Media Release, Peter Pyke: 13 October 2010
In 1994 I told then-Queensland Premier Wayne Goss that ‘politicians thought they were pretty powerful but – in our system – it was the police who had all the power’. Goss, a former-lawyer, looked blankly at me. He just didn’t understand what I was on about. As a first-time MP I had just told him that I was about to be charged by police with a number of criminal charges which I have always maintained were false, and the jury who acquitted me later seemed to agree. But I was a mere backbencher in his government and he had a huge majority so why should he care? It seemed to me he didn’t.
When Goss lost office in the next election by just one electorate – the ALP now understands that was my seat of Mount Ommaney which I had lost by a handful of votes after the coppers had smeared me beautifully in the media for fifteen months as only they can do – he may have better understood what I had told him.
The Queensland police – whose campaign slogan is the ironical ‘with honour we serve’ – changed the outcome of the 1995 Queensland election in favour of a Borbidge-led government which – happily for some – let convicted and disgraced police commissioner and junior Rat Pack member Terry Lewis out of gaol four years early. But who’s counting?
This week we have seen more of the handiwork of the Queensland coppers with the release of heavily censored CCTV footage of the bashing of handcuffed prisoners in the custody of that outstanding example of one of Queensland’s ‘finest’, former-senior constable Benjamin Thomas Price, who is shown bashing a tourist and a barmaid at the Airlie Beach police station in the state’s north.
The ex-policeman, 34, was sentenced to 27 months’ jail on 11 October 2010 after pleading guilty to four counts of assault. Steele, a plasterer from NSW, suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a head wound, hearing problems, memory loss and lack of sensation in his arms and hands after his arrest in the popular Whitsundays tourist town. He told the court he was trying to break-up a fight between two mates when he was capsicum sprayed by police. It is alleged Price led the handcuffed Steele to a police car before saying “watch your head” and smashing his face into the vehicle, knocking him unconscious.
Price allegedly dragged Steele from the car outside Airlie Beach watch-house, repeatedly punched him and “kicked him with his boots” in the face, breaking his nose.
CCTV video footage from the police station shows a dazed, heavily bleeding Steele being dragged into an alley beside the watch-house. It shows the handcuffed man being punched in the head before having a fire hose jammed into his mouth, where it was held for up to 90 seconds as another officer watches.
Steele screams and groans in agony and blood can be seen sheeting down the concrete path as the policeman stands on the handcuffs, pressing his hand into the back of the man’s neck, forcing his head into his lap in a brutal spine lock.
“I felt like I was going to drown,” Steele told the court. “He jammed the hose into my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. I was coughing and spluttering blood. It was pretty scary. It went on for a long time. I called him a pussy. He knocked me about. I was pretty dazed, I’d had a boot to my face, my nose was broken. I was choking on my own blood, I felt like I was drowning.”
The vision shows other police officers standing by as Price stuffs a fire hose into his victim’s mouth, nearly drowning him. The CCTV footage also shows Price hitting slightly-built barmaid Renee Tom, 21, slamming her to the floor inside the watch-house in January 2008 and pulling her to her feet by her hair.
As a former police officer who saw service as an operational trainer and academy law lecturer, I know full well that any one of the other police who observed Price’s actions could have stopped Price and even arrested him on the spot for each of his savage bashings. So what happened? Only one of the police shown in the censored footage with their faces blurred did something; it was left to courageous female trainee constable Bree Sonter to do the right thing and to complain about the incidents.
Queensland police deputy commissioner Ian Stewart told reporters on 11 October 2010 that five other officers had resigned and three more were facing potential disciplinary actions over the incidents. All of the other officers who did nothing were complicit in the offences in my opinion.
It was my honour to be sworn in under Commissioner Ray Whitrod in 1976 – Whitrod was a real police commissioner. I immediately saw service in North Queensland and soon discovered that police bashings of Aboriginal and homosexual citizens were everyday sport for far too many Queensland police. It’s easy to say, but individual police have the power to control the behaviour of their peers by stepping in and stopping offences like those committed by Price. I know, I was bashed several times in the Townsville watch-house and once out on the street by my police colleagues for intervening to stop other officers from assaulting prisoners.
As I said at the outset, each individual police officer has the power to arrest anyone, the premier, the prime minister, or another officer. With such power comes enormous responsibility.
That’s the job and that is what is required. Don’t like it? Coppers who aren’t up to it should get out of the kitchen.
Prisoners were being bashed in the custody of Queensland police in the 1970s and we now have incontrovertible evidence they are still being bashed, even under the watchful eye of CCTV. Too many police thugs are protected by their peers and deaths in police custody will continue to occur while other officers fail to serve with real honour.
Is it all bad? As someone who will bleed a little bit blue until the day I die, I like to listen to the police radio on the scanner when I am writing, or driving around. While the Queensland police are badly led by their most senior officers whom I wouldn’t feed, I can report that many of the uniformed officers who undertake first-response operational duties do an excellent job. It is with pride that I can report hearing more often than not in the voices of police on the scanner their obvious humanity and concern for children, young people, battered women, the homeless and the elderly, and I commonly hear police going to great lengths to ensure that everything possible is done for people who need police assistance.
No, it’s not all bad.
If there is a hero in this sad story it is Constable Bree Sonter who did serve Queenslanders with honour.
I call on the Queensland Government to appropriately honour this young woman with the highest police award.
Author: Peter Pyke, 0427 388 598, pykie@republicandemocrats.org.au
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an excellent excellent article from chris graham, ex editor of the indigenous times, on the pervasive and corrupt attitude and culture of the police forces of this country and how we, the general populace, cope, or not, with those two police attributes.
i must agree with chris that there are indeed good cops and bad cops and i would even go so far as to say that there are more of the former than the latter. but, and it is a big but, the culture dictates that the good must cover for the bad and that is where the troubles begin.
of the 9 cops involved to varying degrees in the kevin spratt assault, the culture would have dictated that they remain as a loyal group of coppers, each to the other. had an individual copper spoken up against the treatment being meted out to kevin or even attempted to withdraw from the scene, they would have been instantly targeted as the weak link in the brother/sister-hood chain.
during 1995, whilst working at the aboriginal deaths in custody watch committee, i was approached by 2 young white men who wished to pass on their support on the work of the watch committee. they explained that they had just left the police college at goulburn and withdrew their applications. they showed me the appropriate paperwork.
they explained that they had joined for what they considered to be all the right reasons. what they found was racism, misogyny,homophobia and the all-enveloping culture of the protection of fellow officers regardless of the act performed. this was not part of the classroom training.
this training was performed in the bar every night where attendance was silently mandatory. every night the sergeants would continue to expound the rules of the culture that was never to be broken. they would tell that the life of a copper was far far superior to any crim and they must never allow themselves to be put into a dangerous situation.
always shoot to kill. use whatever was required to get the crim on the floor and hand-cuffed, sleeper holds, knee drops, any force at all but always remember to protect yourself and your fellow officers at all costs.
is it any wonder that now the cops have not only their batons and their capsicum spray but also tasers that they will use them. when capsicum spray was introduced the use of it as a compliance tool skyrocketed. so too the use of tasers as a compliance tool. what other new weapon of compliance will they seek next? one report suggests a heat-ray to make victims comply whilst hand-cuffed to a chair.
it is well known that power corrupts and because of their position in the forces used to protect the establishment, they continue to get away with it.
of the circa-200 aboriginal deaths nationally since 1980 whilst under police care there are quite a few cases that scream out for justice against the police perpetrators but a/i chris hurley is the closest we ever came to a just resolution but there is still a way to go yet in that struggle for real justice.
that is being held up by the corrupt practices of the bligh government re-appointment of commissioner bob atkinson outside of the required processes. this is also slowing down the legal arguments of what punishment, if any, should be meted out to the coppers who allegedly “investigated” the facts of the mulrunji death and deliberately began the cover-up and whitewash, culturally.
police unions in every state and territory rabidly protect their members from any misdeeds (unless your a black copper and then your on your own) and use their power with the governments, especially the police ministers, and the media to argue the innocence of their members.
police lie all the time in protecting their own. they lie to the courts by presentation of a corrupt brief of evidence and also whilst on oath, they lie to their police ministers and they lie to their superiors. but that is part of the game. but we as a society allow the police corruption to continue also. we must all demand more not only of our police forces but also our governments. long gone is the time when society got the governments and police forces we deserve.
we deserve much better.
though somewhat long i have included the vox populi that is basically a slanging match by some citizens and by quite a few who identify as past or present coppers. i must admit to only getting half-way through before the eyes gave out but there are many interesting points made by both sides.
happy reading
fkj
Reference: Article by Chris Graham All for one and one for all: police fail the attitude testAll for one and one for all: police fail the attitude test
© Copyright Chris Graham 08 October 2010
Hi Ian,
Have you seen these? You might have a more appropriate place to put them than this thread.
“Phantom Civil Liberties Marches – Queensland University 1978-79”
http://www.youtube.com/user/howlingdingo#p/u/19/DgyX_01P1do
“Pig City” with super 8 footage
http://www.youtube.com/user/MindlessMovies99#p/u/9/Ehx4CZSsojI
Hello John,
I vaguely remember the footage but remember clearly the day that the video was shot .
The “Phantom Civil Liberties Marches – Queensland University 1978-79″ video shows a march from the University of Qld on 7 September 1977.
The opening shot is of us marching across the Great Court at the University of Queensland three days after Bjelke-Petersen had said that the day of the political street was over.
The description of this video (above) is said to be written by advocates of non-violence during the struggle for democratic rights in Qld from 1977-1979.
The main advocates of non-violence were Ralph Summy, D O’N and PW who are shown in the video you posted. Of course the police had different ideas. I remember them arresting PW when he pleaded with them to refuse to obey orders at the top of the stairs of KGSq. They took him away as if to say, silly old fool.
Interestingly both O’N and W put a motion in opposition to the march videoed on this day in favour of building a bigger march on 22 October 1977.
Their motion failed and there were marches held on 7 and 22 September 1977 and 12 October 1977. It was these marches and other actions that built up the rally on 22 October 1977.
The largest number of mass arrests in Australian history occurred on that day.
The phrase used by DO’N in a speech made on the steps of King George Square prior to the march on that day was to build a movement that was ‘organised, systematic, non-violent, and absolutely massive’.
5,000 people repeatedly attempted to march over the next two hours even though the Campaign against Nuclear Power (CANP) led by Bob Phelps and Ian Henderson (deceased) made pleas for the 5,000 to walk in two or threes along the footpath in Adelaide Street.
On the day shown in the video (7 September 1977) both O’N and W participated in the short march that was halted by police.
My recollection of what happened differs from the text description to the video. The text suggests that we had no intention of marching into the city on that day. That is incorrect. We put it in a motion to the marchers, it was passsed and we did walk to the city to attend a union rally for a jailed organiser, Ted Zaphir. So the folowing text is inaccurate and fanciful, although well intentioned. Perhaps he did not hear the motion, he may have even opposed it and may not have marched with us into the Roma Street Forum.
The text is taken from a paper written by Ralph Summy in 2005. It states:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehx4CZSsojI]