The nearly impossible job of picking up when the peculiar become pathological

The politician who polarised voters was out for his morning holiday walk, maintaining a brisk pace, acknowledging the many who recognised him with his trademark booming voice advising them to, “stay well”.

It was Port Douglas, and the man striding along Four Mile Beach heading to busy Macrossan Street for a morning coffee was Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.

Kennett was relaxed enough not to feel the need to have a security contingent with him.

Ted Baillieu was a different style premier, but he also didn’t need protection during his regular swims at Glenferrie pool.

Fellow swimmers respected his privacy and wouldn’t intrude with political questions.

After former prime minister John Howard delivered the keynote speech at an innovation conference in the Hunter Valley he was happy to jump on the bus, grabbing any seat with his fellow guests to head back to the accommodation.

That was all in the age of civil political debate – now replaced by mindless vitriol.

Today political signs are defaced, open town hall meetings are too dangerous and electoral offices are vandalised. The heat brings fire, so much so that the director of ASIO, Mike Burgess, is calling for the temperature to be dialled back.

Indi MP Helen Haines was old school – respected on all sides, there to help constituents, not just those who voted for her. Perhaps because she isn’t a career politician she doesn’t think parliamentary debates are bare-knuckle blame games where shouting beats listening.

On August 25, she was at a special service at the Wangaratta Police Station opening a memorial garden to Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart, who were gunned down at Porepunkah a year earlier.

Chief Commissioner Mike Bush made special mention at a press conference on Wednesday of the “very strong and visible support” Haines had been for local police and the community following the incident.

The offender in that case, Desmond Freeman, was on March 30 shot dead by Special Operations Group police after being on the run for eight months.

Freeman, a sovereign citizen, was protected by a ragtag group of associates and conspiracy theorists who saw him as a victim. He was a paedophile.

At the memorial service Haines, nurse and medical researcher turned politician, sat silently in support, representing her community. She could not know that within two months she too would become the victim of irrational, unprovoked violence.

This week she was back in her local office, four minutes by car from the police station, supporting the community.

When she returned to her Murphy Street office from an event in Mansfield, police allege Brendan Nugent performed a U-turn in his Toyota LandCruiser and deliberately rammed her multiple times leaving her with critical injuries.

Wangaratta of all places. It has always been known as a plum job in policing, with a low crime rate, caring community and relaxed lifestyle. I’ve known five hard-nosed city detectives who transferred there over the years. All stayed in the district after retirement. Two have had their funerals there.

My father was stationed there back in the 1950s and in that time caught more fish than crooks.

One of the locals who brought down the alleged offender, barber Ricky Jefferies reflected, “This is a beautiful town with beautiful people, and it’s sad that this is what has brought all the people here.”

Nugent was politically active and passionate. What drew him to Murphy Street on Monday, and his previous interaction with Haines, are now central to the police investigation.

Detectives will check his phone, internet records, medical history and interview friends and family. They will look at social connections between the alleged offender’s family and the victim. Crash investigators will reconstruct the movements of the LandCruiser, calibrate the driver’s mobile phone, discover if it had been parked nearby and establish how many times Haines was hit.

The irony here is while those in authority are calling for a return to civilised debate there are those using the attack on Haines as a bludgeon to go after perceived enemies. Others are enthusiastically embracing conspiracy theories, which is one of the reasons we are in this mess in the first place.

This is not about a political point of view, but how a decent person trying to make her world a better place has suffered life-altering injuries. It is about why some people need to cut others down – either physically or verbally.

The various authorities have made it clear this was an attack by one alleged offender. These are the hardest type to anticipate because there are no co-conspirators or internet chatter to intercept.

Which is why, in 2018, police established the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre to deal with those obsessed with public figures or institutions.

The technical term is “one actor grievance-fuelled violence” or (LAGFV).

There are those who blame an individual – usually someone in public office, such as a politician or judge – for their problems. Others hate institutions, such as the police, courts, a company or an industry.

Then there are celebrity stalkers.

The aim of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre is to get ahead of the game – by identifying the obsessed with the potential to become violent.

The plan is to use doctors, forensic medical experts and police to make sure the fixated can be helped before there is a crime.

The team checks in with “clients” regularly to try and maintain a relationship.

Hundreds of cases are referred by local police, friends and family but only around 30 per cent are accepted.

At any one time, the centre deals with about 50 cases, each with its own dedicated detective, mental health expert and analyst. Since 2018, it has taken on about 350 individuals. The key is they can offer a helping hand, but there are offenders who refuse to take it.

It is labour-intensive, but in reality it is like trying to stop a river with a tea-strainer. Who can tell with accuracy when the peculiar become pathological?

Who could tell that Freeman would turn from a pain in the neck with crazy ideas to police double killer?

Who could anticipate that in January 2017, James Gargasoulas would turn left on Swanston Street into Bourke Street to mow down pedestrians, killing six and wounding 26?

Every police district has them. Offenders who are not rational, that blame the system: the ones who believe they are the victim of a giant conspiracy. Most times they can be talked around. Sometimes they can’t.

The terrorist and the violent fixated offender have one thing in common – hatred. Their desire to harm overwhelms their desire to survive. When Freeman shot three police, killing two, there were only two possible outcomes. He would spend his life in jail or die violently.