Aboriginal cops claim racist taunts by fellow NT police
Aboriginal police officers are taking legal action against the NT government over decades of unequal pay and racist behaviour by fellow cops, saying they have been smeared as ‘lazy and useless’.
At least 20 serving Aboriginal police officers have lodged a case of racial vilification and unequal pay against the Northern Territory government in a landmark legal challenge, alleging a racist police culture in which Indigenous cops are demeaned as “lazy and useless”.
The Aboriginal officers have revealed shocking conduct including police secretly urinating in an Aboriginal man’s wine cask; challenging elderly, intoxicated Aboriginal men to fight; displaying a picture of a monkey during a police interview with an Aboriginal person; and charging Indigenous people with offences they did not commit.
The explosive allegations, in a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission obtained by The Australian, come as the NT Police Force struggles to stave off claims of endemic racism and failure to protect Indigenous women from domestic violence.
Led by former Essendon AFL player Shawn Lewfatt, the Aboriginal Community Police Officers are claiming damages for more than two decades of racial discrimination over pay and conditions, as well as compensation for pain and suffering, which they allege has been caused by systemic racism in the NT Police Force.
“In his 26 years of service, Mr Lewfatt has experienced countless incidents of racial discrimination or racial vilification by other police officers,” the complaint states.
Mr Lewfatt and other ACPOs, including NT Police Association executive member Lisa Burkenhagen, say they have been subjected to racist stereotyping and stigmatisation as useless and lazy slackers, repeatedly being called “SLACPOs” by white officers.
Levitt Robinson Solicitors senior partner Stewart Levitt, representing the ACPOs in the case, says if the matter is not successfully conciliated, his firm will take the case to the Federal Court.
Mr Levitt said the Indigenous officers did not accept Commissioner Michael Murphy’s Garma Festival apology for “past harms and injustices, caused by members of the NT police”, after racism in the force was exposed at the inquest of Yuendumu teen Kumanjayi Walker.
“The ACPOs say that the apology was itself offensive, as it implied that they had been complicit in the racist system,” Mr Levitt said. “They should have been excluded from those members of the NT police on whose behalf the apology was given.”
“The commissioner should have been apologising to us, too,” several of the ACPOs said.
ACPOs perform the same work as regular NT police on many occasions, including operational and investigative duties, but for far less pay and worse working conditions, according to the complaint.
The base salary for constables is at least $6000 a year higher than for ACPOs.
ACPOs can arrest suspects and since 2016 they have been allowed to carry firearms.
During his 26 years’ service, Mr Lewfatt has arrested murder suspects and often been threatened by offenders with weapons.
Levitt Robinson solicitor Dana Levitt, who is managing the case, said: “The whole notion of having ACPOs with lower pay and worse conditions to police Aboriginal people is inherently racist, particularly where one-third of the population is Indigenous, and the work of policing disproportionately affects Indigenous Territorians”.
These practices “foster a racist culture in which ACPOs are considered less valuable than other members of the NTPF despite, to a large degree, being asked to do the same work”, the AHRC complaint alleges.
The 42-page complaint contains detailed allegations of racist actions, some as recently as last year, against named officers, whom The Australian has chosen not to identify for legal reasons.
Mr Lewfatt alleges he was on a shift at the Smith Street Mall with a senior constable in 1999 when they saw an Indigenous man walk into the bathroom with a cask of wine and soon walk out empty-handed. Mr Lewfatt’s police partner went into the bathroom and urinated in the cask, then returned it to the cubicle “in the expectation that its Indigenous owner would later consume it”.
Mr Lewfatt also claims he was on duty at the Darwin Sobering-up Shelter, where he witnessed another senior constable challenge a heavily intoxicated, fragile, vulnerable and elderly Aboriginal man to a fight - and proceeded to fight him until a shelter staff member yelled at him to stop.
In the complaint, Mr Lewfatt says he witnessed a senior officer tell a squad room full of police – where Mr Lewfatt was the only Indigenous officer present – that he felt “much better now that [he] got to smash them coons on the Esplanade”.
He says he saw a white police officer issue multiple infringements to Indigenous people for offences they did not commit, such as consuming liquor in a restricted area, and once saw a white police officer step on the fingers of an Aboriginal woman after she refused to get up and leave the area as directed.
Other cases detailed in the complaint include:
■ In or around 2013 to 2014, an ACPO was part of a group of officers who were told by a senior constable that he had been interviewing an Indigenous man when another officer had placed pictures of a monkey against the glass so that the picture could be seen by the officer but not by the interviewee. The policeman recounted how he had difficulty not laughing and the other officers listening all laughed as he told the story.
■ A police Christmas party in Tennant Creek where the theme was to come dressed as something starting with “B” and one of the attendees wore blackface as their costume, to the laughter of other attendees.
■ A senior constable saying: “We used to shoot these black c..ts where we come from.”
■ An officer saying: “Typical ACPOs, they’re all f..king coons”.
■ An officer saying “Can any boong take a police car and not get into trouble?”, referring to an Indigenous member who had used a police vehicle he was authorised to use.
■ An ACPO bullied by another officer who then left bullets on top of his locker at the police station. Four years later, the same man was bullied again – and more bullets were left on top of his locker.
As recently as last year, an Indigenous officer claims he heard a constable notorious for racist behaviour say in the muster room of a Darwin police station: “If you need any black c..ts locked up, let me know and I’ll sort them out.”
The AHRC complaint alleges that by failing to respond effectively, the NT government and the police commissioner had allowed a racist culture to continue unabated.
“More recently, there have been instances of junior police being disciplined for racism, while such racism ‘up-the-line’ remains unchecked and condoned,” the complaint notes.
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro told The Australian: “These claims look to the past and will be dealt with by the Human Rights Commission as appropriate.
“My focus for the NT Police Force is on its future and making sure our hardworking force has the support, resources and powers it needs to keep Territorians safe.”
Mr Murphy said because a complaint had been filed with the AHRC, it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the specifics of this case.
“What I can say is that it is a positive step for NT police that members have the confidence to speak up about issues such as racism,” he said. “We are invested in cultural reform, and continuing to make progress for a safe workplace and investment in leadership and pathways for our all our employees, for a safer Territory.”
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