An Aboriginal Man Has Fled His Town In Fear For His Life After A QLD Cop Said He’ll ‘Flog’ Him

Blurred footage of Queensland Police officer appearing to threaten Aboriginal man.

In frustrating yet unsurprising news, a Queensland police officer has been exposed for appearing to threaten violence against a Blak man.

The family of an Aboriginal man has told the ABC he fled his remote south Queensland town of Cunnamulla in fear for his life after a police officer said he would be ‘flogged’.

“If he comes to me, it looks a lot better for him, because either way he’s being arrested,” the officer says to the man’s sister, Jacinta Munn, in the video.

“If you do see him, tell him to come see me before I find him, or else I’ll flog him.”

 “Well, he’ll get charged — I don’t think you can flog him,” Munn replies, to which the officer says: “No, no, I’m just going to hurt him a little.”

Ah yes, totally normal and acceptable behaviour from a fucking police officer.

I want to say I’m shocked, but considering Australian policing is actually fundamentally rooted in white supremacist abuse of Aboriginal people, from way back to colonisation, well… this incident is the institution working by design. Violence is part of its nature. And it says a lot that a police officer can apparently behave this way openly and without fear of consequences.

In the video, a police officer is questioning Munn about her brother’s whereabouts. The family says the officer was looking for him over “about $40 worth of stolen Keno tickets”, but ABC reported that Queensland Police Service (QPS) refused to comment on the circumstances.

Darryn Munn, the father of the man who has now fled fearing for his life, said the threats have scared the entire family.

“When you have a police officer, that is out there to protect and serve, say that they want to bash your son, I fear for not just his life, but all of my family,” he said, per ABC.

He said that the way that the cop was “giggling” made him worry that he was going to give his son more than just a “fairy tap”.

“I feared that he was going to give my son an ultimate hiding, the way he was smirking at that,” Munn said.

“If my son’s done wrong, then take him, but don’t threaten him along the way.”

Munn said that his son fled town right after he saw the footage, afraid of what could happen to him. Considering the rate of Blak deaths in custody in this country, it’s not hard to see why.

“Once he got that footage, he said, ‘I’m outta here, I’m gone’ — and sure enough, the next day I didn’t see my son again,” he said.

“I haven’t seen him yet.

“Mightn’t have Christmas together this year because of that, because he won’t come back to Cunnamulla, I can say that with confidence.”

Queensland Police Service said in a statement that it is aware of the video footage and is “conducting further internal enquiries”.

“Every QPS member is expected to treat all members of the public with respect,” the statement read.

“At this time, no formal complaint has been made to the Ethical Standards Command (ESC).

“Any complaint made against the actions of QPS officers is taken extremely seriously and investigated accordingly.”

It’s worth noting here that Ethical Standards reviews are typically just cops investigating other cops.

In early November, NSW Police used 12 officers to arrest one Black man, just days after shooting dead 45-year-old Gomeroi man Stanley Russel in his Sydney home.

During the same month, 43-year-old Glen Francis died in a Queensland correctional centre, and a 26-year-old Aboriginal man died in a Newcastle prison.

There have now been at least 484 Indigenous deaths in custody in the 30 years since the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were handed down in 1991.

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