African immigrants suffer racist attacks by Australian police

The police "picked me up, they put me in the back of the car. Then they took me to (locality withheld) and beat (expletive) me, and they left me there," a young person of African background said in a new study into the treatment of youths of African background by Australian police in Melbourne. The 'Interventions into Policing of Racialised Communities in Melbourne' report, released in mid-March, is part of a project into racism here managed by three community legal services in Australia. It found that young African-Australians in the country's second-largest city are over-policed, that police harassment and violence is either under-reported or inadequately investigated by the relevant oversight bodies, and that police often resort to hostility and aggression when young people assert their rights. Thirty youths, 27 males and 3 females aged 15 to 27, were interviewed for the study. Many had Sudanese or Somali backgrounds.