Bing Crosby, Acne, Police and Youth

These cases were not the thing that surprised me though. What I could not believe was that when it became known I was working on a report concerning police harassment I was inundated by calls from welfare workers, youth workers, parents and even government departments. They were all desperate to tell their stories.

So the report didn’t just focus on our cases but also covers the racially motivated tactics of police in Bankstown and the other story to the Lakemba police station shooting. It reveals beatings and rapes perpetrated by police, and it uncovers the use of search and strip search powers as a widespread tool of intimidation and social control.

Not all the stories made it. I had no time to include some cases. Like the one where a guy was bashed and capsicum sprayed by 3 off duty cops. Or the one where a young girl was bashed with three telephone books (not just a cliche). Not to mention the 13 year old girl who was punched in the face by a police officer when she objected to her 14 year old friend having their head bashed against a fence while being held by the hair. Other complainants were too afraid of reprisals to even have their story repeated.

While John Howard chats to US leaders in law enforcement and drug control and flirts with concepts such as "zero tolerance" we have to realise that Sydney already has its own brand of zero tolerance. The same type of zero tolerance that operates in New York where police officers recently got convicted of torturing and sodomising a Haitian immigrant. This realisation is far more sinister and frightening than even a bad dose of acne accompanied by a corny recording of "White Christmas".