Victoria police say it has dedicated proactive policing units in every division “designed solely to strengthen community connection and engagement”, including with members of the South Sudanese community.
I was actually involved with one of these “proactive policing units” for a while. I’m not South Sudanese, but I was living in out of home residential care, so they profiled me as being “at risk”, despite the fact I’ve never been charged with anything or been involved with gangs (or really even shown the “challenging behaviour” that they point to).
I didn’t mind the program at first, they usually brought doughnuts and just sort of asked about our days. It was a bit weird, because they still adopted that stern, interrogative police tone and attitude, so it felt a lot more like being interrogated about my day than a natural conversation, and as you can probably expect, it was entirely one way. But I suppose I wasn’t really the target audience, so I didn’t mind too much.
Until one day they came I was having a bad day, and didn’t want to talk to them, so I just stayed in my room and said “I don’t want to talk today, sorry”. They weren’t happy with that, and ordered the worker on duty to open my door. Normally workers shouldn’t do that unless there’s a reason, but this was a new casual lady who had zero clue what was happening or why police were here, so she didn’t ask why, she just assumed they had just reasoning, and unlocked my door.
To be clear: they weren’t forcefully talking to me because they thought I’d commited a crime, had welfare concerns, were trying to interrogate me, or anything else that would give them grounds to kick my door down, had the worker refused. They just wanted to see me and say 5 words to me so they could write a check next to my name in their little book. In my little world, where my room was the only place of safety I had in that house, it felt akin to how I would feel if police went to my landlord and served them a fake warrant to open my door so they could ask how my day was.
After that, even after I explained why I didn’t appreciate that, they didn’t acknowledge they did anything wrong, or even that I felt like they did something wrong, and they never apologised. So I never spoke to them again. Eventually they got the memo and left me be.
I realise that’s not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I said all that to say, that even being white and not in a gang, or involved in any crime, or suspected of being involved in anything, I don’t think I was treated fairly. I imagine these kids would be copping the same shit PLUS the added disadvantage of a lot of cops holding deeply seated racism, the system wanting to make an “example” out of them, and their families are probably being treated like shit too. Wouldn’t surprise me if these cops just barged into people’s houses, preying on the parents not knowing their rights, or not being confident enough to stand up to them.
We’re less bad than America, but I’ve still seen a lot of “oh you don’t want us to do racism on you? You’re obstructing justice! Tase. Now put your hands behind your back! Oh you didn’t put your hands behind your back while you’re convulsing? Resisting arrest. 9 months in jail. Do not pass go, and do not collect $200”.
Yeah those groups aren’t “community based”, they’re designed to lay a base state of paranoia around cops. Fucking low grade intimidation disguised as a PR exercise
always had the sense that we’re using the wrong tool for the job, curious to get your take on that?
police are better served maintaining law and order, not on mental health and community out reach stuff. Just feels like expecting them to wear WAYYY too many hats, leading to a jack of all trades master of none situation.
This is a crap analogy but if you gonna go offroading sure you CAN take an AWD SUV, but realistically your much better served by taking a PROPER 4x4.
I dont mean that at all to be dismissive of your experience! Not saying they did the right thing at all. Just doesnt really surprise me. Feels like we should have a dedicated community and mental health force to tackle this sort of stuff and bring the police along kicking and screaming if necessary.
This gets me twitching. It’s like some kind of Minority Report.
The idea behind it might be good - to prevent crimes before they happen -, but inevitably there are kpi’s or measures put around it that lead to different, and harmful, outcomes.
Eg, police set up young or disadvantaged people so they hit their arrest targets, and therefore justify how ‘great’ their proactive policing policy is.
I was actually involved with one of these “proactive policing units” for a while. I’m not South Sudanese, but I was living in out of home residential care, so they profiled me as being “at risk”, despite the fact I’ve never been charged with anything or been involved with gangs (or really even shown the “challenging behaviour” that they point to).
I didn’t mind the program at first, they usually brought doughnuts and just sort of asked about our days. It was a bit weird, because they still adopted that stern, interrogative police tone and attitude, so it felt a lot more like being interrogated about my day than a natural conversation, and as you can probably expect, it was entirely one way. But I suppose I wasn’t really the target audience, so I didn’t mind too much.
Until one day they came I was having a bad day, and didn’t want to talk to them, so I just stayed in my room and said “I don’t want to talk today, sorry”. They weren’t happy with that, and ordered the worker on duty to open my door. Normally workers shouldn’t do that unless there’s a reason, but this was a new casual lady who had zero clue what was happening or why police were here, so she didn’t ask why, she just assumed they had just reasoning, and unlocked my door.
To be clear: they weren’t forcefully talking to me because they thought I’d commited a crime, had welfare concerns, were trying to interrogate me, or anything else that would give them grounds to kick my door down, had the worker refused. They just wanted to see me and say 5 words to me so they could write a check next to my name in their little book. In my little world, where my room was the only place of safety I had in that house, it felt akin to how I would feel if police went to my landlord and served them a fake warrant to open my door so they could ask how my day was.
After that, even after I explained why I didn’t appreciate that, they didn’t acknowledge they did anything wrong, or even that I felt like they did something wrong, and they never apologised. So I never spoke to them again. Eventually they got the memo and left me be.
I realise that’s not that bad in the grand scheme of things, but I said all that to say, that even being white and not in a gang, or involved in any crime, or suspected of being involved in anything, I don’t think I was treated fairly. I imagine these kids would be copping the same shit PLUS the added disadvantage of a lot of cops holding deeply seated racism, the system wanting to make an “example” out of them, and their families are probably being treated like shit too. Wouldn’t surprise me if these cops just barged into people’s houses, preying on the parents not knowing their rights, or not being confident enough to stand up to them.
We’re less bad than America, but I’ve still seen a lot of “oh you don’t want us to do racism on you? You’re obstructing justice! Tase. Now put your hands behind your back! Oh you didn’t put your hands behind your back while you’re convulsing? Resisting arrest. 9 months in jail. Do not pass go, and do not collect $200”.
Yeah those groups aren’t “community based”, they’re designed to lay a base state of paranoia around cops. Fucking low grade intimidation disguised as a PR exercise
always had the sense that we’re using the wrong tool for the job, curious to get your take on that? police are better served maintaining law and order, not on mental health and community out reach stuff. Just feels like expecting them to wear WAYYY too many hats, leading to a jack of all trades master of none situation.
This is a crap analogy but if you gonna go offroading sure you CAN take an AWD SUV, but realistically your much better served by taking a PROPER 4x4.
I dont mean that at all to be dismissive of your experience! Not saying they did the right thing at all. Just doesnt really surprise me. Feels like we should have a dedicated community and mental health force to tackle this sort of stuff and bring the police along kicking and screaming if necessary.
This gets me twitching. It’s like some kind of Minority Report.
The idea behind it might be good - to prevent crimes before they happen -, but inevitably there are kpi’s or measures put around it that lead to different, and harmful, outcomes.
Eg, police set up young or disadvantaged people so they hit their arrest targets, and therefore justify how ‘great’ their proactive policing policy is.
That’s a lot of words to say:
ACAB
I think its a bit rude to say that to someone who told their story like that. All cops are bastards, of course.
Their detailed anecdote relating their relevant personal experience is infinitely more valuable and appreciated than your flippant acronym.
That flippant acronym represents a million such stories and worse, world wide. It’s a reminder of the conflict.
You want to think you’re copping flack for ACAB. You’re not. You’re copping it for your unnecessarily arseholish dismissal of the story.
It’s not a dismissal mate.
“That’s a lot of words to say” very much reads as one