AN AUSTRALIAN state police force on Tuesday promised to stamp out any racism in its ranks after a report claimed officers harassed and beat African youths and taunted them with terms like 'monkey'.
Chief Commissioner Simon Overland of Victorian police, which has been under fire for its handling of attacks on Indian students, including a murder, said the overwhelming majority of officers were not racist.
'Racist attitudes held by members of Victoria Police - that is not OK,' Chief Overland told reporters. 'Acting on those racial attitudes is clearly not OK and, where we find it, people can expect that I will deal with them in the strongest possible terms.'
A report prepared by a local legal service, which interviewed 30 African youngsters and eight community workers, said some police used offensive terms such as 'monkey' and targeted Africans for random searches and questioning. In one case, officers allegedly removed their uniforms so they could beat a group of black men who refused to leave a Melbourne park, it claimed.
'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,' Chief Overland said. 'The vast majority of my staff actually understand that message all too well and in fact not only understand it, they are not racist. They absolutely understand their responsibilities to the community.'
But Helen Yandell, the director of the Springvale Monash Legal Service which produced the report, said there was a culture of discrimination within Victoria Police. 'We can't say it's a few isolated bad cops when we're talking about (allegations) across three major regions across Melbourne,' she said.
- Indian Journalist.
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