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The cops accusing police of racism · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart sneaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, September twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: A new mandatory grocery Code of conduct. That's Anthony Albanesi's
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  Speaker 1: new fight. The PM says Coals and Woolworths may have
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  Speaker 1: exacerbated inflation at the height of the cost of living crisis,
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  Speaker 1: and he's accused them of treating customers like fools with
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  Speaker 1: fake discounts. The supermarkets say they do whatever they can
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  Speaker 1: to make groceries cheaper. Allegations of police racism from serving cops,
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  Speaker 1: disgusting racial slurs, physical violence, and moves to clear the
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  Speaker 1: streets of black people. They're all claims contained in a
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  Speaker 1: human rights case brought by more than twenty Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: Aboriginal community police officers. That's today's story.
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  Speaker 2: Run and see how fire you get before I shoot you.
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  Speaker 2: You don't deserve to get paid used through all one
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  Speaker 2: of you is we'll shoot yourselves in the foot.
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  Speaker 1: This according to a group of Indigenous police officers from
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory is how some white officers speak to
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  Speaker 1: their Aboriginal colleagues. And this, according to a complaint lodged
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  Speaker 1: with the Australian Human Rights Commission, is how the Aboriginal
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  Speaker 1: community police officers say they heard white colleagues talking about
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous civilians the.
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  Speaker 2: Hall like animals.
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  Speaker 1: If you need any black blocked up, let me know
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  Speaker 1: and I'll sort them out.
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  Speaker 3: Black camp dogs.
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  Speaker 2: We used to shoot these black Where we come from.
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  Speaker 1: The Northern Territory is home to nearly eight percent of
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  Speaker 1: Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. An estimator seventy
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  Speaker 1: six thousand people. That's about thirty percent of the territory's
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  Speaker 1: overall population. Stephen Rice is a senior journalist with the
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  Speaker 1: Australian Russie. You've reported all over the world from what
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  Speaker 1: zones to remote communities here in Australia. What's your impression
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  Speaker 1: of the way these communities in the Northern Territory are
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs, Darwin remote communities. How would you compare it
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  Speaker 1: to other places where you've reported.
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  Speaker 2: Look, living conditions as we know of, especially in the
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  Speaker 2: town camps, are pretty appalling. What we haven't seen before.
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  Speaker 2: Is this evidence of a really continuing problem where white
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  Speaker 2: police in cities like Alice Springs and Darwin really have
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  Speaker 2: no regard for Indigenous people and even no regard for
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  Speaker 2: their colleagues who are Indigenous. And that's pretty shocking.
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  Speaker 3: How good is it to be Territory and tonight?
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  Speaker 1: The New Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Lea Finocchio was
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  Speaker 1: elected in August on a promise to get tough on crime.
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  Speaker 3: The heartbreak of watching families, friends and colleagues pack up
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  Speaker 3: and leave the territory because they cannot see a.
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  Speaker 2: Future here end today.
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  Speaker 1: We will do whatever it takes to restore community safety.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, the age of criminal responsibility was
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  Speaker 1: raised from ten to twelve by the Labor government, but
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  Speaker 1: Finocchiaio has pledged to take it back down. That means
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  Speaker 1: ten year olds will be able to be charged with
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  Speaker 1: criminal offenses rather than being handled by the territory's Families department.
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  Speaker 1: Finocchio will also restore controversial restraint chairs and spit hoods
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  Speaker 1: on young people removed by Labor in twenty twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: Human rights advocates say those techniques are dehumanizing and unnecessary.
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  Speaker 1: The Territories Police Association says they're essential to keep officers
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  Speaker 1: safe from violent offenders and communicable diseases. Ricey, There's been
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  Speaker 1: a lot of rumors over the years about what goes
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  Speaker 1: on in the Northern Territory when dignitaries come to visit,
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  Speaker 1: the idea that the streets, which normally would have groups
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  Speaker 1: of people congregating like in any city, are cleaned up
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  Speaker 1: for dignitaries or for big moments. What have you learned
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  Speaker 1: about whether or not that's true.
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  Speaker 2: Well, as you say, those claims have been around for
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  Speaker 2: a long time and the Northern Territory Police have always
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  Speaker 2: written them off as rumors, urban legend or conspiracy theories.
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  Speaker 2: What's happened now is that as a result of more
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  Speaker 2: than twenty Aboriginal police making a complaint of racial vilification
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  Speaker 2: to the Human Rights Commission against the Northern Territory Government
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  Speaker 2: and against the Northern Territory Police Commissioner, these allegations turn
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  Speaker 2: out to be true.
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  Speaker 1: A voice actors reading the words from the complaint to
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Human Rights Commission from Aboriginal community police officers,
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  Speaker 1: led by Sean Lufatt, a former footballer with Essendon who's
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  Speaker 1: been an ACPO for twenty six years, and Lisa Burkenhagen
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  Speaker 1: who's a senior ACPO and has been with the force
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  Speaker 1: for nine years.
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  Speaker 3: Whenever significant events are held within the Darwin area that
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  Speaker 3: have political interest and guaranteed media attention or presence, mister
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  Speaker 3: Lufat and other acpos, together with other officers, are routinely
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  Speaker 3: directed to clean up the streets around the area of
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  Speaker 3: interest by moving on homeless Indigenous persons that sleep or
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  Speaker 3: congregate in the area to give public perception that homelessness
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  Speaker 3: and anti social behavior is not an issue.
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  Speaker 2: For years now, the police have denied that they actually
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  Speaker 2: move people on. In these documents that I've obtained, the
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  Speaker 2: cops that the Aboriginal cops who are being asked to
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  Speaker 2: move people along, have made it clear that the people
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  Speaker 2: being target at a sober they're not committing any crimes. Basically,
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  Speaker 2: their own clime is that they're black. This is about
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  Speaker 2: ordinary Aboriginal people going about their normal, everyday business who
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  Speaker 2: are being moved on taken out of town because the
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  Speaker 2: city has decided that they don't like having that sort
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  Speaker 2: of image presented to the rest of the world. And
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  Speaker 2: it happens on occasions when politicians are visiting precisely to
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  Speaker 2: allegedly deal with those kind of issues.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. The white cop who started the avalanche of
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  Speaker 1: claims Riscie. The Northern Territory police have come in for
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  Speaker 1: some serious scrutiny over the past few years, probably starting
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  Speaker 1: in this round when police have Zachari Rolf fatally shot
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  Speaker 1: an Indigenous man, Kumenjai Walker in the remote community of Yundermu.
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  Speaker 1: At his trial and at the coronial inquest into that death,
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  Speaker 1: zak Roff, who was acquitative murder, claimed that there's endemic
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  Speaker 1: racism in the Northern Territory Police force. That's something that
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  Speaker 1: the top brass denied. What are we now learning from
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  Speaker 1: Aboriginal police officers themselves who have brought this claim to
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  Speaker 1: the Human Rights Commission.
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  Speaker 2: We're learning that from the point of view of the
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  Speaker 2: Aboriginal police themselves that these claims are completely true and
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  Speaker 2: have been for years. So here we have at least
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  Speaker 2: twenty serving Aboriginal officers who have lodged this racial vilification
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  Speaker 2: claim in the Human Rights Commission, alleging this racist culture
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  Speaker 2: in which they're constantly being called lazing and useless.
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  Speaker 3: In or around twenty ten and AKPO regularly witnessed officers
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  Speaker 3: in Alice Springs making comments to the effect that akpos
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  Speaker 3: were not doing their jobs because they were not picking
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  Speaker 3: up drunks in Alice Springs effectively, and that slack pos
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  Speaker 3: do nothing and that was why there was so much work.
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  Speaker 2: These cops who they perform all the normal functions of police.
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  Speaker 2: They allowed to arrest people, they're allowed to investigate, they're
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  Speaker 2: allowed to carry guns, but they're treated as second class police.
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  Speaker 2: They're paid less. If you're an Aboriginal police officer in
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory, you get six thousand dollars less a
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  Speaker 2: year than a white constable. It's pretty outrageous.
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  Speaker 3: Towards the end of her training to become an auxiliary,
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  Speaker 3: a sergeant delivering a lecture referred to a service helping
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  Speaker 3: to return Indigenous people stuck in Darwin to their home
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  Speaker 3: country and commented that he would like to return them
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  Speaker 3: to their country in a box. Miss Birkenhagen made a
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  Speaker 3: complaint against the sergeant, which resulted in conciliation. Miss Bergenhagen
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  Speaker 3: was advised that she would have to have thicker skin
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  Speaker 3: as she might hear much worse as a police officer.
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  Speaker 2: I mean some of this stuff is just extraordinary, Rissie.
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  Speaker 1: When you went to the police into the newly elected
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory government, what are they say. Are they denying
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  Speaker 1: that there's this disparity in pay, for example.
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  Speaker 2: They're not specifically denying the disparity in pay. The Chief
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  Speaker 2: Minister is saying this is all in the past. We
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  Speaker 2: don't have to worry about it now. Of course it's
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  Speaker 2: not in the past. The police themselves are saying that
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  Speaker 2: the Police Commissioner said that he welcomed the fact that
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  Speaker 2: officers felt free to talk about this finally, which was
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  Speaker 2: a bit bizarre because on Monday or when I've gone
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  Speaker 2: to them to ask about these allegations of moving on
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  Speaker 2: our virginities, cleaning up the streets, they've totally shut down
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  Speaker 2: and said, nope, we're not going to say anything now
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  Speaker 2: because it's all before the courts.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, rise of these officers want pay parity. What else
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  Speaker 1: are they asking for.
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  Speaker 2: We're asking for as well as that, for compensation, but
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  Speaker 2: most of all for an apology for the way that
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  Speaker 2: they've been treated in the past and for the fact
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  Speaker 2: that they continue to be treated as second class police
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  Speaker 2: when it seems very clear to anybody who has spent
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  Speaker 2: time in the Northern Territory that these particular cops are
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  Speaker 2: precisely the ones who can fix some of these problems.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice is a senior journalist with The Australian. Thanks
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