Looking at the history of racial profiling since the 1975 (when the Racial Discrimination Act was passed in Australia). The green tab contains Australian events, the purple tab contains events related to Victoria and the Victorian Police and the red tab contains events specific to the case of Daniel Haile-Michael.
This is a joint committee between the Victoria police and the Victorian Multicultural Commission. The members for this advisory committee are drawn from the Victoria police and Victoria’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The Racial Discrimination Act was the first discrimination law enacted by the Commonwealth. Based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin (or that of a relation or associate). It also prohibits offensive behaviour in public based on racial hatred. Racial hatred refers to an act done because of the race, colour, national or ethnic origin of a person or group of people which is likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate.
Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre founded as part of the Federation of Community Legal Centres.
The Federation of Community Legal Centres formed the Police Issues Working Group to investigate complaints against police.
Daniel Haile-Michael born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents.
The Commission examined all deaths in custody in each State and Territory which occurred between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989, and the actions taken in respect of each death. The final report, signed on 15 April 1991, made 339 recommendations to improve relationships between police and Aboriginals. The Commission created or collected about 200 shelf metres of records. It included welfare files, Social Security files and medical records.
The Victorian public service provides an allowance to bilingual VPS staff who use a language other than English in their day-to-day work with the Victorian public though the numbers of police officers on the ground who are proficient in the language of their local community is uncertain.
Contained within the Act are the two criminal offences of serious racial vilification and serious religious vilification. Serious racial or religious vilification occurs where: a person, because of the race or religion of another person/class of person, intentionally engages in conduct that the person knows is likely to incite hatred against that other person/class of person and either threatens physical harm, or incites others to threaten physical harm against that person/ class of person, or their property, or a person, because of the race or religion of a person/class of person, intentionally engages in conduct that the person knows is likely to incite serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that person/ class of person.
Office of Police Integrity was established to ensure that police corruption and serious misconduct is detected, investigated and prevented.
The Victoria Police Multicultural Advisory Unit initiated Language Specific Neighbourhood Watch Projects, while also working with the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Victorian School of Languages to train police in specific cultures and languages (notably a cert II in Vietnamese language).
Operation Molto, which targeted African-Australian men, was conducted by the Flemington Police Station.
The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Charter) is a Victorian law that sets out the basic rights, freedoms and responsibilities of all people in Victoria. It is about the relationship between government and the people it serves. The Charter requires public authorities, such as Victorian state and local government departments and agencies, and people delivering services on behalf of government, to act consistently with the human rights in the Charter.
At age 15, Daniel was accused of participating in "muck-up" events. He claims that the officer assaulted him. This occurred at the Flemington Housing Commission.
James Forrest and Kevin Dunn found that those from Non English Speaking Backgrounds were more than three times more likely to experience intolerance and discrimination in Policing than those born in Australia. One in 39 Victorians from Non English Speaking Background often experience intolerance and discrimination within policing environments. Further, in a highly integrated local area in Victoria with a high proportion of newly arrived immigrants from the Horn of Africa, the local Community Legal Centre has lodged more than 18 complaints about brutality, harassment, racism and racial profiling with the Office of Police Integrity on behalf of young refugees over a period of 18 months.
The 148-page report, Civil Litigation by Citizens Against Australian Police between 1994 and 2002, by Melbourne academics Dr Jude McCulloch and Darren Palmer documented the brutality of police forces around Australia and successful legal actions in response. It states that there is increasing resort to civil litigation against police, combined with larger compensation payments to victims.
Liep Gony, a nineteen-year-old Sudanese man living in Melbourne, was beaten to death by a small group of non-African young people near the Noble Park railway station. Several weeks before Liep was killed the Police began to ‘crack down’ on African young people congregating in public space. This included increasing patrols to target, search, and ‘move on’ groups of Sudanese young people anywhere they were found congregating publicly.
Indian students protested against what they claimed were racist attacks, blocking streets in central Melbourne. Thousands of students gathered outside the Royal Melbourne Hospital where one of the victims was admitted. The protest, however, was called off early on the next day morning after the protesters accused police of "ramrodding" them to break up their sit-in.
Australian Human Rights Commission conducted a major report into human rights and social inclusion issues facing African Australians. The Human Rights Commission has also launched a major public anti-racism campaign.
Australian Institute of Criminology Report finds that while Indigenous young people in the general population were found to be 4.5 times more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system than non-Indigenous young people, they were 2.9 times less likely to be cautioned than they were to appear in court, two times less likely to have a police conference than appear in court and 1.5 times less likely to be cautioned than attend a conference for their first contact with the system.
A coalition of Community Legal Services released a damning report “Boys, do you want to give me some action?” into the police mistreatment of African young people. The report details the experiences of African young people from three regions of Melbourne: Dandenong, Braybrook and Flemington. The research found that across Melbourne, African young people are over-policed, including the disproportionate use of stop and search powers and in some cases extra-legal violence.
Six applicants of African descent, made allegations against several members of the Victorian Police, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, and the State of Victoria in the Melbourne areas of Flemington and Kensington. The case, Haile-Michael & Ors vs Konstantinidis & Ors, involved claims about assaults, excessive use of force and an assault in detention, amounting to racial profiling and racially offensive behaviour that was unlawful under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).
A document obtained by Lateline shows Victoria Police trains officers on how to deal with the Sudanese community.
A fisherman saw a body floating on the Maribyrnong River near the Raleigh Road pontoon. The family and the community believe Michael was murdered and dumped in the river by Police. Police deny any involvement.
The State Coroner adjourned a hearing into Michael Atakelt's death and requested that police reinvestigate the case on his behalf.
The Office of Police Integrity failed to investigate an incident reported by an Ethiopian teenager living in Melbourne. Nassir Bare had reported to the OPI that police allegedly broke his teeth against a gutter, capsicum-sprayed him while he was handcuffed and racially abused in November 2010.
Victoria Police have invited community comment on the following two matters, and will then undertake an examination of those matters:. (1) The policy of Victoria Police on field contacts, including the collection of data concerning field contacts; and (2) Cross-cultural training provided within Victoria Police.
By 31 December 2013, Victoria Police will publish a report on the results of their inquiry.
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