By Charlene Gatt
FOOTSCRAY Police has been named in a damning report that found officers are over-policing and racially taunting young Africans.
The Springvale Monash Legal Centre report interviewed 30 young Africans and eight community workers across Braybrook, Flemington and the City of Greater Dandenong, suburbs with high African populations.
Young Africans, particularly males, reported that the police “unnecessarily interfered in their lives” with repeated arrests, excessive questioning about crimes and over-using random searches.
Young Africans across the three regions reported being regularly stopped and questioned in public by the police, being asked to move on and being asked for their name and address without police providing a reason.
Some youths reported this happening several times a day.
One participant asked “Why do I need to get asked three or four times a day for my ID because I’m walking down the footpath?”
The report also revealed police officers had racially taunted African men by calling them names like “donkey” and “criminal”.
None of the incidents described in the report mentioned where the slurs or attacks occurred.
The report also revealed police officers were using excessive force against African youths. One youth worker described an incident where police returned to a public park out of uniform to fight a group of young people.
“The policing of African young people clearly has a racial dimension to it,” the report read.
“Routine police harassment of African young people as well as police violence is either under-reported to the relevant oversight bodies, or these bodies are not adequately investigating these incidents, or both.
“Violence, threats and intimidation are not one-off incidents but are routine aspects of street policing where particular groups of young people are concerned.”
Police chief Simon Overland said the “vast majority” of the police force were not racist.
Mr Overland said if the bashing allegation was proven true, the officers involved would be investigated and charged.
“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,” he said.
“Racist attitudes held by members of Victoria Police – that is not okay. Acting on those racial attitudes is clearly not okay and where we find it people can expect that I will deal with them in the strongest possible terms.”
Footscray Inspector Ian Geddes did not respond to Star’s calls for comment.
