Light slap on the wrist for police who bashed a disabled pensioner

Black Lives Matter!

This court decision is gravely concerning.

It risks promoting a perception that there are two systems of laws - one for police and one for everyone else. This is of concern given the current use of police for enforcing the pandemic lockdown, but also given (a) the current BLM protests around the world, (b) the egregious levels of violence involved - leaving a vulnerable Victorian with exacerbated trauma, (c) the Complete and Utter Lack of Remorse, and (d) the questions that resurface about police competence around people suffering mental health issues (including other police).

While it is true that the police concerned MIGHT lose their jobs as a result of any review Victoria Police MIGHT undertake, I’ve heard police say that losing their jobs is worse because they also lose their status and powers, but that is utterly ridiculous as many other people also lose status and power when they lose their jobs. Such comments show a staggering arrogance, sense of entitlement, and a desperate need to remember that police serve this community - they’re not above it.

In actual fact, police’s special powers do not make them owed special treatment - it makes them subject to being held to standards of accountability that are commensurate with the staggering powers they have.

I know it is important to preserve the independence of the Director (and Office) of Public Prosecutions, but is there an ethical way a member of the public, such as myself, can urge the DPP to appeal this court decision? The website seems to suggest not.

Post script

I have sent the following email to my local MP:

Dear Member for _,

The recent decision by a court not to convict the three police members who violently assaulted and abused a disabled pensioner is gravely concerning (see here - the fines and community service are negligible to the point of being immaterial). 

Apart from the fact that the lack of remorse and the giggling at a member of a minority group raises questions about the fitness of these people to be police, and perhaps other, members of the police to interact with minorities and people with a mental health issue (including other police), this sends an utterly inappropriate impression at a time when protests are being held around the world about police violence against minorities.

It risks further compounding the fear of police that is widespread in many minorities - including, in the LGBTIQ+ communities, as a result of the acquittal of the police who violently raided a gay venue, failed to effectively identify themselves, and crippled a gay man. That fear of police impunity raised by that acquittal was increased by the stupid remarks by the secretary of the police union.

Apart from those I've talked to or listened to, I've seen evidence of this fear on social media.

At a time when police - and soldiers, who even more misogynistic, homophobic/transphobic, and racist (based on those I know and have known over the years - including relatives) - are being used to enforce the necessary lockdown, this court decision is not useful.

I'm aware there is nothing which can be done - our courts and the OPP are quite rightly meant to be independent, but this decision has done a massive amount of harm.

I am also aware that the police concerned MIGHT lose their jobs. So what? People lose their jobs all the time, the failure to convict these police means their dangerous predilections will not be detected by future potential employers (thus putting their co-workers at risk), and other jobs also involve service to the community (as a wastewater engineer who thus serves a public health need, I would argue I do more the wellbeing of members of the community than any single police officer who is below command level). Any arguments about loss of status or prestige are contemptible.

As a final point, I consider it is high time the oaths taken by police and PSOs are changed:

1. the order of "maintaining peace" and "enforcing laws" needs to be reversed - laws first, then peace. As it is now it psychologically encourages the authoritarian arrogance of too many police; and
   
2. the oath needs to be to "the people of Victoria", not to a foreign monarch who embodies class division and elitism in society, which also psychologically increases elitist arrogance and an us-them mentality which leads to the horrors being witnessed daily in the USA.

Black Lives Matter!