An IP address linked to Victoria Police has been caught editing the Gulidjan Wikipedia page to water-down language used to describe the genocide of the tribe, the language of which has been almost completely wiped out as a result of colonisation.
Victoria Police confirmed to PEDESTRIAN.TV that it is investigating the edits.
“Victoria Police has been made aware of edits to a webpage that have been linked to a Victoria Police IP address.
“We understand that the conduct that is believed to have occurred is both inappropriate and offensive to Aboriginal people,” a police spokesman said.
Twitter user Strewth (@StrewthQueen) pointed out the changes and searched the IP address responsible to make the connection to the Victoria Police. PEDESTRIAN.TV was able to independently verify the user’s account.
An IP address belonging to Victoria Police was just caught editing the Wikipedia article for the Gulidjan nation, removing references to genocide & invasion.
The reason? “changes made due to policolly(sic) charged hate mongering of early colonial period of white settlement” pic.twitter.com/Z8UNCB68Jh
— Strewth ????️⚧️ (@StrewthQueen) December 26, 2021
The article had previously pointed out 300 plus Indigenous people were “murdered by whites” and characterised the attacks as an “invasion”. The almost-anonymous editor changed the first phrase to “died” and removed the word invasion in favour of a more neutral phrase.
The editor said they made the changes on Christmas day “due to policolly (sic) charged hate mongering of early colonial period of white settlement”.
The edits have since been reverted.
First of all, can I just say: lol. There’s irony in upholding white supremacy in such a pedantic and petty way but being unable to spell “politically”.
Secondly, this is pretty fucked up considering the police’s association with Blak deaths in custody, racial profiling, and generally being an institution that upholds the Australian white supremacist state. So it’s not great to hear that some people in VicPol, potentially officers themselves, believe stating the fact that Europeans killed Indigenous people en-masse is nothing but “hate mongering”. The attitude you could infer from that position doesn’t inspire confidence that police are prepared to mend the wounds they’re accused of causing.
But credit where credit’s due, the police have admitted that the changes were offensive to Indigenous people.
The editor’s (or the computer that the editor used) history also includes making small corrections to neo-nazi Tom Sewell’s page, the article for Nissan Patrols, and Jimmy Barnes album For the Working Class Man.
Folks I’m cackling at some of the contribution history pic.twitter.com/k5UCv6953Y
— Josie Spicer (@jsspcr1) December 26, 2021
There are some older edits to the page which update information on the Victoria Police air wing and also the Rhodesian Air Force. However, those edits were made in 2019.
The Professional Standards Command is investigating the edits, but it is important to note this is another example of police officers investigating their colleagues.
