Rita Panahi: VicPol’s cheap PR isn’t going to fix public’s distrust

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton wants to “reset and reconnect” with the public but Victoria Police’s brutal enforcement of absurd Covid rules won’t be quickly forgotten.

Victoria Police’s charm offensive won’t fool those who’ve watched the force behave abhorrently in recent years, from harassing old ladies on park benches to forcing children off playgrounds to arresting a pregnant woman in her kitchen for a Facebook post.

Police command are eager to rebuild the force’s image after a period where its standing in the community deteriorated thanks largely to overzealous over-policing of the most absurd Covid-19 rules. Chief Commissioner Shane Patton is keen to repair the brand damage. “It’s time to reset and reconnect with the community,” Mr Patton said. “Our new back-to-basics approach is about making sure we’re listening to the community and tackling the issues they care about. We’re approachable, we’re involved … we’re here to help.

“We know we’ve had to perform duties and engage with people and it might not have been what they expected in the first instance because of the Covid environment we are in.”

No, Commissioner, you didn’t have to do any of the insanely illiberal and often downright brutal enforcement that you and members of your command enthusiastically embraced.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton is keen to repair the brand damage. Picture: Wayne Taylor

You didn’t have to allow the police force to become politicised. You didn’t have to treat peaceful protesters like domestic terrorists. You didn’t have to target or intimidate opponents of the Premier. You didn’t have to apply a stark double standard to how you treated BLM and Extinction Rebellion protesters compared to anti-lockdown protesters.

You didn’t have to hand out more fines than every other state combined. You didn’t have to body slam people for the crime of being maskless in public. You didn’t have to body slam people for the crime of allegedly being linked to a protest. You didn’t have to shoot nonlethal rounds into fleeing protesters. You didn’t have to push over elderly women who posed no danger and then pepper-spray them for good measure. You didn’t have to relish enforcing the most draconian measures, more so than any other state or territory.

And you certainly didn’t have to stand with bureaucrats banning children from playgrounds and skate parks. We even had officers in full riot gear terrorising fruit and vegetable shoppers at Victoria market. Again, the heavy handed response to an anti-lockdown protest was in stark contrast to Victoria Police’s permissive attitude to a mass BLM march during the pandemic.

A middle aged female protester is hit with pepper spray during a anti-lockdown protest. Picture: Jason Edwards

For those marching in the name of a race-baiting, neo-Marxist group who want to defund police and demolish capitalism, the police showed great restraint with no mass arrests or fines. But for those questioning why their kids’ schools were closed and their livelihoods destroyed they copped pepper spray, massive fines and sometimes a beating, too.

On the same day police in full riot gear descended on the fruit and veg aisles of Queen Vic Market, another police team in Epping were caught on camera stomping on the head of a man suffering a mental health episode.

The victim, Tim Atkins, was first hit by a police car before his head was stomped on as he lay on the median strip. He ended up in an induced coma but an investigation found police used “lawful” force. It’s hard to have faith in the system when you see a headline that reads: “Watchdog finds Victoria Police acted lawfully when head-stomping mentally ill man during arrest”.

Put all that together with the slug-gate saga, the politicisation of the police force, the red shirts “investigation”, selective policing practices, the Lawyer X scandal that completely undermined the criminal justice system and the failure to properly swear in more than 1000 officers and you can see why there is a crisis in trust in law enforcement in Victoria. A little cheap PR isn’t going to fix that.

Police command needs a cleanout starting with Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius who referred to anti-lockdown protesters as “batshit crazy” conspiracy theorists but went out of his way to sympathise with BLM protesters. Victoria Police’s image will not recover while the likes of Chief Cornelius are in key positions.

There must be a reckoning, and a clean-out, at the top to rebuild public trust.