Aussie cops remind us of apartheid days

The massive community of about 150 000 former South Africans living in Australia must be somewhat bemused by the accusations of racism currently being levelled at certain members of the Australian Police. Many of them had after all left the land of their birth to start a new life down under where racism and crime were no longer a significant threat.

Often it was a case of trading financial security for a better quality of life devoid of the dangers that seemingly lurked around every corner back home.

Now the issue of racism is starting to raise its ugly head all over again.

In January, Victorian police were accused of racism by an Indian newspaper following a statement that claimed that there was no evidence to suggest the stabbing murder of a young Punjabi man in Melbourne was motivated by racism. The murder, which remains unsolved, followed rising numbers of robberies and attacks against Indian students in the southern state.

Now it is the turn of the African community to raise concerns about racism after a report claimed that officers of one of the state police forces harassed and beat African youths and taunted them with terms like “monkey”.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland of Victorian police, which has been under fire for its handling of attacks on Indian students, including a murder, said the overwhelming majority of officers were not racist.

The old “overwhelming majority” defence used by so many for so long to justify the actions of a significant number who are somehow — in their minds — hidden by the reference to this mass of right thinkers. Employed unsuccessfully by inter alia English football officials who claimed that the overwhelming majority of supporters were law-abiding citizens while the small minority delivered weekly doses of Armageddon to the rest during the 70s and 80s.

Overland is however a man of grim resolve : “Racist attitudes held by members of Victoria Police, that is not OK. Acting on those racial attitudes is clearly not OK and, where we find it, people can expect that I will deal with them in the strongest possible terms.”

Of course like South Africa during apartheid, where racism flowed unchecked, the official view is that wherever and whenever officialdom come across this evil they will immediately stamp on it and crush it until it is no more. Unfortunately it so happened that the officials were always out or tying their shoes at the crucial moment and somehow missed it.

What bad luck!

A report prepared by a local Australian legal service, which interviewed 30 African youngsters and eight community workers, said some police used offensive terms such as “monkey” and targeted Africans for random searches and questioning. In one case, officers allegedly removed their uniforms so they could beat a group of black men who refused to leave a Melbourne park, it claimed.

This of course made it very difficult for other members of the Australian Police who were with the offending officers at the time, to identify that these were in fact the colleagues that they had arrived with. After all once in mufti the cobbers must have been almost invisible or, if not, at least unrecognisable.

Overland was furious : “If that’s happened, it’s criminal and if we find evidence of that I would expect that officer or those officers to be charged. The vast majority of my staff actually understand that message all too well and in fact not only understand it, they are not racist. They absolutely understand their responsibilities to the community.”

Perhaps instead of Overland the Aussies should have come Oversea because despite 30 African witnesses and 8 social workers none of the other officers involved in these incidents saw a bloody thing mate. Must have been fascinating to hear their accounts :

“We wuz in that park (pronounced “paaaak”) when all of a sudden these wo … er children appeared from nowhere mate. Some of our fellow officers went into a phone booth and we never saw them emerge. Next thing we know there are these unidentifiable almost invisible civvies attacking these poor kids. It all happened so fast we couldn’t do a thing. Must be the worst 90 minutes of my life.”

Of course the director of the Springvale Monash Legal Service which produced the report, Helen Yandell, was unconvinced and said that there was a culture of discrimination within Victoria Police.

“We can’t say it’s a few isolated bad cops when we’re talking about (allegations) three major regions across Melbourne.”

Of course Yandell wasn’t there and it’s easy for her to make these allegations without going through the trauma and extreme difficulty of trying to identify a police colleague who has removed his uniform. Besides there are only 38 witnesses after all.

Overland said police were already working to strengthen their relationships with all multicultural groups, including the African community.

The ties that bind … you to a tree.