Having dealings with police in the absolute worst time in my life l already had the answer.

Dedicated, loyal, strong, comforting and reassuring people, that’s who.

Having only one bad experience with a particular officer just proves there are always some in every career who let the team down.

On the whole we need to thank our boys in blue for keeping order under the worst circumstances and I can't thank them enough for the way they supported our family back in 2001.

To see them treated like this by people who have probably been brought up by the behaviour in the article underlines the absolute need for youth support.

As is their calling, and inspector Darren Cloak’s attitude in “Kiddies set free sees rise in crime” on page 3 of same paper, reassures me we are in safe hands and moving in the right direction.

Thank you, you are appreciated and probably don't get thanked enough.

I am writing to you after hearing a rumour that coal seam gas (CSG) company reps have been in the Riverina after attempting to sign up farmers to allow CSG mining on their properties.

I would advise any farmer that has been approached to send these ‘snake oil’ salesmen packing for the following reasons:

1. They will tell you anything to get their company on your property. One Queensland farmer “sucked in” by these people stated that: “You can tell they are lying when their lips move”, and another said that “they only tell you what they think you need to know”.

Under no circumstances allow them on to your property, even to drill an exploratory well.

As with cockroaches, rabbits and European carp, they are almost impossible to remove once established.

2. Your farm and those of your neighbours will become almost worthless and unsaleable when mining commences.

No one wishes to buy a property that is being mined!

3. Anthony Klan, writing in The Australian of 14/1/12, says: “Coal seam gas waste water is typically salty - It can kill fauna and contaminate soil - and can contain a large range of chemicals, some that cause cancer”.

Mr Klan was reporting on the 10,000 litre spill in the Pilliga Scrub, which Santos were convicted and fined for.

Prosecutor Stephen Rushton said that the water was half as salty as seawater and had killed 70 per cent of the trees and some animals in the infected area. Do you want the risk of this happening on your farm?

4. The Queensland Water Commission said that up to 613 wells could run dry due to CSG mining in that state. In fact, two wells went dry on George Bender’s cotton farm due to CSG mining nearby, and Linc Energy didn’t reimburse him.

George committed suicide last October due to Origin Energy hounding to let them put 15 CSG wells on his other property. Once you let these parasites onto your property, you lose control of it.

5. The National Water Commission stated that CSG mining risks have “significant long term adverse impacts” on water resources, including depressurisation and contamination of water.

Doctors in Australia have identified that the release of volatile organic compounds from CSG mining has been associated with rashes, nausea and seizures in children, especially families from Tara in Queensland.

A large study in rural Colorado showed an increase in heart defects in babies whose mothers lived within 10 miles of a gas well. Why risk your family’s health by mining CSG?

6. Once you have CSG, you will lose valuable farm land due to wells, roads, pipes, and processing centres. You will also have to cope with search lights, noisy trucks servicing wells, snooping security personnel, and more noise.

And don’t expect any support from politicians. Our major political parties have been given hundreds of thousands in political donations and other “goodies” by the CSG industry to keep them onside.

One would have to be mad to willingly sign up to have CSG or coal mining on or anywhere close to their properties. Don’t be sucked in.