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SCMP’s Asia desk

Distrust in Australian police among Queensland’s Indian diaspora is set to deepen after an officer was caught on body camera hurling expletives at an Uber driver, leading the victim to sue the force in federal court.
The officer said, “f*****g Indians, mate, they are a bunch of f*****g perverts” to a colleague in 2023, before they charged the man with committing an indecent act for allegedly masturbating in public, court records showed.
A court later quashed the charges because two witnesses failed to appear. The man subsequently filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Queensland police.
The department said the footage was recorded accidentally and denied that any of the officers’ actions were motivated by “race”, “colour” or “national ethnic origin”.
However, that argument failed to convince Australia’s race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, who called the officer’s comments “clearly a racist statement”.
“I think the Indian community would be very distressed,” Sivaraman said, as quoted by The Guardian.
“We know that migrant communities are sometimes reluctant to engage with the police because they feel that they won’t be heard, that they won’t be believed, that they’re not represented,” he said.

The official added that “this kind of incident will just perpetuate that harm and it just means that the work for police to be trusted, that just gets harder”.
He urged the Australian police to boost efforts to eradicate racism and demanded disciplinary action against the two officers.
Sivaraman said the recommendations in the Human Rights Commission’s national anti-racism framework, which include developing racial literacy within the country’s law enforcement, had not been implemented by any police department in Australia.
A Queensland police spokesperson said the force had “received a complaint that a senior constable made unprofessional comments while on duty, which were perceived to have negative racial connotations”.
“The matter was assessed and appropriate inquiries were undertaken,” the spokesperson added.
“As a result, the officer was subject to professional development strategies aimed at addressing the identified conduct and reinforcing the expected standards of professionalism and respectful engagement with the community.”


In 2023, Queensland police launched a four-year independent review into the hiring and retention of female, indigenous and culturally diverse officers after a state government report exposed a culture of sexism and racism in the force.
Former Queensland sergeant Richard Monaei, who quit his job in 2022 after experiencing racism, told ABC at the time that he “no longer feels safe within my own organisation – an organisation that I loved”.
“I advocate and speak up in this space because I don’t want members who are currently in the organisation and those that are coming in … to suffer what I went through,” Monaei said, adding that the “systems set up within the organisation have not been sufficient to support those members”.


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An official from the community says no police department in Australia has implemented a set of anti-racism recommendations


An official from the community says no police department in Australia has implemented a set of anti-racism recommendations.


India

Anti-Asian racism

Racism and other prejudice

Queensland

Australian police officer’s ‘perverts’ remark against Indian driver sparks outrage

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}An official from the community says no police department in Australia has implemented a set of anti-racism recommendations

An official from the community says no police department in Australia has implemented a set of anti-racism recommendations