Cop It Sweet

The famous ABC TV documentary about racist policing in inner city Sydney. "It typifies the view that is held by NSW police, as far as Aboriginal people are concerned. We are all David Gundys, and it is just a matter of time before we are all shot", said Lyall Munroe Jr, commenting on the documentary Cop It Sweet, shown on ABC television on March 5. 1992. Munroe, a worker at Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service, told Green Left that the situation portrayed in the documentary is not an isolated one. "It's all right for the hierarchy of the NSW police to say that they are improving the situation of the Aboriginal people, but by the time those efforts are filtered down to the local police we are merely coons in the 'coon county'." "We had the hierarchy of the Redfern police on TV only last year denying that Redfern police referred to the Aboriginal Housing Company as 'coon county'." Cop It Sweet illustrated that racist police views and practices are not directed only at Aborigines. One scene showed Redfern police attending a car accident in which two Vietnamese people were involved. A constable threatened one of the Vietnamese: "Listen to me, if you don't want to go through that fucking window, just shut up, OK, cop it sweet". Later, in the police car, the same constable remarked that "gooks get exited over anything". "That is the type of treatment that people in lower social-economic situations get, particularly Aboriginal people", says Munroe. "The last Aboriginal person they spoke to in Eveleigh St, the same constable told the Aboriginal person to 'just fucking walk that way'. That in actual fact is a day to day event in the lives of Aboriginal people in the inner city area. Racism is reflected also in the imprisonment rate of Aboriginal people in NSW, which "has risen by 25% since the completion of the Royal Commission [into Black Deaths in Custody]. "The imprisonment rate should be improving because of the recommendations. It proves quite clearly that this government is not taking any notice of the preliminary recommendations of the royal commission, and we think they won't take any notice of the recommendations coming down this month." Cop It Sweet was filmed over a period of six weeks at Redfern police station, with the knowledge of the police involved. The only explanation for their racist behaviour on camera is that they thought it was acceptable. "I think it is an indictment of the NSW police, an indictment of the NSW government that employs people like that", comments Munroe. "Particularly the hoon that was swearing all the time, using expletives like 'cocksucker', 'coon bastards', 'county', and then in the same breath they arrest an Aboriginal person in the middle of the night under the Summary Offences Act. "In fact the Aboriginal person arrested [on the program] was treated very well as opposed to the general situation. That guy would have normally been bashed for giving cheek in the charge box. "What they didn't show was young Aboriginal people being strip-searched, young Aboriginal people being intimidated continuously on being found in the street. It didn't show young Aboriginal people being locked in the back of police cars and being taken to La Perouse and being left out there with the threat that they won't come back." The documentary proved that police treat the same offences very differently according to race and social status. A prime example was the harassment of a young Aboriginal driver. The patrol radioed to find out in whose name the car was registered. The name supplied was recognised by one of the police. "Is he a coon or what?", asked the other. The reply was yes, and they decided to pull over the car. The police harassed the driver about the state of his car, insisting that it had a bald tyre. Later in the program, a driver who was speeding was let off with "No worries at all then" after explaining that his passenger had a plane to catch. The reasons for this racism are deeper than just ignorant prejudice, according to Munroe. "The Aboriginal area in Redfern is a pretty rich area in real estate, and there have been attempts, by particular multinational organisations and national organisations, to get that land. "We envisaged that this was going to happen back in the '70s. Because of the choice real estate that we acquired, there would be attempts to get rid of it because it is an eyesore in the development of the inner city. "There is a continuous effort to move Aboriginal people off the streets. The reintroduction of the Summary Offences Act is just a way they do that. Basically the Aboriginal community poses a threat to the redevelopment of Redfern." Munroe doesn't see a solution in another internal police or government investigation. "Solutions to the problems are land rights, self-determination and recognition of prior ownership. Our sovereign rights still prevail in this country. The fallacies of terra nullius will also have to be discussed seriously. "Before we could sit down to reconcile anything after 200 years of colonisation, these important questions have to be answered: the massacres, the implementation of terra nullius, the exemption from the constitution and what happened during the dispersal times. "Aboriginal people have to have the say in the control of their lives." Munroe also thinks that police racism and harassment are increasing rather than disappearing. "It is a very serious situation in Redfern at the moment, particularly with the advent of that new squad that has been established within the inner city police. There is an upsurge in the surveillance of the Aboriginal community. "I think that sometime in the near future there is going to be another major confrontation between police and Aboriginal people, but I think this will be more serious and that Aboriginal people will be shot on the streets. "If there is a confrontation or a misunderstanding, it is labelled a riot, and the mere connotation of riot legitimises police presence and the police's right to draw guns and shoot people."