The great world powers would learn from local criminal groups about how to deal with brutally enforced occupation of land by gun-laden heavies and the subtle and sometimes savage negotiations and killings needed to move that group out and replace them with muscled-up rightful owners of the turf.

Kings Cross is now called Little Lebanon. It wasn't too long ago that it was under Jewish control by Abe Saffron, using independent local private security firms led by Lenny McPherson - the Australian equivalent of the US's Blackwater.

They ruled by means cruel but fair. Like all empires, it fell when those working under its umbrella worked out that they could do a better job, make more money and take the land back to its more traditional owners, in this case the Lebanese.

Louis Bayeh started as a bouncer for Saffron along Darlinghurst Road, the strip of strip clubs from Porkies to The Pink Pussycat.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/in-the-cross-fire-20100320-qn4m.html