Police bash suspect, walk free

[Grommit]

Made me laugh Thing! Just read this Jeremy Clarkson thing. He'd been standing outside the venue of his daughter's birthday party having a cigarette on the street. A group of teens in hoodies came up and began hassling him. He told them to go away and walked off. Bit worried about being stabbed to death in front of his family. They followed him, harassing him despite his asking them to go away again. Probably not that politely this time. They continued, and grew threatening, so he grabbed hoodie boy number one by the hoodie, lifted him off of the ground, and advised him firmly to return to his council flat. Guess who was questioned by the police. Clue: not hoodie. All hoodies mates had whipped out their mobiles and videoed this, presumably to show off how brave they were harassing Jeremy Clarkson. He was facing a possible charge of assault. It didn't come to thaat, but ain't it symbolic of justice these days?

[Thing]

I watched that one also G. I thought the copper was going to dish out a bit of summary justice - but quite funny to see the handcuffed suspect with a T-Shirt pulled up over his head

[Grommit]

I remember watching a 'real life' prog on police in America a while back. These two down home Southern boy cops had a suspect in the back of the police car, who was screaming "False Arrest!' and swearing and carrying on. Anyway, this culminated in the suspect spitting on the back of Virgil the policeman's neck. Virgil says to his mate, "that's it. Stop the Ve-hicle". He gets out of the car and 'extracts' the suspect none too gently from the back. Suspect thrown back in the back a few seconds later with his t-shirt tied over his head! Guess he wasn't gonna be a spittin' on Virgil again!

[buffyblue]

Yeah, Dirty Harry, its your job to arrest and punish suspected criminals. Don't worry if their guilt or innocence has been ascertained just bash 'em regardless.

[Thing]

Sounds like Jeeves needs to be tossed into the back of the paddy wagon and driven at high speed through the railway yards a few times...

(making sure you drive over the area with multiple track crossings - supposedly its not very comfortable bouncing around in the back of one of these things)

[derat]

Look out, here they come with the white sheets and the burning crosses and pitchforks....

[jeeves7]

great, dirty harry,
You're the one making criminals feel comfortable in commiting crimes, knowing they will get the kid glove treatment from the cops as well as the judiciary.

[Dirty Harry]

I saw plenty of inappropriate behaviour from Police when I joined in the very early 90's. It seemed part of a culture back then. The Cops belted the baddies and the baddies expected it. Funnily enough, assualts against Police were almost zero back then. The baddies knew they would cop it back in spades, unlike now.
Having said all that, as a Sgt, I will not tolerate that sort of behaviour from my troops, or any other Police.
It's a different era now.

[NGE]

Perhaps NGE is not the appropriate venue for this. Maybe someone can suggest a more appropriate service to assist davetheknave?

[davetheknave]

Thanks for the info FATE, there is so much more to this than i really want to go into on here.And yeah i did get picked up by Police and got taken to the station, interviewed on tape over matters pertaining to all this and mostly due to the fact she STAYED at my house, wanted this order gone/never wanted it in the first place, yet her Mother made every excuse (that it was a family order only family could vote it gone etc, and that finally she had lost something she NEVER HAD, how convenient)and no doubt bucket loads of emotional black mail and threats and it stays yet i still have documented conversations of my ex wanting this gone and giving her reasons why she couldn't get rid of it and all the things going on with her at her home, her sneaking out/running away/coming to stay at my house asking me to help her away from her own family who she swore didn't understand/never would and who were not helping her so she wanted to be helped into getting Inpatient Care and she had a DR (Same one as mine)and therapist that would facilitate that, yet her mother shut that down and days later i was dragged in by Police. Does this girl sound like a PINOP to you? Because i am sick of being a coat hanger for all that is wrong/gone wrong with her life and gone wrong in her life for matters/incidents that are caused by members of her own family/parents and her mother in particular. It is just sickening to witness and have to put up being blamed for, even to their latest extreme after hearing nothing from any of them for over a month a cooked up Today Tonight story. I think i have put up with more than most would but it seems like every time i look to have the police or anyone else deal with this or my friends try to help this girl or we try to make a complaint for what we have been subjected to her mother uses her as bait and of course we stand down. But rather than me take the girl to court for all this because legally she would be responsible it is her mum who should be punished. Now do you get what i mean. I am in a real p**ck of a spot as you can imagine, i do the best to help all my mates & family out despite my own incurable lung disease/possibly CF and every time i try to get away from this situation her mother goes to another level.
So now what do you think, insane isn't it. And how has it not drove me insane? My answer to that is i know who i am & what i want out of life, and i don't need anyone let alone an ex/gf's mum trying to put me under her thumb like she does to her own daughter. I lived with them on and off for 6 months, i have seen and heard enough to know i will never be subjected to that again.

Happy Easter people i am out of here, time to go have fun & let off steam with Keith Urban & John Fogherty :-).

Dave

[fate]

Ring the local area health service. However, i suspect short of this person you allege to be mentally deficient being reported as so by their family and assessed by mental health authorities, I doubt anything will happen.
From what you describe, the person may already have warnings on them in regard to Police information, but there may not have been enough yet for POlice to 'schedule' the person. (take them to be assessed)
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You said before that you 'got dragged in'. Were you arrested for a breach or not ? If not, good for you.
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This whole situation seems to have a very easy fix. Stop associating with them. If the person contacts you, ignore them. It may be difficult, especially if you live in a situation like a caravan park or similar, or the same apartment block, housing estate etc. Wash your hands of the situation, and don't blame the Police for what is obviously a difficult situation. From the snippets you have provided, I have seen similar situations, and I know that the senior Police at the station I work at, would not put up with the kind of BS you are describing. It may be rare for a PINOP (person in need of protection) to be arrested, but it has happened. I would suggest that if the situation continues there would be scope for other charges against the problem family, such as public mishief or similar.

[davetheknave]

Well the police knew of my ex visiting me and did nothing, even when the cops came for me i did not get arrested. So why did they not arrest her in the first place, doing so would have had her finger her mother for the one being behind it, and had herself and me off to court to sign off on we wanted it gone and perhaps even had something done about her mother for starting all this crap in the first place. Or i could have used the option of having her charged regardless as a way to get it into court and then her mum would have had no choice but to but out and let it be dropped. Although one cop even suggested to me that we could both get together and come to a police station together even though it was against the orders terms and they would take us through it all and get rid of it but off course that never eventuated, At least someone showed some common sense there but it was to little to late then. Apart from that there is something else i would like to know though, i know how to report child abuse right, for anyone under the age of 18 or whatever it is, but how do you report somebody who is being abused who is over 18 but clearly not of a sound mind or 18 mentally if you get my drift in such a way they are not able to do anything about it. I can give more detailed if needed, i don't know how else to ask it. Who would you report it to, because i don't want to see the person hurting themselves anymore than at times they already have, i just don't know who to report it to cause legally/technically they are an adult.

Dave

[fate]

I never denied that there are a very small minority of POlice that have done the wrong thing. Any doing anything such as bashing suspects should be out of the job and punished according to law. The original poster asked opinions on the sentencing of the officers in Vic involved in bashing a suspect.
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As I originally said, perhaps the Magistrate in question has given out a penalty commensurate with what they normally do. Without knowing the history of the Magistrate, who can be sure.
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As others have been at pains to point out in other threads, sentencing guidelines in most Australian states have custodial sentences as a last resort. One would think that Police officers (possibly/presumably) with no previous criminal history would certainly qualify for the lower end of the scale in sentencing. They certainly will not have the chance to bash suspects again will they ?? How many other people charged or convicted of assault (or similar), lose their jobs as well ??
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As I said, I don't want cops like that in the job, but by the same token any that are found need to be treated in similar manners to the everyone else. I highly doubt that average people off the street involved in similar offences would receive the same sentences for firts offences. What may appear as 'a slap on the wrist' is most likely a failry hard sentence in comparison to others.
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persons in positions of authority will obviously in most cases receive harsher sentences than others. Depending on what charges were laid against the officers, there would only be a maximum sentence available to the Court, just like for everyone else. If the public want Police to recive more than a 'slap on the wrist', then all offenders for similar offences need to receive commensurate increases in sentencing.

[Thing]

Just admit it fate - there are cops who bash people and act inappropriately. It's in the media, examples are are on the internet, media sites, other sites such as this one.

Instead of making assumptions in a vain attempt to justify every police officer in Australia try to mount an argument that argues & proves your point instead of dribbling on about your view of lawyers, me, ex police etc etc

Then again I suppose you have nothing valid to offer to substantiate your point of view so your only response is the previous rubbish

[fate]

Thing. No personal attack at all. based on your smiling and smirking 'smileys' and innuendos about what kind of Cop you were (unnecessary use of baton etc. etc.), it wasn't hard to make a leap. Also based on other information you have posted in the past. Were you or were you not originally 'in the job' from somewhere around the mid to late 80's, into the mid 90's ??? Start of service around those times, leaving I couldn't care less when.
My reference to 'dregs from the 80's and 90's', is in reference to some (I can only reference NSW here) that are left in the job that have had past "difficulties" and somehow survived the numerous enquiries. There are quite a lot left from that era that never had any issues.
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I also have seen some ex-Police who are now slimy defence solicitors, often making snide innuendos and remarks, no doubt based on the way they used to Police.
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I would say that 90% of my assumptions and guesses made on a daily basis in the field trun out to be correct. When someone doesn't have their licence on them and they say, "I left it at home", there are particular kinds of people that I believe, and others who I immediately follow-up with, "So, are you suspended, disqualified or inlicensed ?". You must remember developing a 'nose' for certain things Thing ? Of course making assumptions and guesses based on information on faceless and anonymous forums is harder, but not impossible.
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As for davetheknave. In NSW ADVO's, APVO's are Court orders. ANY breach of the order is an offence. (Probably the same in other states) It is not up to any party named in the order to simply disregard it when they choose. If any party wants the order changed or revoked, they need to go back to Court. Your best bet in all of this would have been for you to call the Police at the first instance (and every instance thereafter) that the woman in question contacted you.
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There is nothing to do with 'commonsense' when it comes to Court orders. They are put in place by a Court, if someone breaches it, an arrest will follow. There is no discretion for Police to ignore a Court order, regardless of what the parties in that order may have subsequently decided on.