The allegations of verbal and physical harassment have been detailed in Federal Court documents, and have left police chiefs in damage control.
Faced with damning testimony of systemic victimisation of Flemington's African community, Victoria's Acting Police Chief Commissioner Lucinda Nolan says she'll show the door to any officers involved.
"It's not acceptable and if we look at ourselves as a community organisation, behaving in that way to some members of our community flies in the face of why we actually exist," she said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Last week, six men settled their case in the Federal Court with police and now their evidence has been made public.
One of those men has given evidence of being taken away from a railway station. Handcuffed and bashed, he says he was then dumped by the side of a nearby freeway.
"That's when we said if this keeps going on, one of us is going to die and we didn't want the death of one of us to be the start of this case," student Maki Issa told the court.
A fellow complainant has told the ABC he was viciously assaulted by police when he was just fifteen.
"I remember getting up from the ground and just screaming for my life," Daniel Haile Michael, a student, told the court.
"I remember becoming extremely paranoid about what was going to happen next," he added.
Maki Issa wasn't subjected to violence but said he grew tired of the routine daily police searches.
In another case, a youth claims he was dragged off the street by police and taken in a van to a warehouse, where he was beaten, accused of being involved in the heroin trade. He denied the allegations and said was left, bloodied and bruised, to make his own way home.
While both sides say relations have improved significantly in recent years, the evidence has highlighted the tensions between police and growing African communities.
Force command acknowledges that there is much repair work to be done, on a day when police have also been on the defensive, over a 7.8 per cent jump in Victoria's crime rate.
