Any book that blows the lid on corruption in government will be criticized.
That goes with the turf.
A book the scale of Victoria Police Corruption - over 700 pages and one that has since been shown to have been the final nail in the coffin of the corrupt Kennett government in Victoria that ran from 1992-1999 must surely come in for a heap of criticism.
As it happens, this is accurately forecast in the pages of the book and yes, the script has been followed to the letter.
No, the author, Raymond Hoser is not a psychic, but yes, he does know enough about corruption and corrupt and dishonest people to know how they react to the truth about them being made generally known.
And yes, as was predicted and as it turns out, near enough all the criticism of the book completely lacks merit.
To date the most detailed critique of the book is that published by Judge Geoff Eames in late 2001.
That his critique is a collection of lies, distortions and baseless conspiracy theories is now well-known and is not worth repeating here. Not one single alleged fault (by Eames) actually stood up to even the most cursory of scrutiny, which in itself says a lot about his own suitability as a "judge".
However there is a decent critique of his own misjudgement on the web at:
http://www.smuggled.com/EamesJC1.htm
for anyone interested in the detail.
Anyway, there is one criticism of the Victoria Police Corruption book that may have had some merit, and to that extent it is worth addressing.
Yes, worthy and constructive criticism is always welcome.
This worthy comment or criticism is the lack of a names index in the front or back of the book.
This lack of a names index follows on from advice by Bob Bottom another well-known and respected corruption author who recommended against putting such in corruption books as they merely serve to make it easier for lawyers to find the names of themselves and/or their clients in the books and then only read those parts before issuing writs.
However, with all Hoser books now available on CD-rom and texts readily searchable in their native word for windows files, the salient fact to emerge from all this is that the likes of lawyers and judges who want to take a swipe at Hoser books, are so confident of their own lies and the fact that Hoser's books are in fact accurate, that they don't even bother to check their own claims against what is actually written in the books.
Bizarre, yet proven true, time and time again.
Perhaps the best example of this is via Labor Lawyer turned judge, Geoffrey Michael Eames and his dodgy judgement that indicates that:
A/ He has or had no knowledge of the book/s and/or their contents and
B/ He failed to even search the texts of the books to either confirm or deny the veracity of the fanciful claims he put in his written judgement, before he rushed to print.
What all this goes to show, is that the initial advice of Bob Bottom, while being made in good faith and intention actually grossly overestimates the intelligence and integrity of those who may criticize or make claims against Hoser corruption books.
Therefore and to coincide with a planned reprint of Victoria Police Corruption, (yes we don't have many left at the moment), the whole book has been indexed for the names of people within the book, as well as an indication as to whether or not they are adversely named.
This index is now placed on the internet at:
http://www.smuggled.com/VPCNI.htm
and is also on the newest CD-versions of Hoser books CD-roms that are shifted. On these they are also as a MS Word file.
The recent comment on Indymedia that it reads like a phone book of corrupt coppers in Victoria and elsewhere does appear to be true when one reads the list.
However there are few other points worth mentioning.
The list is far from complete in terms of listing corrupt police in Victoria. Furthermore, not all people named on the list are police. As a complete listing of names, the list also includes, judges, magistrates, common criminals, politicians and even ordinary people accidentally caught up in the networks of corruption.
Furthermore, some people receive both adverse and benign or good mentions in the same book. Yes, it's all been written as fact and without fear or favor.
The book Victoria Police Corruption - 2 will in due course also be indexed for names, although this may take many months from now, as the job averages about an hour per ten pages of book, with this time frame depending on how many names per page. This book, of 800 pages has a huge list of corrupt police, judges, magistrates and the like within it's pages, (of similar size to that of Victoria Police Corruption).
The names index for The Hoser Files is already in the book itself, online and on CD's with the book.
Smuggled and Smuggled-2 will also have their names indexes produced and made available in due course, although this may also take some time.

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