen costs that will also need to be factored in. To do all this, the government has needed to take on more debt — and convince the taxpayer that it's all for good reason. When then-treasurer Tom Koutsantonis described his 2017 budget as "very sexy" and "walking down the street with a red dress on", he set up a challenge for his successors. Rob Lucas, the next to hold the job, described one of his budgets as wearing overalls and a high-vis vest, while another was in a business suit and sensible shoes. This year's state budget looks as though it will arrive in a blue police uniform. It may not be as seductive as the red dress, but the government will be hoping it does just as good a job at wooing voters in 2026.
