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Who protects from protectors?

Who protects from protectors?

Street violence scaring young children in their own homes should have no place in our cities. But who protects us when the police are perpetrating the violence? Here’s an eyewitness account which throws up questions about where our society is headed.

Who protects us from the protectors?

What do you do when your little girl, just 9, runs to you in your own house and says she’s scared because of the noise the police are making?

You look outside and see street violence, harsh and loud, at 1 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon in the western suburbs of Perth. But, after a moment, you realize that it’s the police who are the ones being violent, engaged in behaviour completely excessive to the situation that’s there, right in front of your eyes.

The police had apparently pulled over a speeding driver. During the licence check, it seems they found it was an unlicensed vehicle, so they took the two young men out of the car and handcuffed both, then separated them and began yelling and harassing them until back-up arrived.

Inside 5 minutes, there were 8 police officers in 4 vehicles. They pushed the men around whilst asking questions and threw one "suspect’s" hat and glasses on the floor while proclaiming "I wanna see your face, mate!"

To take the driver into custody, three officers picked him up and carried him face down to the back of the vehicle, then literally threw him in to the back of the divi van.

After letting him cool off for a bit, one of the officers, a notably younger man, went back into the van and yelled at the man: "You cu**, this is what you get for fuckin with me.  Bet you wish you had cooperated now"…then shut the door.

I watched for a total of nearly 3 hours, during which this type of behaviour happened repeatedly to the man in the back of the divi van, who at one stage was kicking the van and demanding they loosen the cuffs (he had protested that the cuffs were too tight right from the beginning).  This led to more threats of violence and further charges.

The passenger was forced to walk from where the arrest had taken place. When he asked for the police officers’ names, he was told that if he didn’t "fuck off" he would be arrested for obstruction. Lucky we don’t have those Melbourne swearing fines in Perth, or the police would be broke.

Both men were treated without dignity or respect in any way from the moment they were pulled over to when, after hours of deliberation and rifling through the car, they released the passenger and formally arrested the driver.  

Now, I recognize and acknowledge the driver’s probable fault, or faults. However, I am appalled that the police act so brutishly.  It gravely concerns me that, with the massive increase in policing power (with no positive results attributable to the increase that I’m aware of), that all we have done is create an acceptance of police bullying.

We are all apparently susceptible to manhandling and violent discriminatory behavior at the whim of bored, or aggressive or violent police officers.  On this occasion, it was a degrading and totally unnecessary use of power and stand-over tactics: the police acted more like gangsters than people paid to represent you and me, the public, and having sworn to obey the law themselves that they enforce.

Unfortunately, what happened on this occasion is not unusual.

One of the ‘joys’ of living next to a major road is that similar incidents, good or bad, happen out the front of my house where many people are pulled over and charged with many driving offences. I have seen the aggressive behaviour of police increase dramatically over the past 5-6 years.

I don’t want this to happen to me or to those I care about. I don’t want my little girl growing up in a society where this type of behaviour has become the norm, where we just accept “that’s the way it is”.

I find it unconscionable that the police can operate with such little disregard for the law. They have seemingly little to no accountability for their actions; it appears they have taken a leaf from the politicians, who are even less accountable these days.  All this politician’s talk of law and order stuff, and the black padded suits and extra powers given to police officers because of terrorist threats, have gone to their heads. In plain Aussie lingo, the police have got a bit big for their boots.

Why am I accountable, and they are not?

I think this incident disturbed me so deeply as the only other time I have seen such loutish behaviour exhibited by authority figures was when I served in the army in Rwanda.  I expected it in Africa in a way I suppose, but from our police, in this country, in my home town, outside my front door?  

It made me think about the dystopian worlds of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, where people were no longer allowed to be who they choose, but instead enslaved to a system of greed and avarice.  I’m concerned about that kind of future for my children unless we start to speak up.

Many little things recently have started me worrying that we’re all living in a fog of subservience, where we’re nothing more than fodder for the enormous state/corporate machine that is devouring our freedoms little by little, and robotising our humanity, for the sake of coin.  I’ve seen enough of the bad things in life: Africa is the perfect example of how a beautiful country, full of beautiful people, can be destroyed by the greed of a few.  

I’ve mentioned my concerns to a few friends and, much to my surprise, they were very uncomfortable talking about the situation, citing that they believed it was "not in the national interest" to speak that way.  It seems we’re all in danger of being brainwashed by a mixture of TV dramas and fabricating news media to believe that we just have to shut up and do what we’re told.

But it’s us who should be telling the government and the police how they should behave, not the other way around: our defence forces fight for freedom, not subservience.

I served my country as a soldier, and I feel sick that this is what they – the police, in this instance – have done with my sacrifice.

– Sepher Raziel

3 Comments

  1. The bias this article holds is amusing – well it would be if it wasn’t rubbishing our hard working police! I sincerely doubt that 8 police officers would turn up over an unregistered car or unlicensed driver! Let alone rough up anyone for such an offence. Let’s be realistic for a moment. What REALLY happened? You’ve either left it out deliberately – or – it wasn’t observed. Looking at this story it wasn’t observed. How do you know the OFFENDERS didn’t produce a weapon or physically resist or assault one of the police officers??? It might come as a shock to you and others who produce similar drivel, but police are justified and are actually required to use FORCE to apprehend CRIMINALS who are caught doing the wrong thing. I don’t care if it was a littering fine or an armed robbery, if they commit an offence and act violently towards the police then I’m all for police utilising force to enforce the law! It amazes me why people get so upset when police are forced to get physical or use any of their weapons! Let’s not forget something, it is not the police who cause violent situations, it is the OFFENDER – the police simply react to the violence.

    Realist
  2. Well Panda you must be from a place even more repressive than Australia. I definitely have a problem with police thuggery and abuse. It is very poor form when our children are terrorised by police.
    Take the guns away, the clubs, tazars and capiscum spray, and these week and feeble men are nothing but cowards.
    I feel sorry for where you are Panda but in Australia the police are hated for the thugs they are

    betty
  3. “Now, I recognize and acknowledge the driver’s probable fault, or faults.”

    Exactly this is why i dont have a problem with this.

    Panda

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