http://youtu.be/JXEMyPSNeXw
Yesterday the above video was uploaded showing an altercation – supposedly over a Myki – between two Protective Services Officers (PSO) of Victoria Police and a couple of dudes at Moreland station.
Last year PSO officers – which you too can become, after only a 12 week paid training course! – came under fire for using what many thought to be excessive force on a schoolboy, over approximately $3.58 in fares, after video of the scuffle surfaced.
As we have previously quoted from the Victoria Police website, transit officers have the power to “see your ticket and concession entitlement where appropriate, even when you have left the vehicle or the paid area of a station,” and “can ask for your name and address and evidence which confirms your identity” if they believe you have committed an offence. They cannot force you to hand anything over, however they do also have leave to “arrest you until the police arrive if you refuse to comply.”
The bearded gentleman who copped the face of pepper spray wrote the following to accompany the video (which was apparently taken by “a friend of a friend”):
“Last night I was pepper sprayed by a PSO at Moreland station at point blank while trying to stop them assaulting a friend of mine. Upon arriving to the station the PSO made a B line for me and my friend, paying attention to anyone else. We had left the station and were in the gandolfo gardens when a PSO shirt fronted me and another stopped my friend and asked him for a ticket. I asked the PSO if he had any reason to stop or arrest me, when he didn’t reply I said that I was going and side stepped him and walked off. I made it about 10 meters and up a few stairs when I turned and saw the PSO’s man handling my friend, I walked back to be a witness and find out why when they started grabbing me and throwing me around. That’s where this video comes in. It was filmed by someone who had gotten of the train with his girlfriend, turns out he was a friend of my friend. As you can see in the video I have my hands up (with my shopping in the bag) and am asking to be left alone or not treated so poorly in a about 90% of the video, the other 10% is me on the ground. The PSO has his pepper spray out from the very start of the video, at no time was I being violent or did he state that he was going to use it. He not only hit me but the innocent guy filming it all, that’s why the camera cuts away and you can hear him saying he can’t see. I was refused water and medical attention until I gave up my details. The PSO that threw me to the ground wouldn’t get off my back tried to rip my arms out from underneath me multiple times while I was choking until I curled up into a ball trying to breath and started requesting an balance over and over. That’s when they called an ambulance and started to give me water from a kettle. They let me rub my eyes with water, that made the pain even worse and I almost couldn’t breath. When the ambulance came the medics were lovely. I was arrested and taken to holding cell at the station where the pso that sprayed me tried to make small talk until the actual police arrive. I had nothing to say to him and stayed silent. I was arrested and have been told that I may be charged with assualt and hindering. I have no idea what to do in this situation, I don’t feel that pepper spray was needed or the threat of a batton (you can see the bigger of the two extend his half way through) was needed against me when my hands were up and I tried to walk away multiple times, only to be followed and attacked again. Me being me, I can’t afford a lawyer and I know this will go to court so if anyone has any advice or knows who I should call any help would be good.”
