Boonta Vista - EPISODE 136: Screensaving Our Bacon
Episode Date: February 16, 2020No laws or guidelines will stand in the way of the NSW Police Force and their quest to unlawfully strip-search every teen that has ever been even so much as looked at by a drug dog. Content warning: ...Sexual assault, police practices almost indistinguishable from sexual assault. *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show! *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista Website: boontavista.com Merchandise: boontavista.com/merchandise Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista
Transcript
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Welcome to Pointe Vista episode 136.
I am Andrew and I've got my glow sticks on because I am here at a festival.
I'm listening to music.
Music, the language of love.
Especially the Duff variety.
That is how you truly feel love, the human experience.
Standing over next to me with pupils as big as dinner plates completely disassociating,
it's Theo.
Hey, how you going?
I'm very good.
Yeah, I mean, I'm also going very good.
I'm while at the same time considering going home early. Oh yeah, fuck I love going home early. Yeah, just maybe just like leaving before the headline act.
God, that's a good feeling. Classic move. I've been sweating all day. I'm out of electrolytes.
I'm not ready for a little little, little sleepy.
I, uh, yeah, I love going home before the point that I am like,
completely physically depleted, you know?
But that's just me.
I feel like I've been like,
in New York to that in Brisbane as well,
because every festival that you go to is just hot as fuck.
It's just impossible.
Yeah.
The big day out is for morons.
It's, I don't know.
Maybe it's for people whose bodies function normally.
Not me though.
And standing over here doing the Melbourne shuffle
and looking with disgust and a man with long blonde dreadlocks, it's Lucy.
I agree to one of those things.
Every day you are shuffling.
That is true.
Disgusting.
Oh, it's so gross, isn't it?
It's so gross.
The dreadlocks are the Melbourne shuffle, because they're both disgusting.
Yeah.
I remember being at a show once, and there was like this lady standing directly in front of me
and she had like the, she had the I've just been on holiday to Bali long tied braids,
you know, classic.
And then she was like, it's time to go off.
And she just started like whipping her head around.
And all these braids are just slapping me in the face.
No, no.
Like, no, number one, we don't need the braids at all. Number two, I don't need any of them in or around my mouth.
You know?
Don't need that at all.
No, thank you.
Yep.
And finally, over here, searching behind every tree for the presence of his elusive friend
Bigfoot, it's Ben.
I'm going to find him, I can feel it. He's radiating a warmth towards me and I know he's somewhere out there.
And he knows and understands the language of love which we have established is Techno.
Absolutely, he's wearing those, uh, the like shuttered sunglasses.
In a big hat. Tanya Stunner Shades that says Party Rock on it and he is having a wild
time.
We had an LMFA concert.
I'm lost here.
What I believe people at festivals look like.
Yes, yes.
This is what was the camera one.
What was the camera one?
I'm thinking of stereo sonic, which was not a camera festival. That was very much the type that people would would be wearing the stunner shades at.
Man, those electronic music festivals are weird where it's like 50-50 like just fucking burners that are there walking around on acid having a great time and then like a bunch of extremely jacked shirtless guys who are looking to kill anyone that stands on their foot accidentally.
Yeah, it's a cool vibe. And we all come together.
That's right.
The music unites all of us. Oh, I love that feeling of being in the crowd at a festival and a shirtless guy in the summer
sun pushing past you and leaving that sheen of his body sweat across your own arms. So good. That's honestly everyone that's one
good reason to keep the shirt on. As little of your sweat as you can be.
One of many reasons. Unwillingly applying to strangers I think is good.
And we're all looking around us at all times
with great concern and suspicion and worry that at any moment we're going to
see some New South Wales police officers. That loathe enemy of the people that
we all hate. Sure do. Why do we hate them? It turns out that there are tens of
thousands of reasons. There were already a bunch of them that we were kind of aware of but we've th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thi to to to to to to thi thi to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th th th th th. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the the the the the the the thean the the to the to to to to to to there are tens of thousands of reasons. There were already a bunch of them that we were kind of aware of, but we've been seeing
a lot of news lately about unlawful searches by the police.
There was a bit of news last year around, particularly around something that kind of came
as a surprise to a lot of people, which was all of the excessive strip searching of minors without adults or support people present? I think that was one of those ones that
made a lot of people go, should you be doing that?
Just realize you meant like minors as young people. No, no, not, let's see what's under
that hard at, pal. Not that kind.
And of course, as we're all very used to, the New South Wales response, New South Wales
Police Forces response to that was a hearty, why don't you fuck off and mind your own
business.
But we've been doing a little look into it.
Ben's been doing some wonderful research for us and the cumulative evidence here is pretty
messed up.
So let's start you off with October 2018 in which the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission
announced an investigation into quote the use by police officers of powers to conduct
strip searches under the Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities act or lepra.
And we should probably put like right up in the front here a content warning to say we
will be talking about strip searches a lot for the next 20 minutes or so.
A lot of the stuff that we will be talking about borderline describe sexual assault and
also sexual assault.
So keep that in mind.
If that's going to make you extremely uncomfortable or bring up any awful associations of your own,
feel free to skip ahead significantly.
So let's take a look at a few of the examples here because all of this came up in response
to quote a number of specific complaints and anecdotal information from a variety
of community organizations.
Let's review some of
the examples here and see if we can establish any patterns that the police
are showing us. So he's the first example. A 53-year-old man from Sydney named
Stephen Attala was awarded 112,000 dollars in damages back in June 2019 after it was
ruled that he wrongfully submitted to an invasive strip search by
New South Wales police officers in 2015. Love that wrongfully submitted to an invasive strip search by New South Wales police officers in 2015.
I love that timely justice.
I'd love to wait five years to get told
the thing I knew the whole time.
So he was on his phone, sitting on a wall
in Darlinghurst at 3.30 a.m.
police officers approached him, asked him what he was doing,
and he said he was heading home after drinking, which I believe we all consider to be normal behavior.
The officers decided that this was suspicious because they believed that he was heading
in the wrong direction if that was intended, where he intended to go.
Thank you police for knowing more about how I get home than I do.
So he told the police that he had done nothing wrong and was going to contact his lawyer, at which point an officer told police the officer the officer the officer told the officer hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea hea he a officer he all, he all, told told told, the police told, told told told told told told told told told told told told told told told, told told, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be the the the the the the the the the the the the the they.. He. He. He. He. He. He was the the the the tho. the the tho. the police. the police. the police. the officers. the officers. tho. the the. the. told told told told told told the police that he had done nothing wrong and was going to contact his lawyer, at which point an officer told him that she suspected that he had drugs on
him and would be searched. This is immediately quite the leap from, hey, it doesn't seem like
you have any reason to search me, and I will be contacting my lawyer to, I suspect that you have drug money. This is going to become one of the
very common themes here. They claim that he resisted, they put him in handcuffs and searched
him, finding no drugs. Also a very, very common themes about that stuff. He was then taken back
to the station where he was, as the judge described it, quote, forced to undertake the degrading
experience of removing his pants and underwear, displaying his genitals, that area that area that area that area that area area area area area area area area area area area area area area area area area that area that area that area that area the degrading experience of removing his pants and underwear,
displaying his genitals, lifting up his genitals to display that area of his body behind them,
and squat in that state of nakedness.
This is all a great outcome so far from sitting and talking on your phone.
So this is from the decision that ruled in his favor.
Quote, Mr. Itala gave evidence that after this ordeal, Officer Krookshaink said,
See, if you just did what we asked you to do, this could have all been avoided.
Mm-hmm.
Officer Krookshaik accepted that this may have been said, saying, quote,
It's quite possible that I did.
Now here, here's one of our primary themes here, is that that that that that that that thiips, is the cops, is thips, is thips, is thiops, is thiops, is thiops, is thi-, is thi-s, is the cops, is the cops, the cops, the cops, the cops, the cops, thi, the cops, tha, the cops, the cops, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, thi, the the the the the the the the the thi, the thi, thi, thi, thi,, quote, it's quite possible that I did. Now here, here's one of our primary themes here,
is the cops seemingly not knowing what they have said
or done throughout any of this,
but usually accepting that it was probably unlawful.
I don't remember being a huge shit,
but yeah, I guess that sounds about right.
That's a very me thing to do. Yeah, like like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, it's a that's a that's a th. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. thi, th. th. thi, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. this, very me thing to do. Yeah, like it's very alarming to me how many of
these statements where the cops are talking to like a judge or someone and they say, hey, so
you didn't give this person like a valid reason to search them or you search them unlawfully,
or you searched a minor without a support person or a parent present, none of that is lawful and the cop goes yeah I guess
yeah sounds about right yeah what about it they continue I find that this
statement was made by officer Krukshank the statement implies recognition in
officer Krukshank of the hurt and embarrassment she had caused mr. Attala and an
assertion wrongly as I have found,
that he, not her, was responsible for all those unlawful and damaging events.
It also indicates that, at least by that stage, and perhaps from much earlier, Officer
Krookshank no longer suspected that Mr. Atala was a throwne.
There was no suggestion in her comment of surprise that nothing had turned up on Mr. Othala,
even less that what had occurred was an unfortunate mistake.
Definitely almost seems like a self-admission on her part that she was using a very invasive
police tactic as a punitive measure.
Yes, to basically say, hey, you were not 100% cooperative and submissive from the instant
that I engaged you for seemingly no reason.
And as a result, we're going to improperly use powers that we have to just put the hurt on you.
And of course, like you're saying then, here emerges another one of our very present themes,
which is that none of this is actually about preventing crimes or apprehending criminals.
It's just about saying, we can do this so we will.
So he was awarded damages for wrongful arrest, assault and battery, from both the arrest and the strip search,
with another $35,000 in exemplary damages for what the judge called the officers,
quote, almost reckless indifference to the rules around strip searches.
Here's another example.
In October last year, the LECC held a four-day inquiry into the strip search of a 16-year-old
girl at the 2018 Splendor in the Grass Festival.
She was one of six children under the age of 18 who were strip searched by police at the festival without a parent or guardian presence.
In New South Wales, strip searches aren't meant to be conducted outside of police stations
unless the urgency and seriousness of the situation requires it.
So, like, yeah, there are specifics about this, like, late last year, and when we talked about
this in the last episode, it was specifically around,
because this is when, just when the people were starting to draw together all of these
splendor in the grass and festival strip searches, right? And what came out of that was that
basically the officers can say just about anything that gets them over the line that switches it to being quote unquote like an emergency search, isn't that the case? The case? The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, people, the, people, the, people, people, the, people, people, the, the, the, the, the, the, them over the line that switches it to being quote unquote,
like an emergency search, isn't that the case?
Yeah, I think we'll probably cover this
in a bit more detail a bit further on,
but essentially what happens is that the police say, hey, for no reason at all,
I think that you might have drugs,
and I would like to search
you and the person says I'm not enthusiastic about that idea and in the cop's mind that
flips a big switch to this is now an urgent and serious matter because if I don't search
this person they will have the opportunity to dispose of or destroy the evidence.
So it does say here if it involves a minor or a parent or guardian has to be present, quote,
unless an immediate search is necessary to protect the person or prevent the destruction
of evidence.
So after a false positive from a sniffer dog, and here is our third theme.
False positives or no readings at all from dogs being used to justify
further unlawful searches because in case after case throughout this there is a
sniffer dog indicated that someone had drugs and it was a false positive and they
were found to have nothing and the person was somehow still punished or in a lot of
cases the dog didn't even indicate anything.
So after a false positive from a sniffer dog, this girl was taken into a tent by police and
told to strip. The inquiry heard that she was asked to give her age and ID, but the police
made no attempt to contact a parent or guardian. Again, it's almost like the police have
no idea of what their obligations are, of what their obligations are in terms of the civil liberty of policing.
This is from a statement that she gave to the inquiry.
Quotes, at that point I realized I was going to have to get naked in front of this police officer.
I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I couldn't stop crying, I was completely humiliated. I was absolutely shocked that the police would do this to me. Every time I saw a police
officer at the festival, I started to feel anxious. My whole body would clench up and I would
get clammy and hot. I was scared to make eye contact with them in case it happened again.
Each time I walked into the festival I would feel anxious. The inquiry heard. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. the thi. the their thi. their their their their their their their their their the police. their the police. the police. the police. the police. the police. the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police. Every the police, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was. the police. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. I. I was. I was. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm s. I'm s. I'm. I'm s. I'm s. I'm s. I'm s. I'm s. I'm s. I'm. I'm the the the the the that less than 10% of the 143 strip searches carried out of the festival found any drugs.
It's so fucked. Like just a 16 year old girl.
Going to Splendor, probably for the first time.
Like just, you just think you're going to have a great time with your mates.
You're just going to hang out. This is the first fucking thing thing that happens to you. And then you spend like the whole thi fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking thhing thi fucking thi fucking thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi' thi' thi' thi' thi' thi' thi' thi' thi' thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. It. It's their. It's their. It's their. It's their. It's their. It's their. It's their. It's thi. It's just just just, thi. It's just, thi. It's just, thi. It's just, thi. thi. thi. thi. back and forth into that festival just being fucking terrified that they're going to do
this shit to you again.
It's just fucking nightmarish.
Well especially when like the precedent that they've set right of the beginning is we didn't
need any evidence to actually do this or that the indication that we had from a drug dog to do this was shown to be completely inaccurate. And then we just did it anyway and there was no
kind of you know there was no oversight there was no responsibility taken by
the police there was no support person there was no anything and then
they just say oh well we'll get you next time and you know release you.
so of course every time you would see the many cops around the festival from the the the th the th th th th the festival th th th th the festival th. th. thi th. thi thi thi the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the know release you. So of course every time you would
see the many cops around the festival from that point you would just be like,
fuck is this going to happen again? So this is from the Guardian. Um, sorry, this is a, this is a separate
example, another example for us. The LECC held public hearings in December last year over potentially illegal strip searches
conducted by police at Sydney under 18s music festival lost city. Why are they, why do they have a
presence doing strip searches in an under 18s festival in the first place?
The inquiry is looking specifically at strip search is done on a 15 year old, a 16 old, and a 17 year old, all of which turned up no drugs.
At least 30 strip searches were conducted on minors at the festival, according to the council assisting the commission Peggy Dwyer, with only five of those 30 searches involving a support person for the minor.
In one case, the support person was a 17-year- old red frog volunteer, also a minor.
How fucking stupid is that?
Like I can't, how would you, just even vaguely thinking about how that would look to anyone
else as a cop and just being like, oh yeah, it's fine.
Well like, I mean, all of this stuff keeps adding up to, and will keep adding up to just this idea that the cops have gone into all of this stuff with a pre-determine-like, like, like, like, like, like, like, th, th, like, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th, the, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thu, their, thu, their, thu, their, thu, thu, their, their, their, their, their, their, thu, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, and will keep adding up to, just this idea
that the cops have gone into all of this stuff with a predetermined outcome in mind.
And that is, I will be strip searching a certain number of people at this festival, whether
they are adults or children, whether they are accompanied or unaccompanied, whether there
is evidence for it or not, and that's going to be happening one way or another, and then we'll see what we can do about, like, you know, after the fact providing some
kind of explanation for it.
So, you know, it says he had two SES volunteers had been organized by police to act as independent
adults for children being strip searched.
When the LECC's chief commissioner Michael Adams asked why they were chosen, a senior officer said they were selected because they were from a quote reputable organization.
Adams responded yes, but it's not part of their ordinary duties to watch naked young people
be searched by police.
I feel like you just shouldn't strip search children at all.
Just one girls take.
Oh, you hippie.
You bloody bleeding art.
And like the choice of the SES here is also quite telling to me in two ways.
Number one, that they obviously said,
oh, this is a thing we cop grief about sometimes.
So we're just going to rope to people who are already at the festival
into doing this as an additional duty.
But also, I can't help the feeling that like,
SES would have been looked at as being pretty amenable
to whatever cops want to do.
I have the feeling that like cops would maybe look at state of urgency services
as a group that would be, well yeah, like a group that would be agreeable and sympathetic to their, to their cause,
or at the very least, wouldn't turn around and say, actually, I'm pretty sure you guys
aren't meant to be doing this.
Yeah, there's like a massive power imbalance there. An SES volunteer versus an actual law enforcement officer is like, they're not going to be like, no, fuck the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thu f f f f ffix the the the the the the the the thi the thi thi thi thi thus thus thease thease thease theateatea thease that's theateateateateateateatheeatheeatheeatheeatheeathea that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's thian thian thian thian thian thi thi thi thi thi the very thathe a that, thathe a that, that, that, that, that, theat, theat, theat, theat, theat, theat, theat, or that's that's that's threate or that's that's that's that's that's be like, no, fuck you, you can't search this kid. Well, yeah, it's like the difference between that and say, I don't know,
the other example of this type of thing I was like, like independent election observers,
you know, like people who aren't, they don't have the same level of authority as a police officer or whatever, but they, but they are someone who has specifically been trained to say, I know what the their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, they they, they, they they they they they they they're their, they, they their, their, they, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, their, thea, thea, thea, their, their, their, their, their, their, the has specifically been trained to say, I
know what I'm looking for here and I know what the requirements are around this and I can
say with any level of certainty, this right now is not meant to be happening.
But instead it's like... If you're dead set on constructing this absolutely fucked up nightmare
world where kids should be
getting strip searched, but they should have independent observers there.
They need to be lawyers, right, like to be satisfying the constraints of this bizarre scenario
that you're trying to construct, right?
To be able to say, like you said, hey, this shouldn't be happening in the first place
and just shut that down.
Like are we at the point where we are imagining a battle royal at a festival for minors between absolutely bizarre-brained, bloodthirsty police officers and lawyers who are just trying to try and, thuse, thii, thi, hey, thi, thi, hey, th-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-h-h-they, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, th, thttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthas, ththa-a-a-s, th, ththa, ththa, ththea, ththes, thi-s, thi-s, thi-s, thi-ined, bloodthirsty police officers
and lawyers who are just trying to shut this bizarre display of power down, right?
Like, is that what it has to come to?
Well, I mean, it's all a direct result, though, of the police essentially having no accountability to the public.
Yeah, absolute Carter Blanche, and you can't tell accountability to the public.
Absolutely Carter Blanche and you can't tell me that this poor Red Frogs volunteer,
for international listeners, red frogs are an organization that are volunteer services.
They all get together in large events like this and like the end of year school parties and that sort of thing and they go around
and they make sure that people are having a good time and not fucking, you know, killing themselves and that sort th th, th, th, th, th, th, th. th. th. th of thing and they go around and they make sure that people having a good time and not fucking you know killing themselves and
that sort of stuff and to put this on the shoulders of you know young minor
volunteers is just like the next tier in in abuse to me that this that they
should have to bear witness to this as well it very very strange the whole the whole thing and you can't tell me that that that that th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their. their. their their. their their. their their their their their their their. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. their their their their their their their their their te. their their their their their their their their their their their their their to bear witness to this as well. Very, very strange the whole thing.
And you can't tell me that these red frog volunteers aren't then just going out and
being saying like, hey, don't, if you see the police, go somewhere else.
Because this is what is occurring.
Well, we'll keep that in mind when we say what we're being taught at this point is, if see the police at a festival turn around and go the other way. Just park that in the
back of your brain somewhere. So from the Guardian this says that an
apologies in advance for this. Dwyer told the inquiry that the 15-year-old
was stopped after an indication from a drug dog yet again.
During the search which was conducted without a parent or support person he was the the to lift his shirt and show his armpits before being asked to pull his pants down.
And the officer told him to quote, hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch, Dwaya told the inquiry.
The gooch is a slang term for the space between the testicles and anus the guardian is helpfully.
Oh, thank you. the guardian is helpfully informed of his hip. Dwyer said the young person lifted his testicles and the officer bent down to have a look approximately one meter away from him.
And this is a quote from the 15 year old. I sort of froze for a bit like because I had my shirt up and then he's all like right now pull your pants down. Now pull your pants down. you sure? Like, do I just pull my pants down and show you everything?
Or like what?
And he's like, no, pull down your pants,
hold your dick and lift your balls and show me your gooch.
And I was like, okay.
And there's another recurring theme with this stuff,
which is that like, thely obvious by this point, but that even throughout the actual process of the strip search itself
That the police don't
Proactively lead the process like they get people to strip off and when the strip search is done
They don't like tell them you can put your clothes back on now
They wait until the person says can I get dressed and then they're like fucking whatever
They they don't there's no step of this process.??????? the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thecececea, thea, the police trip. trip. trip. trip. trip. trip. the police the police the police the police the police the police the police the police the police the I get dressed and then they're like fucking whatever. They don't, there's no step of this process in which the police seem to be, you know, even making the most cursory attempt to like help the people that they're
doing this to in any way. It's just super gross. They're just terrible, terrible people and it's disgusting that they have this job. I don't know, yeah, what sort of person you would have to be to be doing this job and saying...
Someone who enjoys this kind of thing, who enjoys being powerful and being a real piece of shit.
Just inflicting things on vulnerable people.
Like that's what it is at the end of the day.
The inquiry, this is also from the guardian, the inquiry heard that another 16 year old
boy who was searched alone after he was found hiding a bum bag without any drugs inside,
was told to lift up his balls and to quote squat and cough during the search.
So again, he's been caught with a bum bag that doesn't have any drugs in it and that has
been taken as evidence that he has drugs.
Yeah, not really sure about logic there.
He did have a bum bag.
Yeah.
Oh, extremely speed dealer areas.
What kind of sunglasses was you wearing?
How reflective were they? Yeah. But yeah, like the, just again, one of the recurring thing, indication from anything that this person was holding drugs and then they searched the person and further found that they still did not have any drugs and that they just ne to the to the end of this process to say, hey, hey, they they still. their the threat. their their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. their. Yeah. Yeah. their. their. Yeah. their. their. their. Yeah. their. their. Yeah. their. Yeah. their. Yeah. their. Yeah. their. their. Yeah. their. Yeah. their. their. their. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the.they just need to push right to the end
of this process to say hey hey you know what other way could we prove that you
don't have drugs. During the search... and this is... sorry you go.
During the search he asked police why is this happening? During a third search a
17-year-old was told to quote grab his penis penis and lifted up before a male officer allegedly, quote, inserted his hands inside his underwear and made contact
with his testicles.
So we're also, um...
So we're describing literal sexual assault?
Yes.
Very much.
As a means to an end which is finding no drugs.
So, this next example is also an extreme problem here.
A University of New South Wales study commissioned by the Redfern Legal Centre into Strip Searching by the New South Wales Police presented a whole bunch of case studies and these are a few of them.
In one of them, a young woman in a late teens attended a
music festival was pulled aside after a drug dog sniffed her but didn't stop
or indicate by sitting down. Did any of you guys see the clip from like the last
sort of six months that was going around on Australian Twitter that somebody
had filmed at a music festival,
of a group of police with a sniffer dog
standing next to a group of young people at a festival,
and one of the cops is like putting his hand on the dog's ass
and shoving it down to force the dog-
Oh my god.
Like it's, it takes a few goes to get the dog to sit down.
Yeah, it's almost like the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs th go th go thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks thinks to get the dog to sit down. Yeah, it's almost like the dogs have been trained to not do that unless they think they have
smelled drugs, which also they're apparently very bad at doing.
They're not even good at doing it in general.
They suck.
It's a terrible job for dogs.
Don't make dogs into cops.
It's disgusting. Love of God, please don't. The one pure thing on earth, you
turn it into a fucking cop. Don't make dogs into cops, they make horses into cops. Yeah.
Because horses aren't pure, but they are terrifying. And once you put like a badge and a hat on that,
it's even worse. The one way to make a horse worse. Yes. The one way to ruin a dog, the one way to make a horse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse worse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the dog. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the ruin a dog, the one way to make a horse worse. Yeah, so, so didn't even get an indication from the dog.
Still get searched.
Her bag and jacket was searched.
They found nothing.
She was then ordered to strip, which she did, while police officers continued to
question her, which they're not allowed to do.
Yeah, weirdly they have rules about interrogating people while they're naked.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they they they they they they they they have they they have they have they have they're they're they're they're they're their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. thea. thea. too. too. too. too. too. too. to the. the. the. thea. the. the. Yeah, yeah. Seems like there are some distinct
issues with that. But they've just blasted straight past those rules? Yeah. Would
you be surprised to learn? They sure did. They found nothing. Afterwards she had her
ticket confiscated and was told to go home. What the fuck? What? What? Yep. Now this...
this is going to continue on. So give me one second. She said that she had been sexually th th th th th th th th th th that that th that that th that th this is going to continue on. So, give me one second.
She said that she had been sexually assaulted around a year prior to that and that in being strip search, she felt the same feelings that she felt when she was assaulted.
In another, a 19-year-old was stopped at the entrance to a festival by police when a sniffer dog indicated near her. Police said that they had, quote, got another one and took her to a separate room where a female officer, thoeee, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, she, she, she, thi, tho, tho, tho, she had, she was, she was, she was, she was, she was, she was thi, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she, she thi, she thi, she thi, she thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii' thi' th thr-s, thr-s, thi. thi. She said, she'sthey had quote, got another one and took her to a
separate room where a female officer made her strip and when naked squat and cough. In
both her strip search and a search of her bag, nothing was found. When she was released, her
ticket was destroyed and she was issued with a six-month banning notice from Sydney Olympic
Park. What this is fucked up. Just disgusting peace. So you get unlawfully searched, they find nothing,
and then you get punished as a result of having not committed a crime, basically? I don't
how is anybody's brainworking? This is one of the things that I get stuck on. How are their
brains just, what is happening with the things that I get stuck on. How are their brains just...
What is happening with the cogs?
I don't...
I don't understand.
I think we're going to work our way towards this because it is very, very natural to have the feelings
that you're feeling right now, which is what the fuck is happening.
What is going on? What am I listening to it? Because when I first read this, my reaction was like, I don't understand what the purpose of this is as a thing.
Not just the strip search part, but the part where you get to the end of the process and you
say, oh, turns out you weren't hiding anything either in your purse or any of your bodily orifices.
And now it's time for you to fuck off.
Yeah, you would think that maybe that's the part where you say, my bad,
sorry!
I'm...
I'm sorry.
But instead, they say, how about we tear up your fucking $150 ticket to this thing
and ban you from being able to come back to this venue for
the next period of time.
And like, is the point to say, oh, well, we didn't get you this time, but we know somehow,
we have psychically ascertained that you are guilty, perhaps from a past experience or one
you intend to commit in the future?
And we'll be punishing
you as a result.
Like we didn't get you this time but we're still going to make sure that you suffer as a
result of this even more than the fucking, you know, the indignities that we just visited
upon you.
Or is the point to say, ah, well we tried our best to bust you and it didn't work, but we've still got this.
We've still got another thing that we can do to you, average citizen who didn't do anything wrong.
We're not going to let you get away with...
Not being a criminal. We're not going to let you get away with not being caught with drugs.
Criminal scum. Get the fuck out of here.
Again, park that particular one in your mind, okay?
Park this, getting searched, it turns out
that you haven't done anything,
but then they still destroy your ticket
and make you leave the area.
Park that one in the back you head. And yet another example from the case study, a 20-year-old woman was stopped by police at the entrance to a festival
when a sniffer dog followed her, not indicating...
Again, this is a very, very present theme.
So it's like, sniffer dogs are already incredibly unreliable,
and I'm pretty sure that all, like, civil liberty,
organizations and most reasonable people consider them to be in a legal form of searching anyway. But the cops
don't even wait for them to give a positive indication anyway. So it's like
they should just carry around a photo of a dog. Just hold it near you.
It'd be cheaper just you just point the photo of the dog at someone and say,
oh, hey hey, hey, hey, we got you.
My dog photo is tingling.
It's almost like they don't care about whether anyone's doing any crimes or not.
Yeah, it's a lot like that, hey.
Like, um, yeah, I just, I, it's so weird because like very clearly
Sniffer dogs are props.
They are props for instigating any of these actions,
but what we're seeing in incident after incident is they don't even rely on that part.
They don't even wait for the part for the dog to give them a false positive.
They just go, hey, the dog that is attached to me while I'm walking near you is walking
near you. That's enough.
So this woman was taken to an area at the back of the festival in order to strip, squat and cough.
Police observed a string and questioned her about it, at which point she had to explain that it was a tampon, which she found quite particularly traumatic and humiliating.
During this time, the door of the room was not completely closed which meant that
passes by could see into it while she was being strip searched.
Neither the strip search nor a search of her belongings turned up any drugs,
but she was then instructed to move on from the festival grounds to quote
make an easier process whereupon she was escorted out by
police.
It's so difficult to imagine a circumstance in which someone could look at this and find it to be
a defensible process.
Yeah, absolutely.
This whole time, and I guess this is sort of why we've been setting
the horrible stage, and it is horrible, the whole time I've just been thinking that anybody
involved in this process that isn't a police officer, should be party to this process,
should understand what this process is, who is undergoing it, and what
it's doing to people, right?
Because like you said, no normal person should believe that this is a defensible thing.
The way that it's occurring, the scale at which it is occurring, which we'll get
into, any normal person, any representative of the public should immediately look at that and say,
shut it the fuck down, even if it's, you know, even if their next stance is until we understand what's going on, right?
And, you know, it's clear what's going on, but, you know, if that's the line you won't take, whatever. But the way that it's happening, the scale at which it's happening is absolutely indefensible and we should be continuing to hold our public representatives to account with specific examples and specifics
about what is going on.
Well, here's one final example for us here from the Sydney Morning Herald. A Sydney woman
says a police strip search at Homebush Music Festival in 2018 forced
her to relive a sexual assault that occurred just over a year earlier.
Quote, I had to be stripped naked and I felt completely helpless and I was scared, said the
woman whose ticket to the midnight mafia event on May 5th last year was confiscated by police,
despite the police, the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons said the experience of being cornered in a booth with two police officers was a
refresher of her sexual assault which she said was perpetrated by two people.
It was horrible she says that's how it made me feel all I wanted was to go to a
music festival she said. The event organizers refunded the price of the
woman's ticket but she said that that quote couldn't compensate for the woman's ticket, but she said that that, quote, couldn't compensate for the psychological trauma that was caused.
The Herald put a number of questions to New South Wales police, including whether there
were protocols to ascertain if a person was the victim of trauma such as sexual assault that
could be exacerbated by strip search.
A spokesperson did not answer the questions, but among a list of responses, members of the public, told, members, m.. M, m. M, m. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. I. I, the. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I was, their. I was, their, their. I was, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their. I, their. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I were. I was. I. I. I was. I was. I. I. their. I. I. I. th. th. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the.. the public with nothing to hide from police should not be concerned about police searches.
I think that's demonstrably false from everything that we've just heard.
Fucking hell. That's so fucking psychotic.
Hearing is our fourth major theme. That your rights and privacy existed the whim of the New South Wales police force.
If you didn't do anything wrong, you're supposed to happily submit to a search. If you protest, it's a sign of your guilt. And if they don't find anything,
that's also a sign of your guilt. Yeah, and that's just this time. Next time, they'll catch
you because you've entered the gaze of Soron and they have seen your sin within. Yeah. So you know, whether or not you get caught with anything you will still be punished both in the form of
Being strip searched and then having something that you've paid money for taken away from you and being forced to leave a venue that you've paid to be at
And if you did get searched and violated by the police that's just the price that the public pays for the police being able to control the populace
Don't you feel safer knowing this? Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I'm sure. I'm th. I'm sure. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. th. th th th th th the the th th th th thi thi thi the the tho the tho the the the the th. th. th. thi th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi theeeeeei thi thi thi thi thi thi th control the populace. Don't you feel safer knowing this? Oh yeah, I'm sure that like so many people feel really safe with the idea that at any moment a cop could walk up to you
and say I'm going to need to see inside you. Here's some statistics for you.
Here's some statistics for you. Strip Surges are on the rise. Strip Surges are on the the trial report report report report report report report report report report report report report report report report report report. to to to to to to to to to to to to the the to their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the public. their their the the the the te. the te. te. the te. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their the the the rise, an internal report compiled in November 2018 by the Police Forces Lessons Learned Unit.
Which is the fucking-
Wow.
That's so lame.
It's a very funny concept if you have any kind of familiarity with like Australian policing
and its collective irreversible erosion of civil liberties.
They found a 50% increase in Strip Searches in New South Wales over a four-year period from June 2014 to June 2018.
Research from the Redfern Legal Center found that strip searches increased from being used 277 times in 207 to 208.
They found that almost half of all recorded strip searches are of young people 25 and under. They also found that 10% of all strip searches are of recorded strip searches are of young people 25 and under.
They also found that 10% of all strip searches in the field and 22% of strip searches in
police custody in a station are of Aboriginal and Torres Red Islander people. Of course.
A Freedom of Information Act request from the Redfern Legal Center found that 122 girls
under the age of 18 had been strip searched by New South Wales police in a three-year period from 2016 to 2019.
Again, like, I think once you get into the specifics of the criteria that need to be met in
order to say, I think this person needs to be searched.
That is like so, so much more stretched if you're going to try to apply that to like a
16 year old girl.
It's just absolutely absurd.
In a two-year period from 2016 and 2018, strip searches were conducted on one 10-year-old,
three-12-year-olds, 12-13-year-olds,
2214-year-olds, and 4915 year olds.
Of the 5,362 strip searches conducted during the 2018-2019 financial year, 3,546, or
around 66% of them did not result in a prohibited drug dangerous article or item being found.
So, you know
we're already at this point talking about a shocking rate of failure in terms of
the efficacy of this as a technique for crime prevention or apprehending
anybody. Which is going to be like pretty close to just random chance when
you're searching people at a festival. Yeah or even anybody out of the street?
In that same period of time of the, of the 11,533 drug searches undertaken following detection
by a police dog, 59 led to drug prosecutions.
That is less than 0.5%.
Let the dog go.
Let them go.
Let them go.
Let them go.
Let them free. Let them free. Well, we've just put all the dogs down, right? Oh yeah, let him go. No, that's what I...
Let them free.
Well, we've already established that they're snitches, you know?
That's true.
They could choose to not do this.
They could actively object.
They could conscientiously object.
Poor dogs.
So the first report out of the LECC from this inquiry came out of the start of February
this year. It examined 113 local custody management standard operating procedure documents, SOPs,
all of which were different in regards to how they explained the rules around strip searches.
Great. They found that approximately 97% of the 113 standard operating procedures
did not correctly cite the threshold
for conducting a strip search under the current legislation.
So pretty much all of their own guidance on what to do is incorrect, is that right, Ben?
Yep, except for like five of them.
Hmm.
Only six of the 113 SOPs communicated the requirement that reasonable privacy should be
afforded in those searches.
Only 3 out of the 113 SOPs included instructions that the person's searched must be allowed
to dress as soon as the search was finished, and if their clothing was seized,
they must ensure the person was left with or given reasonably appropriate clothing. And only 8 of the SOPs, that 7% of them,
referred to the police's obligation
when strip-searching children.
So only that tiny, tiny little sliver of them
even makes mention of the fact that you have specific obligations.
I would be like, hmm, should I really be strip search
in this child?
You know, I might ask my boss or something.
Should we make a check?
Is this cool that I'm about to strip shirts this 13-year-old without their parent
around?
I spent like 45 minutes looking for the correct documentation to set up my email footer, lest I do it incorrectly, and? And get in and get in trouble or
worse yet, be made to look like a fucking fool and they don't give a shit about
what the rules are around you know how they are to treat people of the public in
these extremely sensitive situations. Yeah and especially particularly
vultuble members of the public.
But, as we all know, a lot of cops, and specifically the New South Wales cops, seem to thrive
on just exercising their authority over people, and the younger and more unaccompanied somebody
is, the less chance they are, they're going to have any idea of what their own rights are in a situation. Hey, I wonder if that's why they're meant to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th.e. Wea.e. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. the. th. th. their. they are, they're going to have any idea of what their own rights are in a situation.
Hey, I wonder if that's why they're meant to have somebody there.
To help them out.
Anyway, let's not, don't get worried about that.
So a review of the legislation concluded that, quote, the only power to require the person
to take a positive action in connection with a search, the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the clothing, opening the mouth and shaking or otherwise moving hair. It is therefore at least doubtful that a person can be
required to undertake any other physical action such as squatting or
moving breasts or genitalia. So not only are they not even remotely meeting
the criteria for what would require a strip search in the first place and also, you know, even
further failing those requirements for minors.
But in a lot of the cases, the actual strip searches that they are conducting, they're not
even doing them correctly in terms of what they're actually allowed to compel people
to do.
If you're wondering what the police had to say about this, it was mostly
po'body's nerfing, I think was the general statement for them, please.
This is all shocking to me personally.
This is from a piece in the guardian.
A police officer who conducted 19 strip searches at a 2018 music festival has admitted to
an inquiry that all of them may have been illegal.
The senior constable made the admission under questioning of the law enforcement conduct
commission's investigation into the use of strip search powers by the New South
Wells Police on Tuesday.
The commission heard that only one of these 19 strip searches conducted by the officer found any drugs, a single diazepam tablet. A drug used to treat anxiety and depression. Adams, who was
conducting the inquiry, asked the officer under what circumstances, apart from a
suspicion that someone was hiding drugs in a body cavity, which police are not
allowed to search, it would be urgent for an officer to conduct a strip search at a
music festival. I can't think of any actually, the officer replied. Maybe you shouldn't be doing it at all.
Telling on yourself. Amazing. Yeah. And compare this against like, you know, what happens
when someone gets caught stealing $20 from the till, right, where we trop their hand off and we send them to the off-world colonies. And they're just like, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, like, like, th, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, th. the, the, the, their hand off and we send them to the off-world colonies.
And they're just like, well, I guess I'm just, I'm just a human.
I'm just, I just terrorize some people for no reason.
Yeah, little old me, I'm not always got to get it right, but I am living and learning.
Fuck and hell. Yeah, just, just imagine sitting in front of like an inquiry and saying yes I conducted 19 strip
searches of people and then when they say, oh did they meet any of the criteria for that saying
oh now that you mention it, no? No. And can you real quick, real quick just uh, top of your head,
what would meet the criteria?
I don't know.
Fuck if I know.
Quote, there was no urgency at all in any of these searches, was there?
Now that you're looking back, Adams asked.
For you to do a search in the field, you have to have met both seriousness and urgency
requirements, and there was no urgency, was there?
No, the officer replied. From which it follows
that there were no circumstances in which the search was lawful, Adam said, the
senior constable agreed, saying it had been quote a massive learning experience.
Oh fuck off! Jesus Christ. Yeah, live laugh, love brother, you know, it's all just a journey, right? Like it's just a ride.
I'm really learning now that I am thinking about this for the first time in my Live laugh, brother, you know, it's all just a journey, right? It's just a ride.
I'm really learning now that I am thinking about this for the first time in my entire
life, thinking about this thing that I have been going out and inflicting on people
on mass for several years now.
And I would just say as an aside for anybody who has dealt with cops in Australia and I'm sure
this applies in other places. These transcripts are also staggering to me
because I guess a lot of people's experience with police in Australia is that
basically they have no responsibility to
Like show you any courtesy or explain what is happening or justify their actions or any of that sort of stuff and as we have established
Over and over and over through the evidence here that asking to have explained to you why something is happening
Or? Or?
Disputing the idea that you that you have done something wrong or? Or? Or like?? to thi, like?? to thi, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to, to, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the idea that you have done something wrong
or like should not be subjected to something like a search or arrest or whatever is pretty
much always taken by the police as a direct challenge and threat to their authority
at which point they will then bring the hammer down.
And so to read these transcripts in which somebody
of a higher authority than the police
is asking for some accountability
or an explanation of something and to have them just say,
oh actually I don't have any idea what the rules are, sir,
is just, it's just stunning.
Like, there is no mechanism for a member of the public to just like,
ask a cop. Hey, what are my actual rights in th than than than th, th, th, th th th th th the police??? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police? the police. the police? the police. the police. the police. the police? the police. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thin, thin, then then then, then, then, then, then then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then just like ask a cop, hey what are my
actual rights in this situation? Can you tell me?
Can you tell me?
Can you just go through what's supposed to be happening?
Yeah, because that will just be interpreted by the cops as this person is challenging you?
What's supposed to be happening is you're supposed to shut the fuck up and we are supposed
to be demonstrating and inflicting arbitrary and abstract power.
So the inquiry previously heard evidence that drugs were found in less than 10%
of the 143 strip searches carried out at that festival and on Tuesday
Adams questioned how police were making determinations about who to search,
asking whether they were quote taking a punt.
As you said earlier on
Theo the rate of success here is effectively the same as if you just walked
up to people at random which I think we can all conclude is what they're doing
anyway. Oh a hundred percent. The officer agreed that it was quote not a good
success rate but said that it was quote more than a punt saying that police
considered things like body language that classic science that it was, quote, more than a punt, saying that police considered things like body language,
that classic science that we all know and love.
It's very true.
Now remember, remember that little thing,
one of the things asked you to park in your brain earlier
about how, maybe what the red frog people are saying to people is like,
if you see the cops, go somewhere else.
Because they're going to strip search you for no reason and throw you out of the festival for no reason.
So the police consider things like body language, whether a person was quote fidgeting,
and whether a person made a U-turn when they saw a drug dog. So if you see from a distance
the random stop and frisk and throw you
out of the festival patrol going around and you decide I don't want to be
near them, that is also a sign of your guilt. That's the least suspicious
fucking thing in the world. Seeing cops and not wanting to go that near
them means you're of sound mind. Mm-hmm. So yeah I I don't know if maybe like all of the piles of evidence about false positives and
knowing all the people who've been strip search and shit makes people not want to go
near the drug dogs.
And this is also from the guardian relating to the strip, the 16 year old who was strip searched
at Splendor that we mentioned earlier.
Quote, the two officers involved did not make contemporaneous notes before conducting
the search, but entries in the New South Wales Police database said that after a drug
dog detection, the girl had told officers that she had been near other people smoking cannabis.
On Wednesday, she was standing inside or near a festival.
Yep. On Wednesday, the officer charged with running the drug dog operation
at the festival was asked whether that justification
would be sufficient to search a 16-year-old.
Not based on what I have just read there, he said.
And I'm not, and I'm not clear whether or not he's saying,
based on the justification that's written down,
or based on the rules around that I've been 16-year just learned. Are these new? Is this the new edition? Is that a little looky-loo at the regulation and oh boy is my face red? Yeah I mean the
previous the previous edition was just rules and regulations and then on a
second page just says this page left unintentionally blank.
You must be disappointed to read that there then given that this is
supposed to record a proper justification, correct?
Do I asked, correct, he replied.
The report, he said, was never checked by a more senior officer, which is the usual practice,
because officers had been allowed to self-verify reports made in the police online database.
What could possibly go wrong?
It's just a fucking chronic allergy to oversight among cops.
They cannot stand it.
Nothing worse than being questioned by anyone at any time ever.
Unless it's a judge in which case you say,
Uh, well, I can't really be held responsible for what I did because I don't know what any of the rules are.
The LECC also heard that in two cases, the quantity of drugs initially recorded by the officer, increased significantly in the fact she'd she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd she'd th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th th the th the the the the the the the the the. the by the officer increased significantly in the fact she'd sent to the magistrate, from 0.4 grams and 1 gram
to 3.18 grams. The increase by 795% in one case and 318% the other was potentially significant.
In New South Wales, the point at which a possession charge becomes more serious, a traffickled
offense is 3 grams. During the inquiry, Dwyer suggested to the officer
that the problem was that she had merely been copying and pasting between arrest sheets.
The officer denied that, saying she had become, quote, muddled up.
I think in the circumstances, you know, when you're doing all these charges,
it's quite easy to get a little bit muddled up, she told the inquiry.
Can you see that if it is quite easy to get a little bit muddled up, there are significant
consequences for a patron then going to court to be charged with a serious criminal offence
and then sentenced?
Dwyer asked the officer, there is a possibility.
Yes.
Holy fuck. Like just imagine being this cavalier about accidentally doing a tiny weeny whoopsy
and then ruining someone's fucking life.
That's just the extent to which like the impact of what they are doing on like citizens
just walking around doing her own thing.
That is the part that seems to just
register absolutely no consideration at any stage of this process.
So in the inquiry into the strip searches of boys at the underage festival, an
officer who in one instance did not ask one of the boys if he wanted a
parent or legal guardian present told the commission that he was fully aware
that he was legally required to do so, but didn't because he quote was of the view that
delaying the searching of these persons would result in evidence being
concealed or destroyed. And that just lets you get away with anything. Yeah that's
right. Yep on balance we've kind of we've just done that balance for you.
Reasonable suspicion. Which I think we will go on to establish is imaginary.
So in November last year, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said that he sent a video
to the 17,000 police officers in the state saying that he fully supported strip searching
and warned that changing the policy would increase crime.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph he defended the practice saying,
my biggest issue at the moment is making sure that the public understand why we need to be a force
and understand that it's important to have powers and use those powers,
because if you don't, there are consequences.
He seems in this statement to be much more concerned with making a show of exercising the powers
than resolving any of the issues around how they are exercised
or what the impact is?
You've got to know it should be exercised?
If you cared, I mean we know that those powers don't work.
They don't work to reduce drug use.
All they do is terrorize the community.
So if they cared, they would be taking the advice of just about any independent commission that has looked into
this over the last fucking hundred years and doing community outreach and looking at policy
efforts that can you know change this addressing the underlying causes not just randomly
sexually assaulting people because they were at a festival. But they don't care.
Like you said, they care about the exercise power and they care that there is a clear
division between these classes, right, between the criminal and those whose unassailable role
is to punish the criminals. And you know, you're either one or the other, basically. Well, I would go on further than that and say that I think that they're making fairly explicit that, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their......... their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the other, basically. Well, I would go on further than that and say that I think that they're making fairly explicit
that they're, if they're number one goal that they are, I guess, attempting to project to the
community at large, whether or not this is what they're actually doing.
But if their number one, like objective is to terrorize criminals, Batman style, then the people who get swept up in
that are just it's just collateral damage that is necessary to the act of
what they're doing, despite the fact that it's shown over and over again that
it doesn't actually have a positive impact anyway. He goes on to say there
will be a generation of kids that have no respect for authority and no respect for the community. Oh my God. And so we're going to make that that that that that that that that that that that that th tho tho tho tho tho tho the people tho tho the people tho tho the people the the the people the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theeeeeeeeeee theeeeeeeee thee the thee the the the the the the the th say there will be a generation of kids that have no respect for authority and no respect
for the community.
Oh my God.
And so we're going to make sure that that doesn't happen by degrading them and terrifying
them.
Why?
Making them hate us and be scared of us.
Cool.
Good plan. Yeah, do we think that like being unlawfully stripped, traumatized and then thrown thrown thrown thrown thrown thrown thrown thrown thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown out, thrown out, to thr-by, tho, why thi. thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, why thi, thi, thi, thi, thi..... thi, thi.. thi. thi. thi. thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thrown, thr-to throoooooooooooooooooooooooooo. the. the. the. the. the. thi, aps of money to attend is going to make you respect the police more? Oh, thank you sir. May I have another sir? I respect, they just mean fear. Fear.
They don't mean, yeah, they just mean that you should be fucking terrified of cops and that's it.
Well, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller would like to make that explicit for you
in the end of this statement. The reality is that we need to be a police force and part of that is searching people,
which doesn't make everybody happy. I'd like to meet the people that it is making happy.
But people need to know that there are consequences, especially those who are criminals are on the verge of being criminals.
Uh, which is a fun idea a criminal cusp. A scared straight program.
It's just like if you crowdsourced the pre-COG concept from Minority Report.
He says that they need to have respect and a little bit of fear for law enforcement.
This is just an admission that it is a horrifying process, that it is a weapon, essentially.
It's so fucking weird that they're happy saying this aloud.
Although it was speaking to the Daily Telegraph though, so.
Yeah, I mean, but it is, it is the end point of this as a policy.
It's not about preventing crime, it's not about getting drugs off the street,
it's about making sure that the public know where they stand in relation to the police and it's not standing,
it's lying down on the ground with a cop's military grade tactical boot on your neck.
And there are consequences for not following the rules except for us we don't like that.
No thank you to consequences.
They're allowed to do crime. That's why they take the job. The year is 3,000. Crime
Crime is now legal.
It's a very do as I say, not as I do scenario. Police Minister David Elliot was
somehow worse than this saying in November, quote, I've got young children and if I
thought the police felt they were at risk of doing something wrong, I'd want them strip
searched. Having been minister for juvenile justice justice, we have team he implying for like mail fraud or something????. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I th. to to do. to do. to do. to do. to do. to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do to do. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. to do. to do. to do. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. I the. the. I the. I the. I to the. I to the. I to to to to been minister for juvenile justice, we have 10-
Is he implying for like mail fraud or something?
Is it like, how...
No, it doesn't make any sense.
It looks like a 10-year-old at risk of doing something wrong.
Was gonna steal call of duty from an E.B. games
And I really wanted him to be stopped so I asked some of my police friends to strip search him. That'll teach him.
But it's like we're saying though, it's so bizarre to hear figures in this position of authority
saying the purpose of this is to scare people who are thinking about committing a crime.
We are punishing people who have not committed a crime to make sure that they're too scared to commit crime. I have... Yeah, like look, look what th, look th, look th, look th, look th, look th. Look, look what th. Look, look what th. Look, look what th. Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, thi, their, their, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, their, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like th. th. tho, like tho, like tho, like, like, like, like th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. their, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, their, their, their, their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their, like, like, like, like, their, th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thea. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi scared to commit a crime. Yeah, like look, look what happens or when you commit a crime or when you don't commit a
crime.
Either way.
Either way.
Either way.
I think about committing crimes all the time.
Well, absolutely.
It's the only thing that gives me joy.
Then the police minister would like a word with you. Now you would think this couldn't get any worse, but it does.
So it turns out that they set quotas for these searches. With the Freedom of Information
Act request from New South Wales Green, MLC, David Shubridge, finding that the New South
Wailor's FIn. David Shubrige, finding that the New South Wales Police Force set
a quota of 241,632 searches, including strip searches for the 2019 financial
year.
And hey, they're really hustled because they almost hit that target, performing 238,923 personal
searches in that period.
Shubridge said about this quote that, that is a guaranteed recipe for the abuse of
people's human rights.
These quotas will inevitably lead to the abuse of police powers. And what these numbers show is that is the the the th for th for the the th for th for the th for the their th for their their their their their their the their their the their their their the the the the the the the thir se se se se se se sea.ce.c191919190 se se se sea ssesesese se se se se se se se se se sea their se se se se se se se se se se sesesesesesese se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se sea sea sea scures sea.cures sea.cures.cures. thircures. thircures se. thircures. thircuia. thi. thi. thi. thri. thri. thi. thirc. thi. thirc. thirc. thirc. thirc is a guaranteed recipe for the abuse of people's human rights. These quotas will inevitably lead to the abuse of police powers.
And what these numbers show is that on hundreds of occasions every day,
there's this micro abuse of police powers.
This is up from a quarter of $223,000 in the previous financial year.
Just another 20,000 searches.
Why does it need to increase?
Why? Now, here is an extra fucked up part.
The same documents revealed that New South Wales police also set a quota for 106,307 move
on orders in 2019, which was up from 85,000 the previous year.
And as we can see, they're applying these to the same people
that they're unlawfully strip-searching of festivals. And also like
increasing these quotas every year, it's also like increasing these quotas every
year seems people to self-verify their own reports as to what the legitimacy
was of the reason to do the search.
But this was the thing that like blew my mind was that they also have the
quota for move-on laws because again if you cast your mind back to that second
idea that I asked you to park in your brain which is why are they
strip searching people finding no drugs on them, finding that they have committed no offenses and then destroying their ticket tick tick tick tick their their tick tick their their tick their their their their their their their their tick their their their their their their their their their their their their their.. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. I I I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm. I'm. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So, te. So, te. So, th. So, the. So. So, the. So, the. So. So. So, they have committed no offences, and then destroying their ticket for a festival and issuing them with a move on
order to leave the grounds.
Well it's because they get to double dip and hit that quota baby.
Why do they have quotas? The idea that police have quotas is extremely fucked up. Yeah, it's there's always the sales target. Yeah, and there's like there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, their,. Yeah, it's, there's always the, it's a sales target.
Yeah, and there's like, there's always this mismatch between the concept that these laws and regulations exist to, you know, that we have to put in reasonable, you know, suspicion, we need to put in all of these things that can stop the process when it's clear that it's just a fucked up idiot, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you the the, you, the, you, you know, you know, you the, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the, the, the, the, in all of these things that can stop the process when it's clear
that it's just a fucked up idiot, you know, abusing their power, and that will
always clash against the concept that they have these bizarre corporate KPIs to
commit these offenses against the public, right? Like the two are always
going to be at logaheadheads, so the police are incentivized
to find ways that erode those liberties. It's truly a bizarre situation.
Yeah, they are just, they're completely incompatible ideas that will only lead to one of two things
happening, which is that they either fail their own institutions' requirements to have done a certain amount of these things and are then, they they their they then, they then, they then, they then, they then, they then, they then, then, think, then, then, then, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thoes, thoes, thoes, thoes, thoes, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, theee, the, the, the, the, tho, certain amount of these things and are then they then feel some kind of negative outcome as a result or they
fail to establish any of the appropriate reasons for doing things because
like you said theo these are things that theoretically have stringent
requirements around when they can and cannot be done and for what reasons
they can and cannot be done and so if if that was actually happening then then the number that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that th th th th th th th th th th th the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. theeeeeooooooooo. theoooeoeo. theoeoeoe. theoe. the. the. th done. And so if that was actually happening,
then the number that was occurring
would just be completely organic
and related to real things that were happening
as opposed to my dog walked near you, you know?
A spokesperson for the New South Wales police
defended the use of quotas and said that the force had a business plan target
which was calculated on a three-year average. So it's literally, it's th, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, well, it's, it's, th, that's, well, that's that's that's th, that's th. that's that's that's tho, tho, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the the the the the tho, the the tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th. that, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. that's, that's that, that's that's that's that's a that's that's thateeean, thatean, that's thatean, that, that's that's that's that's that's that's thget which was calculated on a three-year average.
So it is literally a KPI. Well it's also like that to me is fucking incomprehensible. It's like
what could that business plan possibly say? Are they fucking are they doing agile for like
assaulting the public? We really got to stand upup desks in their strip search tents?
We got to move fast and fail often.
Yeah, I literally had that thought halfway through this episode
that they're just doing the Silicon Valley move fast and break things.
Except the thing is just the public.
Well, so they said in this statement,
any time a police officer executes their search powers, they must they must they must they must they they said in this statement, any time a police officer executes their search
powers they must hold a reasonable suspicion, our favorite phrase.
Cool, that's worked so far. Great.
The New South Wales Police Force deploys various proactive strategies as part of an ongoing commitment
to reducing crime and the fear of crime in the community, which I think is very telling
because that basically brings us back to the concept that the public should collectively be less afraid of crime, but that's because they're being afraid of the police instead.
So you're no longer as worried that everybody out there is walking around doing a crime. Instead, that fear has been transposed onto the idea that, you know, you shouldn't look suspicious to a police officer at any point or you shouldn't be in the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the public the the the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the public the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their the the the the the the the the the the the the the the has been transposed onto the idea that you know, you shouldn't look suspicious to a police officer at any point or you shouldn't be in the
wrong place or the wrong time, lest you find yourself being dragged down to the station
and strip searched in front of a bunch of cops.
Well it just makes sense efficiency wise for all of the crime to be at the one spot.
It's true. So here's what they've done about it so far.
You might be shocked to find very little.
Last year they released a consolidated guide,
as the police released a consolidated guide to strip searches,
called the Person Search Manual,
which includes such clarifying information as this.
An officer who searches a person must hold the state of
mind required by lepra. Where a power requires the searching officer to hold a
reasonable suspicion, there must be some factual basis for the suspicion. Oh so
they're all unlawful and there goes. The courts have provided the following guidance.
A reasonable suspicion involves a less than a reasonable belief, but more than a possibility.
A reason to suspect, let's see what this does to your brain, Theo, this next sense.
A reason to suspect that a fact exists is more than a reason to look into the possibility that a fact exists. Mm-hmm.
I understood that.
Let's just run over this again because this is the thing.
This is a thing that we've talked about on the show in the past.
I think that we've probably hit on this a handful of times in different contexts, this idea of, when is it, when is it, um, you know, okay as in the cop, in, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop, in the cop' the cop's the cop's the cop's the cop's the the the the the the the the the the the thoops' thoops' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho's the the the the the the the the the the the the th, th, th, th's th' th' th' tho' tho' tho' tho' tho' toe, toe, toe, toe toe toe toe too' too-co' toe too-co' to' too' of when is it, when is it, you know,
okay as in the cops mind for the cops to search you. Because I am sure that we all have
either personally experienced or no people who have personally experienced being searched
by the police for seemingly no reason. I remember it happening to my brother once when he was like in a in just kind of like
the what would you call it the just the kind of open section in the middle of like
Melbourne like on Burke Street like a Burke Street parade kind of thing like just sitting on one of the bench seats with a backpack
and two grown men just walked up and sat on either side of him
and said we are police and we would like to look inside your back now
and he said why
and they said well you might have something in there so you'll need to show it
to us otherwise if you don't we'll know that you're hiding something
and we'll take you down the station
and then he just down the station.
And then he just let these two cops go through his backpack and then they went, okay and
walked off.
Cool.
Extremely cool and normal experience.
But again, like the thing that I have always had in my mind is that the logic police are applying is, if I walk up to someone and say to them, I would like like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, the the their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. tho, tho. thoo. thoo. thoooo. th. thooo. thooo. their, their, their, their, their, their, I walk up to someone and say to them, I would like to do a search of
your pockets and your bag and whatever, and a person says, what? Why? No, thank you. Then
that alone is enough reason to suspect that somebody is trying to hide something from you.
So once again, here is what a reasonable suspicion is. A reasonable suspicion involves
less than a reasonable belief, but more
than a possibility. So you don't necessarily have to believe it, but it has to be more than
just the vague possibility that someone could be doing something. A reason to suspect
that a fact exists is more than a reason to look into the possibility that a fact exists.
So you're telling me, every time that they go to do a strip search, they're doing this fucking th.. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. So, thi. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the, the, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the, thi. thi. thi. thi. So, thi. So, the. the. to look into the possibility that a fact exists. So you're telling me every time that they go to do a strip search, they're doing this
fucking, you meet two men on the road, one can only lie.
Bullshit, like every time they're puzzling this out, no, it's not happening.
Cops. It's famously smart as well.
Yes, according to the internal report from the Lessons Learned unit, it sounds like they're
learning a lot of lessons, officers have been issued with step-by-step instructional stickers
to remind officers of their legal requirements, in addition to rolling out educational screen savers.
Are they children?
During the summer festival season.
Who has a screen saver?
Like, just, just, you know all that time that you spend staring at your computer when you're
not doing anything?
Yeah, I love it.
That's the prime time to learn, valuable information about the civil rights of people
that you're strip searching. Hey, how can we of people that use script searching.
How can we make sure that nobody sees this?
Yeah.
So they have done this to address a quote breakdown in the knowledge transfer process.
I'm just imagining like the entire act printed in size 0.5 font done in that 3D kind of
word art style that just bounces from corner to corner in the screen.
A reasonable suspicion is, oh it's gone.
Now the pipes are up.
I think the breakdown in the knowledge transfer process is a very fun euphemism for.
None of the police have been trained to do this and have no idea what their obligation
to break down in the knowledge transfer process happens to all of this.
Like, before I was allowed to like answer the phones at a service job, I had to do like,
you know, a full training course, tick and flick and that sort of thing.
They have to be reminded of these things that should be, know part of their understanding of the job let alone the training that they have to complete and have verified before they're even
allowed to go into the public and perform this task which has you know this
great power and impact over people it's that you know that's fucking crazy
purely ridiculous so what happens next nothing
this is from the guardian a landmark inquiry into potentially a legal Uh, so what happens next? Nothing. No, nothing.
This is from the Guardian.
A landmark inquiry into potentially illegal strip searches conducted on minors by police in New South Wales has been cut short after the government sacked the commissioner overseeing the probe.
Dusting my hands. My work here is done.
Yeah, we looked into that and, uh...
On Wednesday, the law enforcement conduct commission confirmed it will no longer hold furtherthat and on Wednesday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission confirmed
it will no longer hold further hearings as part of the inquiry. It turned out all of them
were making everybody too uncomfortable, which last year uncovered evidence of the widespread
use of strip search powers by police in New South Wales. The LECC had been due to
to hold more public hearings in either late January or February into the psychological impacts of strip searching on minors, but in a brief statement, a spokesperson
for the LECC said it had now no intention to call further evidence at this stage.
Fucking great. related thing about this which was talking about like Part of the review into this was looking into the amount of money that they pay
like citizens in
Damages every year and it's like tens of millions of dollars
And this was you know from the guy that they fired saying hey I'm kind of concerned with this idea that the police?
Basically use like the ability to pay damages as just this slush thu, thi, thi, the thi, like, like, like, like, like, like, the the the the the the the thi, the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thi, their their their their, thi, their, thi, their, their, their, the amount, the amount, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi..., their, thi.e, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, theeeateateat, things, things, things, theateat, thin, theat, theat, thin, theate, the, the, that the police basically use like the ability to pay damages as just
This slush fund to say oh, we don't actually have to you know adhere to any of our responsibilities or rules or anything about this because Ford Pinto approach to civil liberties
Where they've done the maths and it oh, we can probably pay this out Yeah, they've just gone. Well, hey, as long as as. thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, their their their their their their their their their their their their, like, like, like, like, their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, they's they's they's they's they's they're they're they. thi. thi. thi. theea. thea. thea' thea'a'a'a'a'a'a'a, thea, their, the. their the. the. the liberties where they've done the maths and it, we can probably pay this out.
Yeah, they've just gone, well hey, as long as at some point if somebody wants to pursue this
to the absolute end of the legal process, they'll get their $112,000 like the very first guy
we spoke about, and then he's happy, you know, there's nothing that makes people happier than being a legally
strip searched by the police and five years later having it validated by a court that it
wasn't the right thing for them to do.
People love it. They love it.
Also not punishing the person who did it, just giving you some money.
Oh, like I think if there's anything that we all know by now, it's also that absolutely
none of these cops will experience any form of discipline for this, no one will be fired.
Nothing will happen.
Like, I don't know how you can sit, like, at an inquiry and say,
yes, I agree that I conducted 19 unlawful searches on festival goers.
So we...
At this one specific event, and not have the next thing be, that you stand down from the
witness box and hand over your badge and get fucking fired and are not a cop anymore. Like how...
And then applying that template to every single police officer that is found to have done this.
Yeah, like I said, I just don't understand how something that is such a...
Such a base level violation of...
Not just people's civil liberties but you know their
their body they're just everything like it's such a like this this specifically
for me is like much worse than say the the other classic stereotype of you know
the cops being extremely rough with someone and claiming that they were resisting arrest or whatever which I realize is also being the the the the the other the the the the the other classic soltyp the the they. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the they. they. they. they. they. they. they. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their just just just just just just just just just their their their their their their just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they they they they. they. they. they. they. they. the they. the they. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the they. the they. the the the the you know the cops being extremely rough with someone and claiming that they were resisting arrest or whatever which I realize is also being
assaulted by the police but it's like sure like every like Ben was saying
every one of these people is essentially being sexually assaulted by
the police for no purpose just for no reason and every one of them has to
then live with that from now on every one of them has to then live with that from now on.
Every one of them has to say, hey, here's a type of recreation that I was completely legally
engaged in without any wrongdoing.
And then I had this happen to me and I got to live with that and decide whether I want
to ever do this thing that I like ever again, lest it happened some more.
Extremely fucked up.
I'd say, hey, submit some evidence to the inquiry, but let's just fire the guy who's running it
so we don't have to talk about it anymore.
Problem solved, solved.
Put that one back in the violin cabinet.
It turns out we do not like to talk about it because we are the police
So yeah, there is there is your very
Large and exhaustive picture
Uplifting episode uplifting episode of how this is such a huge fucking down of how incredibly fucked up just this one aspect of the New South
Wales police forces.
Uh, I really know where to go from there, you know?
I feel like we could definitely say fuck the police.
Fuck cops.
Just fuck cops so much.
A thousand percent. Uh, yeah, I just, I cannot fathom how anyone could work for that organization. Um, I do believe that working for that organization automatically makes you, like, like, to, like, like, to, uh, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, like, like, like how anyone could work for that organization.
I do believe that working for that organization automatically makes you, like, it implicates
you in the behavior of all of the other people who work there.
I personally do not entertain the idea that a lot of people like to, which is, hey, it's
a few bad eggs.
Hey, there's a lot of bad eggs I feel
like it's most of the carton. I feel like the basket's bad. Yeah I'm just I yeah
I don't like it when I'm talking to people about this sort of thing and they
say hey you know it's a really hard job and the people there's a lot of people you know who go into it because they want to, you know, it's a really hard job.
And the people, there's a lot of people, you know, who go into it because they want to do the right thing.
Except that as we can also establish, over and over and over and over again, part of the reason
that nothing ever happens as a result of any of this stuff, is because there are never any police who will say, yes, this other officer was engaged in,
like, incredibly unlawful conduct.
And I will speak to that and actually tell someone about it.
So, you know, kind of doesn't fucking matter if you think you're one of the good ones,
if you also won't do anything about cleaning out any of the also absolutely endemic behavior of all the other cops.
So fuck you also if you're one of the quote-unquote good New South Wales cops.
If you are a good New South Wales cop, please run into the show and mailbag at Buntavista
dot com so that we can send you back an email that says fuck off.
Mm-hmm.
It's terrible stuff. Bad stuff. And It's terrible stuff.
Bad stuff.
And that's it for us, folks.
Every now and then we like to give you some facts.
There's little facts.
There was no diarrhea in this episode.
I don't believe we didn't get to chicken picks.
I really would have changed the tone of the end of the episode.
Well, what would you like to quickly talk about chicken picks for a the the the the the the the the the the the the the episode. Well would you like to quickly talk about chicken picks for five minutes? Let's give chicken picks some forward sizzle. We'll save chicken picks for another episode.
Okay, do you say so? Maybe we'll hear about chicken picks. Chicken picks.
Chick picks. Send us a chick pick. You know. Yeah. Thanks for joining us.
Sorry to have to visit such a plethora of extremely unpleasant facts upon you.
But hey, maybe you'll hear about chicken picks on a bonus episode this week.
You join up over on Patreon.
to Vista, five US dollar redos a month gets you an extra bonus episode every week.
So maybe you want to check that out. I don't know. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. I can't help you with that.
I can't come around your house. Take the the debit card out of your wallet. I will
blotty do it. You do have to pay for Lucy's return flights. When she comes to your house, takes the
debit card out, holds it up in front of you, and reads the numbers out four at a time. I will be extra to get her to
turn the card over so you can see the... I can get the code on there. That's a
bridge too far. That's it folks. And from all of us here at Bontavista we say...
FTP. FTP FTP
Or bá
Bébido
Bumoyard
Maybe you have a good life
I Bye. Bye.