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| NEWS > 06 October 2011 |
Other related articles:
To avert tragedy, police must
The killing of Kevin Brown was shocking enough, but it was stunning it happened less than two days after city officials announced the U.S. Department of Justice had accepted our complaint to investigate allegations of systemic excessive and deadly force and other illegal police conduct against East Austin's minority communities. Such Justice Department investigations are rare.
The facts surrounding Brown's death on June 3 crystalize the core of the Justice Department complaint. The video of Sgt. Michael Olsen's confrontation with Brown doesn't show any effort by the police to de-es... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Herald Sun
06 October 2011
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Australia: Cop filmed apparently kicking a woman at Dandenong police station
POLICE have launched an internal probe after the Herald Sun revealed CCTV
footage showing an officer apparently kicking a female prisoner.
Closed-circuit TV footage has captured a policeman apparently kicking a woman
inside a police cell before she is abandoned in pain from capsicum spray.
This morning Police Command confirmed its Ethical Standards Division would now
conduct an investigation into the incident.
The footage was captured inside Dandenong police station.
It came to light only after it was given to the woman in a recent court case.
The woman, who has been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition, has told the
Herald Sun she was humiliated and planned to complain to the Office of Police
Integrity.
Probe launched after footage shown
Acting Assistant Commissioner Derek Lamb said an Ethical Standards Department
investigation had been launched into the incident, which he described as
regrettable.
He said he saw the footage for the first time yesterday.
"We have had some discussions this morning with the head of Ethical Standards
Department and it's been decided that we would investigate this matter," Acting
Assistant Commissioner Lamb said.
"We have launched it because there has now been a complaint."
The officer at the centre of the incident has since become a senior sergeant at
another station.
Mr Lamb said there was a "clear difference" between a push with the foot - which
the Force says officers are trained to do to create distance and space - and a
kick.
"A kick is an intent to strike as such where as a push with the foot is where you're
using a part of your body to create space from a person," he said "It's no different
from when you start pushing someone but the risk of course when you start
pushing someone is you draw that person to you and that increases the risk of
harm."
He said there was no violence used against the drunk woman.
"What we are seeing is a response to this woman who was drunk, who was in
custody, missbehaving in the cells, about to attempt self harm. It was an
appropriate response to the situation," he said.
"You can see from the footage that she wasn't overly affected by the push from
the foot but she does lurch forward. She wasn't injured as a result so I reject any
notion that it was violence."
Senior police yesterday defended the officer's actions.
A sergeant had "pushed" her back into the cell with his foot, which was
"reasonable in the circumstances".
This was because the sergeant was acting in fear.
"It doesn't appear to be a kick to me ... " Mr Lamb said yesterday
"I don't believe it's a kick. He says just that, it was about getting space. It's simply
designed to push her back in and that's exactly what they're taught."
It's a position reinforced by the police union today.
Police Association secretary Greg Davies said the officer did what he was
trained to do.
"That's something operational members are trained to do, put distance between
them and an individual so that neither they nor the individual end up being
physically assaulted," Sen-Sgt Davies said.
He said he was comfortable with the current use of force training.
"Creating space between a police officer and someone who that police officer
(feels is) violent ... is a far better practice than going back to the 1980s where
people got belted with a bat the first sign of aggression," Sen-Sgt Davies said.
"We don't particularly want to have people sustaining severe or lasting physical
injuries and if putting distance between them or using capsicum spray is the way
that that's done then that can only be seen as a benefit and, I might add,
something that various community legal services have been calling on for years."
Police action unjustified - lawyer
Lawyer Sam Norton, of Robert Stary Lawyers, said his client had been treated
appallingly.
Two angles of the CCTV footage show the woman calling out to police and
gesturing that she would strangle herself before they open the cell door.
There is pushing and shoving before an argument at the door.
She tries to walk out of the cell and is sprayed and apparently kicked.
A female officer involved in the incident can be seen smiling as the officers walk
away.
An officer can be seen hosing down the outside of the door to stop fumes
affecting them.
The woman rubs her burning eyes and appears to struggle for breath for 16
minutes before the officer returns with a towel and leads her to a sink to provide
after-care, contravening regulations.
"The actions of the officers were completely unjustified," Mr Norton said.
"In the immediate time after he sprays her he is hosing the outside of the door so
they won't be affected.
"Meanwhile, she is screaming out in pain.
"I believe they then charge her because they realised they have overstepped the
mark."
A charge of assault was withdrawn at court and she pleaded guilty to a charge of
"act in a manner prejudicial to the good order of a jail cell".
It was proved and dismissed without conviction.
The incident happened a year before the death of Chinese national Gong Ling
Tang, 53, who died on May 13 last year.
Mr Tang was dumped in a puddle outside the station on a wet and cold night and
an ambulance was called. It is believed he died of hypothermia.
The Herald Sun has been refused under Freedom of Information from obtaining the
footage.
A Coronial inquest is yet to be held on Mr Tang's death.
Homicide detectives have completed a brief of evidence, but no charges have
been laid against any of the officers, many of whom have been moved to other
stations.
One of the officers is believed to have sat in a heated police van as he watched
Mr Tang on the ground.
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