A number of new social media posts that appear to have been made by a Perth based West Australian Police officer have been uncovered.
This time the posts apparently made by Senior Constable Terry Bodenham were directed at a Facebook page, which highlights ongoing injustices towards First Nations people with a particular focus on racism.
The Facebook page, Boomerang Justice Returns 2, shared an article about native title issues in Western Australia on July 5th.
In a series of heated exchanges between the police officer’s personal Facebook account and the Boomerang Justice page, Mr Bodenham made generalised comments about the Aboriginal community being “too lazy”.
“The govt said sorry, you get billions each year from the taxpayer and you make up 90% of the prison/criminal population,” he wrote.
“How about you get off your arses, stop waiting for a taxpayer handout, get a f***ing job and a life.”
Joyce Capewell, who is one of the administrators for Boomerang Justice Returns 2, wrote back to Bodenham warning him he can get in trouble for his comments.
“Filthy mouth uninformed social media trolls as you can land yourself in trouble on social media by abusing Aboriginal elders,” she wrote.
Comments flew back and forth, with the police officer commenting on the post and calling Aboriginal people “rock apes”. He said both apes and Aboriginal people share a similar mentality.
One social media user said she had contacted Facebook about the officer’s comments and referred to Bodenham as a ‘mutt’.
“Knock yourself out mutt, wouldn’t piss on your race if they were on fire,” he replied.
Ms Capewell, who has been working to prevent black deaths in custody for more than two decades, says the comments were “disgraceful”.
“I felt gutted, my son was a police officer and also because of my work with the Aboriginal prisoners,” she told NITV News.
“I’d like to see him removed… he’s a very hateful man, he think he’s right. I’m concerned he has a white supremacy attitude, he think he can abuse Aboriginal people.”
A spokesperson for the WA Police Force told NITV News an investigation into Bodenham’s social media conduct is still ongoing.
“As previously stated, he was not stood down over this matter, but he was transferred to another business unit where he has no contact with the public,” a written statement said.
“No further comment will be made until the investigation is concluded in the near future.”
WA Police’s social media policy advises officers to use “appropriate caution” when using private social media platforms.
Breaches of policy can result in managerial intervention or disciplinary action. Ms Capewell has also filed a complaint against the officer with the Human Rights Commission.
