March 6, 2013

A little authority

The video below is unsettling, but apparently such actions by police are as common in Australia as they appear to be in the U.S. Without knowing and understanding the full context I shall reserve judgement, other than to say that the level of viscous behavior by the one cop, and the attempts of others to illegally prevent the filming of the incident appear to be abuse of authority.

Although I've not found the full story, it appears the Sydney police have issued some form of communication alleging that the man under arrest had earlier attacked someone. Even if true I still don't see the justification for such treatment of an already restrained individual, and when we consider an illegal attempt to prevent the video journalist from tapine the incident, this appears to be a rather clear case of abuse of authority.

What follows are the cameraman's words and the video shot.

"I was a press photographer for the parade, walking along the backstreets shortly after it had concluded between 11pm and 11:30pm, we heard a man screaming for repeatedly for help.

Walking over we saw him being restrained by two police officers with another 4 in close proximity, he was repeatedly asking them 'What have I done wrong?' which they would not respond, all they would say was 'you are under arrest'. 

He calling for people walking past to help him and with a large crowd of people began to surround the event. 

He was struggling and resisting but not aggressively. 

The officers told him to stop resisting to which he would reply 'why are you doing this I haven't done anything?.' 

The officer 'FAIRFIELD LAC 266' then grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the stone pavement, as he tried to get up he was then punched multiple times in the head, leaving blood all over the pavement. The crowd of people overlooking screaming at the officer to stop. 

After seeing that I began filming."
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"What I found most shocking about this event is that the other officers seem to be aware that the amount of force they are using was completely unmerited and excessive.

So they hastily try to force me to stop filming. 

As a press photographer I knew I was completely within my rights to film police officers in a public space, doing nothing wrong and breaking no laws, so I refused. 

You will notice I ask multiple times why I am not allowed to film and what laws am I breaking and receive no response. 

There were at least 6 officers in the immediate vicinity, the victim was only small and could have easily been restrained by the officers without injury. 

Instead they choice to force him into submission by repeatedly punching him and throwing him into the pavement."


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1 Comments:

Old NFO said...

JBTs occur all over the world... And what would have happened without the crowd being there?