The Australian Federal Police will investigate an incident where a senior police officer allegedly threatened to use his taser on an Indigenous activist during a scuffle on Anzac Day.
The AFP said another female officer was struck during the disturbance and an officer had his clothing torn.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists attempted to march at the tail of the Anzac Day ceremonial parade in Canberra. They wanted to commemorate the Frontier Wars – the violence between colonial settlers and Indigenous people in Australia – and planned to lay a wreath at the war memorial.
The demonstrators carried signs marking the dates of various massacres against First Nations peoples over the last two centuries. The violence between settlers and Indigenous people during colonisation saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Indigenous people, according to historians like Henry Reynolds.
Activists were told by police they were marching illegally because they didn’t have a permit from the RSL. Police told them they could march a few hundred metres up Anzac Parade before they would be stopped by police.
“When we get up there, we will be respectful. We will maintain the high moral ground and we just spread right across that street and just hold the banner and flags,” said Michael Gillar Anderson of the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia.
Protesters alleged they were repeatedly disrespected by police and told it “wasn’t their day”.
When police tried to arrest one of the men who was shouting, a scuffle broke out which saw several officers and protesters pushing each other. It was then that it’s alleged a police officer pulled out his taser and motioned to use it on an activist.
“All incidents where ACT Policing officers utilise a ‘use-of-force’ option are reviewed in accordance with AFP governance,” the AFP said in a statement to NITV News.
“Enquiries are underway in relation to the female officer being struck. We would encourage anyone with information and/or footage to come forward.
After about ten minutes of chanting, the Frontier Wars group moved away from the scene as dozens of police officers watched on.
When protesters left, three police officers threatened to seize the camera of an NITV News journalist as evidence.
When the journalist said he was an employee of SBS with a legitimate reason to film the march, he was told he was filming for “private purposes” and not as a public servant.
National Indigenous Television has asked for the AFP – which runs policing in the ACT – to apologise for its treatment of the journalist, as well as implement better cross-cultural training.
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