The dishonest and vindictive arrest of Andrea Turner is sadly, one of many instances of police aggression toward ordinary citizens. It is actions like this which reinforce public opinion that the police do not see themselves as part of the general community.
The police clearly have an “us and them” mentality, reasonable when dealing with professional criminals, but inappropriate when dealing with the general public. That they refer to themselves as a police “force” rather than a police “service” is telling. That this attitude is so ingrained within police culture must be the fault of senior management.
Particularly bad in this case is the absurdly false charge of “photographing a police officer in the course of their duty”. It is unsurprising that aggressive police would try this on: it gives them a pretext for destroying evidence of police wrongdoing, for example if they were filmed using excessive force.
Photographing or filming police is not per se a criminal offence. If it were, how could citizens ever gain objective evidence against police if they act outside their powers?
Aside from the corruption and venal aggression toward a clearly innocent member of the public, there are three other factors in this matter pertinent to the evaporation of public respect for and trust in the police service: cowardice, wasting resources and whitewashing complaints.
Cowardice because the officers decided to pick on someone they clearly perceived as a soft target.
Wasting resources because, by my reading of the article, there were at least two uniformed officers originally present, with three more called for back up and an additional five who decided for some reason to turn up, including two detectives who should have been investigating a real crime.
Whitewashing complaints because none of the police officers involved has been reprimanded over the incident and there has been no internal investigation, despite the judge clearly expressing the opinion that one of the officers involved had committed a criminal offence by falsifying a public record, namely the description of events surrounding the arrest.
Why has this officer not been charged? Any citizen would be. If police intentionally abuse their power, they must be brought to account. If they intentionally break the law, they must be prosecuted, as you or I certainly would.
Equally important, why haven’t the names of these corrupt police been published? They have not been charged, nor does any prosecution appear likely, so publication of their identities is not sub judice. In fact, their names were read in open court during Andrea Turner’s civil suit against the police.
Read the mealy mouthed response of the Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Belinda Kontominas in response to the question of why she didn’t publish their names.
In fact, there is a comment by Andrea Turner on the above page specifically naming the two officers who tried to illegally arrest her on the train:
Elisha Anne Bullock, Belinda Kaye Hocroft, both of Hurstville Police Station.
Given the malicious nature of the arrest for a non existent crime, I do not see how these two police officers can hide behind the uniform and have the NSW Police defend their conduct as an error in the line of duty. The law should allow the officers to be sued personally in events such as this.
In the absence of such a course of action, the best censure and defence society has against a repeat of similar corrupt, thuggish police behaviour is public exposure. Spread the names of these dishonest police across the media so that everyone who encounters them knows what they have done and can deal with them accordingly.
The police regularly ruin reputations, careers and even lives with false charges, yet fight tooth and nail when there are calls for criminal behaviour by police to be prosecuted according to the law. This hypocrisy has been a major factor in eroding public trust in the police service.
What most citizens primarily want from the police is simple: an environment safe from theft and violence and the law enforced honestly. Pursue criminal gangs and prevent violent morons from bashing and robbing people.
If the police saw most members of the community as sharing this common goal, they may find allies, rather than a distrustful “them”.
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