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| NEWS > 16 March 2010 |
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Crime lab mishandled DNA resul
An administrator at the troubled State Police crime laboratory has been suspended for failing to tell prosecutors of DNA matches in a number of unsolved rape cases, which now cannot be pursued because the statute of limitations has expired, the head of the State Police said yesterday.
The administrator, whom officials would not name, also told police and prosecutors that tests in an unspecified number of cases linked DNA recovered at crime scenes to suspects, when in fact they had not, Colonel Mark F. Delaney, superintendent of the State Police, said in a statement.
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ABC Online
16 March 2010
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Ethics in Policing
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Australia: Police discriminati
A survey of African residents in Melbourne has prompted more allegations of racism in Victoria, this time against the police.
The report by a coalition of Melbourne legal centres claims discriminatory treatment of African youths by police has led to increased tensions.
One such claim of discrimination comes from Ethiopian man Daniel Haile-Michael, who says he was assaulted by a police officer while walking with a friend late at night near his housing commission flat in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Flemington about five years ago.
Mr Haile-Michael says he believes he was targeted because he is black.
"The divvy van just swerved up in front of us and it stopped us, and one of the officers came towards me and asked me what the hell I was doing," he said.
"I told him I'd just come from the flats and then he got more and more aggressive, and the next thing I knew ... I was on the ground and he was laying punches into me.
"All I could do was start screaming."
Mr Haile-Michael says he was only 15 years old at the time and the attack was entirely unprovoked.
"I don't believe I could have scared him in any way. I'm not aggressive," he said.
Mr Haile-Michael says a crime had been committed in the area and the police officer thought he was responsible.
He was questioned at the police station until 2:00am, then released without charge.
A year later he complained to the Office of Police Integrity which found his case was unsubstantiated.
But a small survey by three community legal services in Melbourne suggests Mr Haile-Michael's experience is not an isolated one.
Thirty young people were interviewed over the past year, as part of the study by the Springvale Monash Legal Service.
Community development worker Shane Reside has told ABC local radio that most reported feeling over policed and unfairly hassled.
"The kinds of things that they were describing was being stopped several times in a single day by the police to give them their name and address and to explain themselves," he said.
"Sometimes this was when they were hanging out at night or around a train station, but for a lot of these young people it was actually part of their daily lives, you know, like on their way to school, on their way to childcare to pick up their baby brother."
"These are the kinds of day-to-day activities they were doing when they found that the police would come and just stop them randomly, which is certainly not something that happens for the rest of the community."
Some of those interviewed also reported being racially taunted and roughed up by police officers, but were reticent to make formal complaints.
Police admit tensions
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland says there are racial tensions between some police officers and African youth, but big efforts are being made from the recruitment level up to stamp out intolerant attitudes.
"This is not a new problem. With every wave of migration that's come into this country, we've had problems with youths," he said.
"If you go back far enough it was the Italian wave, the Greek wave, the Vietnamese wave, and what we're seeing now is a wave of migration coming out of Africa, mainly driven by our humanitarian-refugee policy.
"Predictably, we are seeing some tensions with youth and we know that we have to deal with it. We are dealing with it."
Ary Lyimo, the president of the East and Central African Communities of Victoria group, says young African men often come to Australia fearing authority.
He says a better understanding of their backgrounds is needed before relations with police can improve.
"Now I believe some of the police have done quite a tremendous amount of work," Mr Lyimo said.
"I believe some police have actually visited some parts of Africa to learn about the environment over there and therefore being able to come back here and deal with the issues.
"I still think that what is important is for the police and the local leaders and the youth to have an ongoing dialogue that will eventually address these matters.
"It will take some, but [we need] everything ... on the table. What are the causes of this? What are the youth attitudes? And what can police ... and the community at large do to address these issues?"
Victoria has recently been accused of having a culture of racism against Indians after a string of attacks on Indian university students.
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