A video allegedly showing police punching and kicking an Indigenous teenager and his girlfriend in Sydney during an altercation between a group of Indigenous teens and police has been obtained by NITV News.
The video, filmed near Mt Druitt train station, a woman is seen on the ground seemingly being restrained by police officers, as bystanders can be heard saying: “Let her go, arrest me” and “Stop! Stop!” It's unclear what prompted the incident.
Police then appear to pepper spray some of the people nearby and screams are heard. One of the men pepper sprayed is placed in handcuffs.
Other bystanders can be heard shouting at the police and calling them “racist”.
At this point, one officer appears to be directing the woman filming the incident to move away. She replies: “We’re not doing anything, don’t say that to me”. Others can be heard yelling at the police to: “Just stop, just stop”.
One officer tells one of the people yelling: “You shut up”.
The woman filming then turns the camera away from the main scene and films police who appear to punch a man at least twice and then knee him, as another woman tries to intervene. Someone can be heard saying: “look how they are grabbing her!”
Another officer then appears to try and place his hand over the camera. The person filming backs away as a police officer follows, before the recording stops.
Police confirmed the incident was started after a teenager allegedly threatened a convenience store employee, threw a shopping trolley at a window, and then assaulted police at Mt Druitt. She was arrested and charged with assaulting police, stalk and intimidate and other offences. Police refused her bail. She was held in custody overnight before appearing in court yesterday, where she was granted conditional bail.
Police allege a 27-year-old man tried to prevent the teen’s arrest and that OC spray was used. The man was charged with obstructing police.
The statement did not make any reference to the other man who appears to have been hit by police.
Jamie Burns who took the footage and posted it on Facebook, told NITV News she started filming after she and others came across the incident.
"From what I saw the girl in the white was getting spoken to by police,” she said.
Footage from the video showing police and a group of teenagers at Mount Druitt. Source: Jamie Burns
“So I started filming, then the guy who got pepper-sprayed said to the police that the girl didn’t do anything and to arrest him and let her go! So, the police pepper sprayed him. Then the guy at the end that got hit was only calling the police ‘racist’, so he got hit numerous times, and his girlfriend tried to block her boyfriend from getting hit, so the copper punched her too.
“I was filming and the police officer tried to take my phone, so I moved. Then he tried to drag me. I got loose and stopped filming and gave my mate my phone and he ran with it! That’s what happened.”
The video was posted just over a day ago on Facebook and has since received more than 2000 shares.
