Victoria police who beat Melbourne pensioner 'should be taken off their job'

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/04/victoria-police-who-beat-melbourne-pensioner-should-be-taken-off-their-job

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Lawyers have called for police captured in CCTV footage pinning down and beating a mentally unwell Melbourne pensioner to be immediately stood down, and have said similar incidents are occurring across Victoria every day.

Following the release of the footage by the ABC and Fairfax Media, lawyers gathered on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne on Wednesday morning to call for an end to police brutality.

Other footage has since been published by the ABC showing a handcuffed African-Australian man having a psychotic episode being stomped on and punched by a Victorian police officer.

Solicitor Tamar Hopkins, lead author of the Police Stop Data Working Group report commissioned by the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre, told reporters on Wednesday the police could not be trusted to investigate similar incidents, emphasising that not all of them were captured on CCTV. While the incident involving the pensioner is being investigated by Victoria’s anti-corruption agency, Ibac, the officers involved have not been stood down.

“I think it is absolutely terrifying these officers are still working and have their jobs,” Hopkins said outside Parliament House. “From a prima facie perspective, we can look at that footage and agree that from what we can see these officers should not be confronting members of the public. They should be taken off their job until the investigation is complete.”

She said the incident was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

“What is unusual is that this has been caught so graphically on footage,” she said. “Sadly it is a common experience. The officers who are witnessing these events have not complained, so it shows to you we are looking at standard, everyday practice. It’s so normalised that those officers are not going to do anything about it.”

Not all complaints against police were referred to Ibac and there was a “conflict of interest” in letting police investigate themselves, Hopkins added.

Jeremy King, a solicitor with Robinson Gill lawyers, said: “There are often varying accounts about what happens between a police statement and what is seen in CCTV footage.

“There is an over-reliance on police and their own statements. They are not routinely obtaining CCTV footage.”

The deputy police commissioner, Shane Patton, said a decision would be be made on Wednesday or Thursday as to whether the officers involved in attacking the mentally unwell pensioner should be placed on alternative duties or stood down.

“This couldn’t be undertaken until we got the authority from Ibac,” he said.

However, in a statement issued on Tuesday, Ibac said Victoria police, as the employer, was responsible for determining whether the officers were stood down from policing duties while they were subject to investigation.

The ABC has also reported that an officer rammed a handcuffed man into a metal door at a Bendigo police station. While police said the man had attempted to headbutt an officer, CCTV footage obtained by the ABC does not show the man headbutting anyone.

Hugh de Kretser, the executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Victorian government needed an independent body to investigate allegations of police brutality. Ibac is an agency of the state government. Many complaints made to Ibac – about 90% – are referred back to police to investigate.

“We need a police complaints system the public can trust and that delivers fairness and that delivers justice,” de Krester said.

“The current system is failing Victorians and the odds are stacked against anyone who complains against police. [The government] must ensure an independent body investigates all complaints of serious police misconduct.”