The Brumby government has a big problem – it has a Police Force which is incompetent, corrupt and which is jackbooted in its approach to law enforcement.

Christine Nixon, Victoria’s media celebrity top cop, has made a fool of herself and that advice she is getting by claiming that she is looking at making the parents of punk Narre Warren teenager Corey Delaney pay for the over the top police reaction to his wild Saturday night party in suburban Narree Warren.

Not only is it highly unlikely as a matter of law that Ms Nixon’s idea has any merit –remember the police are paid by taxpayers to break up drunken parties, that’s their job – but Ms Nixon should be looking at the behaviour of her own officers at Corey’s party.

Apparently, according to media reports, when some of the 500 party-goers at Corey’s soiree began throwing bottles at police cars and vandalising the street, the dog squad and a police helicopter were deployed.

Police helicopters are generally used tor track down rampant gunmen, not to break up a bunch of wild teenagers. And what if one of the Police’s snarling mutts had mauled an innocent bystander – would Ms Nixon be officering compensation? I doubt it.

Unfortunately this over reaction by Australia’s most abject failure of a Police Force (with the exception of the WA outfit which notoriously frames innocent people), was the second of 2008.

Last night the bovver boys of the Victoria Police were at it again. This time they decided that a contingent of Greek tennis fans needed to be calmed down with a bit of good old Bjelke-Petersen style era Queensland policing by using capsicum spray. Yep, that’s right, capsicum spray to control unruly tennis fans!

What is disturbing about the tennis incident is that the Victoria Police thinks its fine. “Our members have acted with restraint,” Superintendent John Cooke said. Well we will see about that. Those fans affected by the thuggery of the Police officers involved at the tennis last night should be consulting their lawyers about a civil action right now.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have turmoil in the top ranks of Christine Nixon’s kitchen cabinet. The vaulting ambitions of the media friendly Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland are unresolved, the Police Association is in disgrace, and there is likely to be more fallout from the Office of Police Integrity’s hearings into the behaviour of the former Police media director, Stephen Linnell, Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby and Police Association secretary Paul Mullett.

Victoria’s Police Force is quite simply out of control. The reaction to Corey Delaney’s party and the crude restraint of tennis fans at the Australian Open last at the Australian Open last night are manifestations of that state of affairs. Yes, we expect our police force to control unruly conduct, but they must do it with due respect for people’s fundamental rights. The Victoria Police doesn’t get this.