The treatment by police of a 13-year-old autistic boy is shocking – but it fits an appalling pattern | George Newhouse and Duncan Fine
Our marginalised youth, those living with disability and First Nations people are policed in a way the majority of us would not recognise, nor tolerate
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The Australian federal police website proudly states that one of its central roles is to “play a lead role in keeping Australians safe from terrorism”.
So it’s extremely disturbing to discover that the joint counter terrorism team (JCTT), which comprises Australian federal police, Victoria police and Asio members, has in fact been found by a magistrate to have actually radicalised an individual in the course of a counter terrorism investigation.
“The community would not expect law enforcement officers to encourage a 13-14 year-old child towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on ISIS.
“The conduct engaged in by the JCTT and the AFP falls so profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law enforcement offices [sic] that to refuse this [stay] application would be to condone and encourage further instances of such conduct.”
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Law (Australia) | The Guardian
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