Remember when Queensland Police officers were exposed for making horrifically racist comments about killing and “outbreeding” Indigenous, African and Muslim people, which were all recorded and then released by a whistleblower? Almost a year later, the offending officers have escaped punishment and were allowed to keep their jobs. If this doesn’t convert you to the ACAB mentality, I don’t know what will.
At the time the audio first surfaced publicly, Queensland police commissioner Katarina Carroll said she believed officers making such comments “should not be in the organisation”.
But nine months since the audio was released (as well as several other stories about the rancid culture of QPS), three of the officers involved are not only still serving, they also haven’t actually been disciplined — instead, Guardian Australia reports, they were dealt with via “local management resolution” (LMR), given some more training and spoken to by a senior officer. The fourth officer resigned.
To give you a little context, a LMR is a controversial Queensland Police procedure which is used with police who have erred in a way that is minor enough that “a disciplinary sanction is not required”.
“It’s there for little minor errors, you know, minor issues. It’s there for that right reason of corrective behaviour, guidance, education,” Carroll said last year after it was revealed LMRs were being used for officers who were caught being racist and/or sexist.
“The problem is it’s being applied to issues that I think it should not be applied to.”
You don’t say.
It’s now been almost a year since her comments, and yet the officers she herself admitted should no longer have their jobs have not been punished. In fact, there wasn’t even an external investigation: just cops investigating cops. Which is pretty shocking since the rest of us mere mortals would lose our jobs for a whole lot less.
Why are we held to a higher moral standard than men who literally handle lethal weapons as part of their day job?
“It’s like they’re impervious,” criminologist Kerry Carrington told Guardian Australia.
“They have impunity. They can get away with it and there’s just basically no accountability.”
Other advocates have also slammed the lack of action, with some calling for the Queensland government to intervene. Which, you know, is great and all except for the fact that the government is also part of the problem.
“If officers feel comfortable in expressing these disgraceful views on our fellow Australians, what further problems exist and how deep does the issue go?” human rights activist Craig Foster told Guardian Australia.
“I would expect the Queensland government to intervene in this case, given the impact on community trust.
“It is not tenable to allow employees to engage with the public while holding these prejudicial views.”
A spokesperson at the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network said that the mentalities of the offending officers directly impact the lives of everyday Muslims.
“Racist nationalists the world over have used that kind of language to justify murder and violence against innocent people. Right here in Queensland, that language has incited violent threats and criminal damage to our places of worship,” they said.
“What integrity can be gleaned from this process of police investigating police and then deciding everything is OK?”
The chief executive of Sisters Inside, Deb Kilroy, told the publication she’s not at all surprised at the shitshow unfolding in front of us.
“It’s the same outcome as it always has been, and they get more funding. The racism continues, nothing changes,” she said.
“I believe it sends a message [to officers] that you can get away with anything you want to do.”
In case you weren’t across this story when it first broke, the audio was released by fellow watch house officer Steven Marshall in an exclusive report by Guardian Australia last November, and included conversations between Queensland Police officers in Brisbane’s city watch house.
Marshall said the recordings were just a small snippet of the abhorrent things he had heard while serving alongside his colleagues, and worse still, he said going to the media had been his last resort — meaning he had already flagged the audio with his own superiors, who did nothing about it.
Instead, he said he faced “significant” reprisals from his bosses for reporting his colleagues.
Marshall even sent the audio recordings to Queensland police minister Mark Ryan, but Ryan declined to meet with him. Funnily enough, since then Ryan has said “there should be consequences for actions” that don’t meet ethical standards. Mate, you had the chance to make that happen, and didn’t.
The same month Marshall’s audio recordings were made public, a series of other damning headlines about Queensland Police were published: The boss of QPS’ First Nations unit was placed under investigation for racism, and an inquiry found that sexism, racism and misogyny was allowed to run “unchecked” in the force, with a former Queensland police officer of two decades admitting slurs and harassment were commonplace in her time on the force.
Basically, the entire institution is rotten to its core. Surely at this point we ditch the reform and just abolish it?
