Excessive force on my doorstep
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008Not sure how much this made international news, but last week policemen shot and killed a 15 year old boy armed with knives in a skatepark 10 minutes walk from my house.
Yes, the kid had two ‘very large, cleaver type knives’ according to witness reports, but was such a ludicrously heavy handed approach needed to stop the agitated child? This to me is another example of the Victorian police force spreading fear and anger throughout Melbourne.
Last Saturday I was in a small club avec mon amis. It wasn’t packed to the rafters and while there were some dodgy tattoo’s on neck type people there, me, Lauren and friends were there ’till 5 a.m. without the slightest whiff of trouble. In fact, we made such good friends with some people that we exchanged email addresses for facebook and that. This did not stop the police showing their presence though, by standing in the middle of the club for 20 minutes and glaring at anyone passing. I do not go to clubs to be eyeballed by the fuzz while I’m on my way for a tinkle. Surely that’s what bouncers are employed for. Four or five coppers stood menacingly, it did nothing to make me feel safer, instead it just reasserted that I shouldn’t be feeling safe, although following the news of the 15 year old kid being shot and killed, I felt threatened not by the aforementioned tattoo on neck gang, but instead by the group of police. Judging from the excessive force used to stop the boy, would they stamp of my neck if I swore? Maybe they’d night-stick me across the nose if I accidentally bumped into one of them? Would you say the upgrade of that puts being fatally shot for threatening people with knives as a minor is on the same scaling? I would.
So what if the boy threatened the officers? So what if the boy was a member of a white supremacist group, as local press reports? This does not excuse that when he produced knives he was gunned down. This is surely not the way to tackle violent crime, as it effectively transforms the police into just another gang who are equally as bad, if not worse due to their ‘law on their side’ feelings of self-justification, as the other gangs that fight in inner cities across the globe.
I really hope this does become something that internationally shames the police force of Victoria, I have never had anything against the police, ever. The very few times I’ve had to deal with them I’ve been more than obliging and they have been equally polite back, but this is inexcusable.
Sorry for the heavy nature of this post. Farts! There, that lightened it up a little bit for you, go have a cup of tea.
mikeloken